dely is ready for 2012

[Ahtims]

Crime and punishment is available as a free audio book. Am planning to download it and listen to it now and then, as I find reading Dost. slightly soporific.

[Anbu]

Smitha wrote: "Crime and punishment is available as a free audio book. Am planning to download it and listen to it now and then, as I find reading Dost. slightly soporific."

I tried an audio book but didn't like it much. I like to read at a pace the book takes me in rather than at the constant speed for all books with no time to think about the things shared by the author.

May be audio books would work for lighter reads.

[Vinoth]

Anbu wrote: "Smitha wrote: "Crime and punishment is available as a free audio book. Am planning to download it and listen to it now and then, as I find reading Dost. slightly soporific."

I tried an audio boo..."

i have heard The Shawshank Redemption and yeah i agree with anbu. audio books can be used while travelling. and thats all. i will not hear a audio book while sitting on my bed..

[dely]

Smitha wrote: "Crime and punishment is available as a free audio book. Am planning to download it and listen to it now and then, as I find reading Dost. slightly soporific."

I have never used audio books so I don't know how it is to "listen" to a book. I like to sit down with my book and to read also twice or thrice a chapter if it is interesting. I use also a pencil to underline the best sentences. Also, the audio book is narrated by a voice and I don't know how this voice interprets some important parts of a book. I prefer it is me who imagines how a voice of a character can be and so read it in this way. And in Crime and Punishment the environment is also important (the small and claustrophobic room of Raskolnikov) and the city: St. Peterburg with his mist, the rain and so on. I don't know if listening to a book gives the same emotions and the same imagination we have while reading a book.

[Ahtims]

what you all tell is true, but audio books have helped me a lot to while away time while treadmilling and such, and so far, I have not had much problems, except for one or two, which I had to skip because the narrator was grating in my ears.

[Vinoth]

dely wrote: I don't know if listening to a book gives the same emotions and the same imagination we have while reading a book. ."
no.it doesn't. before you could think of what conspired , the reader would have moved on :)

[Parikhit]

dely wrote: "Smitha wrote: "Crime and punishment is available as a free audio book. Am planning to download it and listen to it now and then, as I find reading Dost. slightly soporific."

I have never used audi..."

Ditto Dely. I underline lines if I like them and there are times when I read a couple of paragraphs again and again simply for the joy of reading.

Apprehensive about audio books.

[dely]

2/5

Love and Longing in Bombay by Vikram Chandra

The idea of five stories to talk about the purushartha is nice but I have found the stories boring. For me they were all ok reads but nothing more.

[dely]

3/5

English edition: Tosca, the Cat Lady by Gina Lagorio

It was a good and nice read. I have read this book slowly because I didn't want to miss anything.

It talks about a 50 years old woman which remains widowed and seen that she was also sick she decided to go to live in a litte town on the sea where she used to go on holiday with her husband and there she works as a portress. She has no children and her only friends are her cats. I have recognized my cat in the descriptions and I could understand the loneliness of this woman, her fears, her thoughts and her habit to treat with her cats if they were human beings who understood her when she talked to them. Of course for the other people of this little town she was only "strange" and they were never able to understand her behaviour and they have never tried to be her friend; on the contrary, they avoided her because they considered her also a foreigner.
During the summer she becomes friend with a couple of vacationers and she feels again happy; but the summer ends and they must go away and Tosca abandons herself again to loneliness and to the bottles of wine in order to forget, even if inside she still felt the pulse of life and a lot of love to give, but she could give it only to her cats. Nice story and the problem of loneliness is tackled with delicacy, in a soft way.

[Ahtims]

a good book, by the look of it.

[dely]

Smitha wrote: "a good book, by the look of it."

Yes, I consider it a sweet book because the author was able to talk about loneliness in a sweet and delicate way though the topic is sad and though the author analyzed it deeply enough.

[dely]

3/5

english edition: Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin

I think that Shakespeare must be read in English; Goethe must be read in German, Dante must be read in Italian; so Pushkin has to be read in Russian in order to understand and appreciate fully this work.

[Parikhit]

dely wrote: " 3/5

english edition: Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin

I think that Shakespeare must be read in English; Goethe must be read in Ger..."

This book is written in the form of verses right?

[dely]

Parikhit wrote: "This book is written in the form of verses right? "


Yes. And I am sure in Russian it must be really beautiful to read.

[Parikhit]

dely wrote: "Parikhit wrote: "This book is written in the form of verses right? "


Yes. And I am sure in Russian it must be really beautiful to read."

There's the book The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth which is written in the form of verses and Seth mentions that Pushkin's Eugene Onegin was his source of inspiration. However, many say that the Russian original is far better than the translation.

[dely]

It is very difficult to translate poetry. Eugene Onegin is not poetry but there are verses and the translator must keep the rhymes, the same syllables, the rhythm and certainly the musicality of the words and all this without distorting the meaning. It is very hard to do and so I think that everything that is poetry or verses looses something when it is translated.
It is not bad: very romantic in the beginning, then it is also funny and at the end it becomes realistic. At the beginning I had some problems to read it because I am not used to read verses but going on it was easier but however I prefer prose.

[Anbu]

dely wrote: "It is very difficult to translate poetry.... I think that everything that is poetry or verses looses something when it is translated.


Completely agree.. I tried transalating some Tamil verses/poems to non-Tamil friends and it ended up nothing poetic about it..

Translating without compromising the the essence is really very difficult in my opinion..

[dely]

by (our) Rajiv 4/5

I really liked this book. There are nine short stories and each one deals with the theme of the nine rasa. Navarasa means "nine moods/emotions" and so in each story we read about one of these emotions. But the stories are also interliked and so in each one we find again a character or an event of another story even if only for a brief moment. I liked a lot this way of writing because we don't have nine separated stories but at the end all the stories are interlinked and so it seems to read a complete novel. These connections are well made and makes the book interesting and engaging. It was hard to put down because it is captivating and I wanted always to know what comes next, what will happen. I recommend it to people who want to read something different, something original.

[dely]

by Irawati Karve 4/5

It was really an interesting read and I want to say thanks to you all that made me known this book and special thanks to Pari who gave me the link!

I liked reading this book above all the parts where Karve talks about all the adds that has been made by brahmins; I liked the analysis of the different translations of the Mahabharata; I liked that she wrote about the social customs of Indians pre-Mahabharata and the customs that are used now.
Of course I liked also the analysis of the characters, above all the female characters, though at the beginning of the book it was a little bit hard to understand why Karve wanted to humanize the characters (above all Krishna!) seen that they are divine and a lot of things about them can be understood only if we let them their "divinity". But going on with the reading I started to enjoy also these parts and I understood a lot of things.
It was really worth to be read and I advise this book to who has already read Mahabharata or knows the stories and the characters.

[dely]

3/5

english edition: Boredom by Alberto Moravia

This book was hard and complex. It will not be easy to review it because it was very contorted.
First, it is not the first book by Moravia that I read and I have always loved him because he faces often psychological complicated characters. His main characters have always problems and I like how Moravia analyzes, though in a not always easy way, this mental diseases. This is the first time I had some problems to follow his analysis. It is really very detailed and from one side this makes the book interesting but from the other side it makes the book sometimes boring because it was a little bit difficult to follow this detailed analysis.

The book talks about a young man, Dino, who suffers from boredom. But it is not the boredom we know, that everything is boring. It is a different kind of boredom: this boredom is an alienation from reality. Everything to him is not real, he can't interact with life and people that surround him. He suffers because of this boredom and wants always understand everything in a detailed way in order to find perhaps a solution. Dino is also a very rich man but he hates his mother and her money. He thinks that his boredom is due to his wealth. So he decides to go away from home and tries to live like a poor (and failed) painter for ten years. But nothing changes because he understands that he isn't really poor so also painting and trying to be poor is not the solution. One day he meets a very young girl, she is 17 and he, in the meanwhile, was 35. He doesn't like her a lot, she isn't cute, but he thinks that perhaps making love with her could help him to be less "bored". Their story goes on for a long time, they meet every day but nothing changes for Dino so he decides to leave her. But when he decides to leave her, suddenly everything changes. The young girl doesn't go to the date (and she has always been on time or would warned of the delay) and suddenly for Dino she becomes something real to interact with. But this scares him: he wants to possess her but only to get again bored and so abandon her and turn back to the boredom he knows. It is not easy to explain, it is really a complex analysis. Dino understands that though they make love every day he is not able to "own" her; so he begins to give her money for the sex but also this isn't helpful because also in this way he can't "own" her. And if he doesn't own her, he can't abandon her and turn back to his boredom.

I know, it is not easy to understand. Nevertheless it was an interesting read.

[Ahtims]

quite an interesting book, dely.

[dely]

Smitha wrote: "quite an interesting book, dely."

Yes, but also a little bit confusing because we know the ordinary meaning of "boredom". Here it is a disease that the main character calls "boredom" but it is more a disease to interact with life and other people.

[dely]

4/5

There is no English edition of this book. The author is German and if I don't go wrong his book has been translated only in Italian.

For cat-lovers it is really an interesting read. The book talks about cats in history, from their divinization in Egypt, through the Middle Ages with the Inquisition, where cats were considered related to Satan and so burned on the stake with the witches, till the Renaissance when it begins to be considered a symbol of freedom and so loved above all by poets, writers and artists.
The book talks also about the cats in literature (the most famous is The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr by ETA Hoffmann), the cats in the painting (very important is Balthus) and then also the famous cats who were used in the films.
It talks also about the working cats. Yes, cats are very important workers and nobody knows it! It is thanks to cats if today we have a lot of manuscripts and books of ancient libraries or libraries of monasteries; without the cats, mice had eaten all these manuscripts! It is also thanks to cats (and their hard work) if in the past people could face long trips because they protected the storerooms of the ships from mice.
Then the book talks also about the life with a cat and how important they can be in people's life.
It is not a book about cats how we expect because there isn't a list with the races of cats or what they must eat etc. It is a different read about cats.
Though it was an interesting read I advise it only to cats lovers otherwise it could be a boring read for people who don't love cats.

[dely]

4/5

English edition: One Minute Stories by István Örkény

It is not easy to review.
It is a collection of very short stories (so short that you can read them in One Minute as the title of the book says).
They are very brief but concise; they are parables, sometimes anectodes, that make us think, inside there is all the thought of the author; he doesn't want to teach anything to the reader, he wants only to show life from another perspective. In the book Orkény make also a portrait of communist Hungary, of the people of that time who could only accept what was happening.
The stories have a dark humour, they are sometimes grotesque, they are tragicomic. They seem absurd, non-sense but they aren't. Orkény shows us the perception of life from another perspective, a cynical and grotesque perspective, the world is upside down because life is sometimes unexpected and tragicomic and sometimes nonsense. With few words Orkény is able to express things for which other writers need a whole book.

[dely]

4/5

English edition: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

I liked it. It is really good written. I liked that their was a dark/sad vein but however Arundhati Roy was able to use also sweet words. There were sweet descriptions, sometimes poetic, and then suddenly everything changed and became real/dark, like a slap when you don't expect it.
It was enthralling since the beginning and you know that something sad was happened but you don't know what till the end. This waiting was sometimes, especially towards the end, exhausting. We have to wait till the end to know what happened at the beginning of the book. But however it was a pleasant read and the beautiful writing of Roy made this waiting more tolerable.
I liked to read about human emotions, forbidden loves, betrayed childhoods and look sometimes the world with the eyes of children who had to grow up too fast among injustices; I liked to become aware of a glimpse of social life in those times but also aware of political life.

[Vinoth]

dely wrote: "[bookcover:Il Dio delle piccole cose] 4/5

English edition: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

I liked it. It is really good written. I liked that their was a dark/sad vein but however Arund..."

wow. dely..u finished eh? :( am yet to start. am reading Swami and Friends.will start GST when i finish Swami nd friends..

[dely]

Vinoth wrote: "wow. dely..u finished eh? :( am yet to start. am reading Swami and Friends.will start GST when i finish Swami nd friends.. "

I had to finish it before today because today arrives my guest and I don't know how long he will stay here. But it is also a compelling book, hard to put down, and I was curious to know what was happened. And unfortunately I was not able to find a copy of Swami and Friends otherwise I would have read this one with the group read and would have postponed GST.

[Vinoth]

dely wrote: "Vinoth wrote: "wow. dely..u finished eh? :( am yet to start. am reading Swami and Friends.will start GST when i finish Swami nd friends.. "

I had to finish it before today because today arrives my..."


k.

[dely]

3/5

In this edition there are three stories by Friedrich Dürrenmatt:

The Dog 2/5: it talks about a preacher who is always with a dark, dreadful dog. A man who sees him always on the street begins to follow him, goes to his house where he founds also a daughter of this preacher. They fall in love and one day she asks him to kill that frightening dog. I really couldn't understand the meaning of the ending of this story :/

The Tunnel 3/3: a student takes always the same train to go to the university but one day it seems to him that the tunnel the train must pass through never ends. He gets nervous, goes to the conductor and he confesses that he too has noticed this strange tunnel but he has no explanation. The train goes always faster, it begins also to descend down, like in an abyss and they can't do anything to stop the train. The meaning is that there is no God and men are assigend to chance and they can't do anything against fate.

Traps 5/5: this is a wonderful story. A seller of tissues has a problem with the car and so he must stop in a little village and decides to sleep there for the night seen that it is late. He can't find a free room and so he becomes the guest of a retired judge. That evening there were three friends of the judge: a lawyer, an attorney and an innkeeper (who had been also an executioner); also these three are retired. They ask Traps if he wants to play a game: he is a defendant and they would do a trial. He accepts because he doesn't know how the evening and this game will end. I don't want to talk too much about this story because I don't want to add too much spoilers. It is a very short read and wonderful written: everybody of us is guilty of something and though he is not judged by the Law he can be judged on the moral ground.

[dely]

2/5

There isn't an English edition of this book but this isn't a great loss for you. The title translated is "Short lives of idiots".
It is a boring book. It is a collection of very short stories who talk about strange characters, idiots, and their lives or their strange behaviour. It should be a funny read but I have laughed a little bit only with two stories. Terrible book.

[dely]

1/5

I haven't finished this book. I had enough after 150 pages:
- haven't liked the multiple narration, too confusing for me so I was not able to hold the attention on the reading;
- I couldn't stand anymore the art of miniatures and all the details about it and had enough of Shirin and Cosroe;
- couldn't stand Sekure's behaviour with her sons: first she is kind and kisses them always and suddenly she slaps them and manipulates them at her will. Terrible mother!
- I don't like vulgarities and don't like to read about vulgar sex so I was not at all curious to know the dimensions of Black's penis!

I think Pamuk wanted to put in this book a lot of genres: love, mistery/thriller, history, art...but at the end it is only a confusing and insipid pot-pourri.

[Ahtims]

who is Cosroe?

[dely]

Smitha wrote: "who is Cosroe?"

Perhaps in English it is written in a different way. The book talks a lot about the love story of these two characters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khosrow_...

[Parikhit]

dely wrote: "4/5

There is no English edition of this book. The author is German and if I don't go wrong his book has been transl..."

I think I should read this book.

[dely]

Parikhit wrote: "I think I should read this book. "

Do you love cats or do you love literature and arts?
Have you found an English edition?

[Parikhit]

dely wrote: "Parikhit wrote: "I think I should read this book. "

Do you love cats or do you love literature and arts?
Have you found an English edition?"

I love cats. Absolutely love pets! Grew up with cats. As a child I loved visiting my maternal uncle's house. They had 11 cats and a dog that protected the cats from stray dogs :D At home I was allowed to keep only one cat.

And I was considering reading art and literature. Couldn't find an English translation. Searching!

[dely]

4/5

English edition: Beside The Sea by Véronique Olmi

This is a very short read, only 90 pages, but it is very deep and the author is really very able to lead us in the mind of this mentally disturbed mother. I could feel the anxiety, the anguish, the fear, the desperation of this mother. Also the words and the sentences the author uses, the rain who falls from the beginning of the book, the dark and very small room of the hotel, everything let the reader feel anxious and choke.
It talks about a mother, mentally sick, that wants to protect their children (nine and five years old) from the people, from the world. She brings them during a rainy winter day to the sea, a short holiday. But already after a few pages we feel that she didn't brought her sons to the sea for a happy vacation. The book talks about the sick (but strong) love of a disturbed mother for their children.
It is really a good book.

[Ahtims]

looks like an interesting book. Will try to get it in English.

[dely]

Smitha wrote: "looks like an interesting book. Will try to get it in English."

I read only after finishing the book that it is based on a true story (and I am sure that the world is full of such stories).
For somebody it could be a harsh read but I really liked it. The author was really able to let the reader feel and think like the mother of this book so we can't blame her for what she did (I mean the mother). Everything can happen; the strong love of a mother for their children can let her do anything. Unfortunately in the book we find a sick love.
I hope you will find it in English (it has been translated) because it is really worth.

[dely]

3/5

English edition: An Apology For Idlers by Robert Louis Stevenson

Another short read (50 pages!). It was a nice and pleasant read and seen that I am an idler now I have the right answers if somebody should tell me that idlness is a vice :D It isn't!

[Ahtims]

LOL, then I too should read this book.

[dely]

Smitha wrote: "LOL, then I too should read this book."

Yes, it is so short but so enlightening!
I have found another one (who I added quickly in my wishlist) and it is How to Be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson.

[dely]

3/5

It was really a pleasant reading. I also liked the African proverbs that are at the beginning of each story and that introduce the reader to what he is going to read.

It was as if I was reading letters sent from an old and far friend who I didn’t heard for a long time; and in these letters he tells me what happened to him in his life. The thing I enjoyed the most was that the author doesn’t tell amazing events of his life but events who were important for him and that he wants to share with you.
He shares with the reader pieces of his life and memories who were important for him but that don’t have anything extraordinary. This is what makes this book special and why I had the impression to read letters from a friend; we find the importance and the uniqueness of small daily events: memories of a story told by his father, the first friendship, the first time he took part in a student protest and so on.
I liked this “friendship feeling” that has developed since the first story. You don’t feel as if you start to be part of the author’s life; you feel as if you have always been part of his life and now with these stories he tells you things that he couldn’t tell you before because of the distance which divided you.
But it is thanks to these memories of everyday life and thanks to these stories that Lanre Ogundimu introduces us in African life, tradition and culture. We meet stories that lead us to reflect and lead us to know some conditions of life in Africa.
Through memories that seem ordinary and simple, the author is able to bring us to Africa; this is the strength of this book.

[dely]

3/5

English edition: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

I did it! Hallelujah! Celebrations!

What can I say? Tolstoj has really a big brain BUT I didn't liked a lot the analysis of war strategies and the causes and effects of wars, the analysis on individual freedom and needs and so on.
Some chapters were really good and interesting but other chapters were (at least for me) really boring and hard to read and understand. This because I don't care about why a war begins, why it suddenly ends and all the causes of a war.
War and Peace is mainly an analysis about the history, the movement and behavior of the people (the folk) and the strategies of leaders. Then there are also the characters with their inner struggles, the seeking for God and so on; these were the most interesting chapters for me. Unfortunately Tolstoj isn't deep and keen with these analysis like with the analysis of history.
So, if you like a historical fiction with a lot of war strategies and a deep and detailed analysis of the causes of a war and people's involvement, this book is for you. If you don't care about all these things, don't read it.

[Parikhit]

Congrats Dely. You finished it :D

[dely]

Parikhit wrote: "Congrats Dely. You finished it :D"

Yes, though it was sometimes really hard, above all the two epilogues at the end.
It is an interesting book but it doesn't answer a lot my taste.

[Anbu]

dely wrote: " 3/5

English edition: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

I did it! Hallelujah! Celebrations!

What can I say? Tolstoj has re..."

Wow.. whenever I see this book in stores I always wonder will I ever be able finish it up if I take it up.. :)

[dely]

Anbu wrote: "Wow.. whenever I see this book in stores I always wonder will I ever be able finish it up if I take it up.. :) "

You must try!
Now you can say: if dely did it, I can it twice and better

[Ahtims]

dely, CONGRATULATIONS
I too have an enormous War and Peace book , which has really minute fonts, this book scares me so much that I have hidden it at the very back of my shelf.
"Out of sight, out of mind" is my motto

[dely]

Smitha wrote: "dely, CONGRATULATIONS
I too have an enormous War and Peace book , which has really minute fonts, this book scares me so much that I have hidden it at the very back of my shelf.
"Out of sight, out ..."

:D

Perhaps you will like it.