Reading list

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

My TV died. My library has shaken off its patina of dust. Close to my elbow these days are:

Grammatical Man by Jeremy Campbell - an introduction to information theory.

A Widow for One Year by John Irving - novel of loss, self-discovery and writing.

ABC of Reading by Ezra Pound - "Literature is news that stays news."

Who's words are you giving your time to these days?

[franko]

The pile of books to read rises daily. You must read this, says a friend. Read that writes a HabsRus poster. So I try to keep up but fail miserably. And then it is birthday/Christmas/Father's Day/whatever and I receive Chapters gift certificates and wander helplessly trying to put down more books than I pick up! As to what is actually being read . . .

The Divine Secret of the Ya Ya Sisterhood -- just kidding!

[url=http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=1-1400032717-8
]the curious incident of the dog in the night-time[/url] by mark haddon -- interesting perspective of not being "all together"

[url=http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=655
]Blue Like Jazz[/url] by donald miller -- Christian spirituality vrs Christianity (also recommended: just about anything by Phillip Yancey)

And I will soon pick up The Greek for love : a memoir of Corfu by James Chatto from the library . . . because it intrigues me.

I read C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia every couple of years, and Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever occasionally, for some fast mindless reading.

[blaise]

It's so hard to find time to read for pleasure. Gone are the days when I was a voracious reader of the classics. The majority of my reading nowadays is devoted to the scientific and medical literature, although I do keep up with the news as well as I can. I'd say that for the past several years I've probably spent far more time writing "serious" stuff than in reading novels, poems, or plays. Since last summer I've written some poetry (some of which is not bad, although the shades of Dante, Shakespeare, and Eliot need not feel threatened) but I don't know how long the creative urge will last. I suppose that posting on HabsRus serves as an outlet.

[HabbaDasher]

Chronicles Volume I - Bob Dylan: As in his songs, Bob doesn't give too much of himself away.

How To Write Better Lyrics - Pat Pattison: Tough slogging, for me anyway, but excellent reference on different aspects of lyric writing with exercises to sharpen them.

[MC Habber]

I don't read as much as I'd like to, aside from textbooks and news, but I will eventually finish reading Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity by Lawrence Lessig. I've also been meaning to get Douglas Adams' Last Chance to See.

[Tattac]

Baudolino by Umberto Eco

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Tattac said:

Baudolino by Umberto Eco

How do you find it? I received it as a gift from a friend a couple of years ago. It is presently sitting on my coffee table. I began reading it a few months back but was defeated by it. Funny, because Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum I just galloped through (you may enjoy Travels in Hyperreality, a collection of his essays - if you haven't already read it). Perhaps I'll try Baudolino again when a space clears up on my list.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

MC said:

I don't read as much as I'd like to, aside from textbooks and news, but I will eventually finish reading Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity by Lawrence Lessig. I've also been meaning to get Douglas Adams' Last Chance to See.

You might enjoy 4 Arguments for the Elimination of Television. This book was brought to my attention by Prof. Tom Kovats while I was studying for my degree in Communication Studies at Concordia University in Montréal in the early '80s. Hmmm, wonder what author Mander would have to say about the Internet?

[Tattac]

M. said:

How do you find it?

I like it. I am not sure if I can ever call it my favorite book but I think it is better than Foucault's Pendulum, which was very difficult to read. Name of the Rose was also very good as well as The Island of the Day Before though it took me some time to get used to it. Maybe you should come back to Baudolino in a couple of years As for his essays, I have read some of them but the names escape me right now.

Edit: Five Moral Pieces! Actually I don't know what else was translated into Russian. I can't find these books in English here and unfortunatelly I can't read in Italian

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Tattac said:

I like it. I am not sure if I can ever call it my favorite book but I think it is better than Foucault's Pendulum, which was very difficult to read. Name of the Rose was also very good as well as The Island of the Day Before though it took me some time to get used to it. Maybe you should come back Baudolino in a couple of years As for his essays, I have read some of them but the names escape me right now.

Interesting. I found Foucault's Pendulum a breeze to read yet was stymied by Baudolino. Go figure.

Ah, I was going to say in my previous post that Name of the Rose is one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read. I like the film adaptation very much as well - Sean Connery was, to my mind, perfectly cast as William of Baskerville (which leads me to ask - are you a Sherlock Holmes fan?).

Eco's essays unsurprisingly popped up as required reading during my university semiotics courses (yes, I'm a signifyin' monkey). Worth investigating, I think, along with Roland Barthes' classic volume Mythologies.

The Island of the Day Before I shall have to look into, as I am unfamiliar with it.

[Tattac]

M. said:

Interesting. I found Foucault's Pendulum a breeze to read yet was stymied by Baudolino. Go figure.

Interesting.

Ah, I was going to say in my previous post that Name of the Rose is one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read. I like the film adaptation very much as well - Sean Connery was, to my mind, perfectly cast as William of Baskerville

I agree. I am planning to read the Postscrip to the Name of the Rose too.

which leads me to ask - are you a Sherlock Holmes fan?

Hmmm...I read it when was a teenager and remember that I was impressed and loved it. Besides, I like Russian TV series about him. But call myself a fan? Well, I am a passive fan

along with Roland Barthes' classic volume Mythologies

Interesting that you mentioned it. I had to read it for one of my university courses too. I think it was called something like political philosophy...

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Tattac said:

I agree. I am planning to read the Postscrip to the Name of the Rose too.

[/i][/quote]
Is that written by Eco as well, or is it a commentary by someone else?

Hmmm...I read it when was a teenager and remember that I was impressed and loved it. Besides, I like Russian TV series about him. But call myself a fan? Well, I am a passive fan

Well, I consider myself an afficionado and connoisseur of the Holmes canon. You must, and I insist upon this, watch the Granada Television productions starring the late Jeremy Brett as the detective. In a word, definitive. You won't be disappointed.

Interesting that you mentioned it. I had to read it for one of my university courses too. I think it was called something like political philosophy...

Barthes I find interesting.

The vast majority of the po-mo industry I have no use for except as easy targets for satire. It doesn't taste better and it is definitely less filling.

[Tattac]

M. said:

Is that written by Eco as well, or is it a commentary by someone else?

Yes, it was written by Eco himself.

Well, I consider myself an afficionado and connoisseur of the Holmes' canon. You must, and I insist upon this, watch the Granada Television productions starring the late Jeremy Brett as the detective. In a word, definitive. You won't be disappointed.

If you insist, I will. The question is where I can find it. I have a feeling it would be like trying to find those Soviet series about Holmes in Toronto. I am sure it is possibe by the way.

Barthes I find interesting.

The vast majority of the po-mo industry I have no use for except as easy targets for satire. It doesn't taste better and it is definitely less filling.

I haven't been reading anything like this since I graduated. I find most of it to be very pretentious. I don't like pseudo phylosophic books. And I believe that as soon as one tries to convince others that his/her picture of the world is The Only Possibe Truth and My Understanding is Absolute, he/she risks to sink into verbal diarrhea, especially while using words which most even very smart people don't understand (maybe not openly but definitely secretly).

I wasn't talking about Barthes by the way

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Tattac said:

Yes, it was written by Eco himself.

Ah. I must check this out too.

If you insist, I will. The question is where I can find it. I have a feeling it would be like trying to find those Soviet series about Holmes in Toronto. I am sure it is possibe by the way.

Heh. You might be right about locating a source in Moscow and vice-versa for me in Toronto. However, I do insist. You will thank me (I hope }

I haven't been reading anything like this since I graduated. I find most of it to be very pretentious. I don't like pseudo phylosophic books. And I believe that as soon as one tries to convince others that his/her picture of the world is The Only Possibe Truth and My Understanding is Absolute, he/she risks to sink into verbal diarrhea, especially while using words which most even very smart people don't understand (maybe not openly but definitely secretly).

I wasn't talking about Barthes by the way

I agree with you 100%. Philosophy IMO should stimulate thought, not seek to deny it.

Btw, I enjoy making up the odd word now and again.

*

Question(s) about Russian literature. Any reading suggestions? Here are Russian authors I have read (in English translation of course) to varying degrees over the years:

Prose: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn

Poetry: Blok, Akhmatova, Voznesensnky, Mayakov, Mandelstam, Yevtushenko

[Tattac]

M. said:

Btw, I enjoy making up the odd word now and again.

It's a different thing ;D

Question(s) about Russian literature. Any reading suggestions? Here are Russian authors I have read (in English translation of course) to varying degrees over the years:

Prose: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn

Poetry: Blok, Akhmatova, Voznesensnky, Mayakov, Mandelstam, Yevtushenko

My favorite is Bulgakov. His Master and Margaret is a must for everybody who is interested in Russian literarure. Actually I don't know a single Russian who has never read it. It's difficult to give suggestions because tastes differ. I like Saltykov-Schedrin (especially History of a Town) and lots of Gogol's works, Ilf and Petrov (they often worked together). Usually people who like Douglas Adams also like the Strugatsky Brothers. Ahhh....I can think of more later


I have to reveal that I don't like poetry. Though I enjoyed reading Filatov's Tale of Strelets Fedot. I have no idea if it is translated into any foreign language.

[BadCompany]

Shake Hands With the Devil [/color] by Romeo Dallaire

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Tattac said:

My favorite is Bulgakov. His Master and Margaret is a must for everybody who is interested in Russian literarure. Actually I don't know a single Russian who has never read it.

Thanks. Good to know.

It's difficult to give suggestions because tastes differ.

I'm easy. I'll try anyone once, and if I don't like them...I'll never read them again (unless they weren't just bad but bothered me for some vague reason).

I like Saltykov-Schedrin (especially History of a Town) and lots of Gogol's works, Ilf and Petrov (they often worked together). Usually people who like Douglas Adams also like the Strugatsky Brothers.

Hmmm, Strugatsky Brothers, eh? Sounds like an obscene Italian comedy duo.

Ahhh....I can think of more later

Please do. It would be much appreciated, and not just by me I'm sure.

I have to reveal that I don't like poetry. Though I enjoyed reading Filatov's Tale of Strelets Fedot. I have no idea if it is translated into any foreign language.

Je suis étonné. And pourquoi don't you like poetry? Do you find it difficile?

[Tattac]

M. said:

Thanks. Good to know.

But I must warn that there are lots of things (way of life in the Soviet Russia) foreign readers don't understand. It's better to read it with some sort of the key to reading Master and Margaret.

Hmmm, Strugatsky Brothers, eh? Sounds like an obscene Italian comedy duo.

Your knowledge knows no borders

Je suis étonné. And pourquoi don't you like poetry? Do you find it difficile?

I find it ennuyeux. I know. I know. My perseption is wrong. But what can I do? Read more poetry?

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Tattac said:

But I must warn that there are lots of things (way of life in the Soviet Russia) foreign readers don't understand. It's better to read it with some sort of the key to reading Master and Margaret.

OK, fair warning, I'll look for a translation with a good preface. However, I think being first generation Canadian born of East European immigrants and having grown up in an émigré milieu in Montréal might serve me in good stead.

I find it ennuyeux. I know. I know. My perseption is wrong. But what can I do? Read more poetry?

You like songs? You like fibre in your diet?

Yes reading more poetry is good IMO. But only the good stuff. The market is saturated with poor imitations. The selected poems of T.S. Eliot would be a good starting point as far as English language poetry is concerned. You of course have a very rich tradition of your own to dip into.

*

Kurt Vonnegut. Breakfast of Champions. Not poetry. Read him?

[mic]

M. said:

Question(s) about Russian literature. Any reading suggestions? Here are Russian authors I have read (in English translation of course) to varying degrees over the years:

Prose: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn

Poetry: Blok, Akhmatova, Voznesensnky, Mayakov, Mandelstam, Yevtushenko

Nice to see somebody else here who likes (I suppose you like) russian literature. My first Pléiades book was Dostoievski's Les Démons, which I bought in a small bookshop in Avignon. Gogol, Dostoievski, Tolstoï, Gorki... My grilfriend just bought 20 illustrated hardback books from major russian writers for 20CHF (which is more or less equivalent to 20 canadian $. Loving books, I must admit being a bit jaleous .

Unlike Blaise, I still have time to read classics. I'm currently reading Stendahl's Le rouge et le noir, which is confirming the good impression I had after reading La Chartreuse de Parme. Well, if you love Italy, you probably have to like Stendahl.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

mic said:

Nice to see somebody else here who likes (I suppose you like) russian literature. My first Pléiades book was Dostoievski's Les Démons, which I bought in a small bookshop in Avignon. Gogol, Dostoievski, Tolstoï, Gorki... My grilfriend just bought 20 illustrated hardback books from major russian writers for 20CHF (which is more or less equivalent to 20 canadian $. Loving books, I must admit being a bit jaleous .

I've enjoyed Russian literature ever since I was introduced to Dostoevski and Solzhenitsyn at the age of 14 or 15 in high school. The Idiot and The Devils are to this day among my favourite novels.

Unlike Blaise, I still have time to read classics. I'm currently reading Stendahl's Le rouge et le noir, which is confirming the good impression I had after reading La Chartreuse de Parme. Well, if you love Italy, you probably have to like Stendahl.

I am putting together a "care" package for my 17-year-old niece, who is an avid reader. Hesse's Siddhartha, Voltaire's Candide, Kerouac's On the Road and Ondaatje's Coming Through Slaughter.

[mic]

M. said:

I've enjoyed Russian literature ever since I was introduced to Dostoevski and Solzhenitsyn at the age of 14 or 15 in high school. The Idiot and The Devils are to this day among my favourite novels.

I have to read The Idiot again, but I prefered (and still prefer) The Devils (thanks for the translation - by the way, are there two titles for this book in english as well ? The French translated it Les Démons and Les possédés) and Crime et châtiment.

I am putting together a "care" package for my 17-year-old niece, who is an avid reader. Hesse's Siddhartha, Voltaire's Candide, Kerouac's On the Road and Ondaatje's Coming Through Slaughter.

Nice package. I hope she will enjoy it - which I don't doubt, if she loves reading. I remember I was 17 when I read the first book which "took" me : Voyage au bout de la nuit by Céline. I haven't come across many books which are as powerful as this one is.

[blaise]

Tattac said:

But I must warn that there are lots of things (way of life in the Soviet Russia) foreign readers don't understand. It's better to read it with some sort of the key to reading Master and Margaret.


Your knowledge knows no borders


I find it ennuyeux. I know. I know. My perseption is wrong. But what can I do? Read more poetry?

I first read Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (as it's known in the West) in a 1967 English translation by Michael Glenny decades before it was published in Russia (fragments were clandestinely circulated in Russia as samizdat, an expression for underground literature). I wasn't happy with that translation. Subsequently, I purchased a far better translation (with excellent notes that explain many of the in-jokes and historical details) by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor. This version has been available since 1995 in a paperback edition from Vintage Books Division of Random House. I have also acquired a few of Bulgakov's other writings over the years.

Every educated Russian I have met knows Master and Margarita. Bulgakov chose the name Margarita (Margaret) after the Margaret in Goethe's Faust. However, he transformed her from an innocent victim into a spirited, determined, feisty woman.

As for Gogol, I have known of his stories since my university days when I read his best-known work, Dead Souls. He has a delightful satiric flair. When I visited St. Petersburg last year I heard Shostakovich's operatic treatments of two Gogol stories, The Nose and The Gamblers, at the Mariinsky Theater (conducted by Valerij Gergiev).

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

M. said:

OK, fair warning, I'll look for a translation with a good preface. However, I think being first generation Canadian born of East European immigrants and having grown up in an émigré milieu in Montréal might serve me in good stead.


You like songs? You like fibre in your diet?

Yes reading more poetry is good IMO. But only the good stuff. The market is saturated with poor imitations. The selected poems of T.S. Eliot would be a good starting point as far as English language poetry is concerned. You of course have a very rich tradition of your own to dip into.

*

Kurt Vonnegut. Breakfast of Champions. Not poetry. Read him?

Kurt Vonnegut.

You either love him or hate him. WRONG!

I loved some of his work "Sirenes of Titan" and hated most of his other works.
You can also like him or be indifferent. I loved the first one I read and none of the rest came close to measuring up.
Favorites are Mitchner, Rand and Clavell.

[blaise]

Habs_fan_in_LA said:

Kurt Vonnegut.

You either love him or hate him. WRONG!

I loved some of his work "Sirenes of Titan" and hated most of his other works.
You can also like him or be indifferent. I loved the first one I read and none of the rest came close to measuring up.
Favorites are Mitchner, Rand and Clavell.

Sirens of Titan. Sirenes makes it sound French.

[blaise]

mic said:

I have to read The Idiot again, but I prefered (and still prefer) The Devils (thanks for the translation - by the way, are there two titles for this book in english as well ? The French translated it Les Démons and Les possédés) and Crime et châtiment.



Nice package. I hope she will enjoy it - which I don't doubt, if she loves reading. I remember I was 17 when I read the first book which "took" me : Voyage au bout de la nuit by Céline. I haven't come across many books which are as powerful as this one is.

If you do reread The Idiot (in English) I would recommend the translation by Henry and Olga Carlisle, The Demons in the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, and Crime and Punishment translated by David Magarshack (although his may be superseded).

[blaise]

Franko repeats my own statement that I haven't have had much time for the classics recently but it should be noted that in the past I read a great many of the titles suggested on this thread. I would further recommend the fiction of the Czech writer Milan Kundera.

If I ever get to retire I'll probably resume my bent for reading. I like to buy my books rather than go to the library, and I have just about everything written by Dostoyevsky (including his nonfiction), Kafka, Thomas Mann, and a number of other authors on my shelves. I intend rereading Don Quixote and Ulysses (but not Finnegan's wake). Last summer I reread five novels by Jules Verne.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

mic said:

I have to read The Idiot again, but I prefered (and still prefer) The Devils (thanks for the translation - by the way, are there two titles for this book in english as well ? The French translated it Les Démons and Les possédés) and Crime et châtiment.

In fact the book has gone by two tiles in English; The Devils and The Possessed.

Nice package. I hope she will enjoy it - which I don't doubt, if she loves reading. I remember I was 17 when I read the first book which "took" me : Voyage au bout de la nuit by Céline. I haven't come across many books which are as powerful as this one is.

Hmmm, I would say that the novel which had the most visceral impact on me was Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird. I read that in my early 20s.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Blaise said:

I intend rereading Don Quixote and Ulysses (but not Finnegan's wake). Last summer I reread five novels by Jules Verne.

Ulysses. My favorite novel. I have read it in every decade of my life since my teenage years. The time is coming up again.

Rise and shine to the wake lest you lie listening less than you like.

it beeing spring-licious e.e. cummings is in the book for me

[blaise]

M. said:

In fact the book has gone by two tiles in English; The Devils and The Possessed.


Hmmm, I would say that the novel which had the most visceral impact on me was Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird. I read that in my early 20s.

The Possessed was the old title, coferred ages ago by Constance Garnett, a translator hired by Random House for its Modern Library editions of the works of Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and other Russians, but it has been superseded by the more accurate Demons. The distinction is important. The characters are anarchists with a nihilistic tendency. Dostoyevsky meant to depict them as the inspirers of evil rather than idealistic dupes who carried out the evil plans of others.

Oh yes, I threw out the Garnett translations after I because acquainted with superior ones.

I haven't read The Painted Bird.