View Full Version : What are you reading?
Sapphire
01 Mar 2006, 09:17 AM
will finish Journey into the Whirlwind tonight. Psssst, she lives.
I really love that book too. I've read a few (not sure what to call them) concentration camp narratives, and that one may be the one I like the most. I think it was called "Within the Whirlwind" when I read it; I prefer that title. I wonder if you're reading a different translation?
Father Ted
01 Mar 2006, 09:59 AM
Read this over the weekend:
http://marleyandme.com/images/home_book.jpg
Its a fluff but but if you have a dog you'll connect with it and laugh at the funny parts.
Howard Zinn
01 Mar 2006, 10:50 AM
Psssst, she lives.
I really love that book too. I've read a few (not sure what to call them) concentration camp narratives, and that one may be the one I like the most. I think it was called "Within the Whirlwind" when I read it; I prefer that title. I wonder if you're reading a different translation?
Well, now I don't have to read the rest of the book. :D
No clue about the title. I could ask my prof. Right now, I'm just trying to pump out a 2 page response for another class and go find somewhere to print it.
Stud83
01 Mar 2006, 11:02 AM
Wow, from Chekhov to Ginzburg... That's a change of pace. A major one too. Howard did you have to read those books back-to-back? :eek:
Good choice in Ginzburg. Even though she's not as popular as Solzhenitsyn around the world, she's a much better writer. It's not even close. And, unlike him, she's also not a moron. Which helps.
glennaldo_sf
01 Mar 2006, 11:09 AM
What are you reading?
Posts on bigsoccer!
Just kidding... Just went to East Africa so it's Aiden Hartley's the Zanzibar Chest for me
http://www.thezanzibarchest.com/Resources/zanzibarchest.jpeg
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594480117/sr=8-1/qid=1141229184/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-0151285-3867811?%5Fencoding=UTF8
Howard Zinn
01 Mar 2006, 11:10 AM
Wow, from Chekhov to Ginzburg... That's a change of pace. A major one too. Howard did you have to read those books back-to-back? :eek:
Good choice in Ginzburg. Even though she's not as popular as Solzhenitsyn around the world, she's a much better writer. It's not even close. And, unlike him, she's also not a moron. Which helps.
Ummmm, I'm still reading the Chekhov, but I'm just reading it on my own. The Ginzburg is for my Russ. Lit. class.
Sapphire
05 Mar 2006, 06:43 PM
Just started reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera. So far so good.
StrikerCW
05 Mar 2006, 09:27 PM
Have any of you read any Joyce? Wake or Ulyses?
MtP07
05 Mar 2006, 09:45 PM
No, No, and No.
StrikerCW
05 Mar 2006, 09:53 PM
No, No, and No.
Figured some of the geniuses in here (Saph and HZ ;) ) might have. Well see. :D
Sapphire
06 Mar 2006, 01:02 AM
OK, so I wrote my senior thesis on Joyce's Ulysses and Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom and contemporary versus mythic/biblical heroism. It was scintillating. A page-turner. :p
Don't be intimidated by Ulysses -- read the damn thing. It's the best book of the 20th century, so they say. . . NO ONE completely understands it; just go play around in the text and see what you find. Think of it as a puzzle, and see how you can work it. Yes, Joyce is TRYING to jack with you. Look at him, mocking you -- he's a smart-ass :D You really have to active-read this one.
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2004/06/10/james_joyce,0.jpg
OK, and for Faulkner, start with with The Sound and the Fury, and then move to Absalom. If you do, or have ever, live(d) in the American south, The Sound and the Fury is required reading. Absalom's better but you have to read The Sound first to get the ball rolling. And have a friend at the ready; it WILL depress you. Poor Quentin (the boy, I mean).
Howard Zinn
06 Mar 2006, 08:02 AM
Have any of you read any Joyce? Wake or Ulyses?
Have I read Joyce? Hmmmm, I seem to be having a flashback to the first page of this thread. ;) Never read Wake or Ulysses though.
Howard Zinn
06 Mar 2006, 08:07 AM
OK, so I wrote my senior thesis on Joyce's Ulysses and Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom and contemporary versus mythic/biblical heroism. It was scintillating. A page-turner.
Don't be intimidated by Ulysses -- read the damn thing. It's the best book of the 20th century, so they say. . . NO ONE completely understands it; just go play around in the text and see what you find. Think of it as a puzzle, and see how you can work it. Yes, Joyce is TRYING to jack with you. Look at him, mocking you -- he's a smart-ass :D You really have to active-read this one.
OK, and for Faulkner, start with with The Sound and the Fury, and then move to Absalom. If you do, or have ever, live(d) in the American south, The Sound and the Fury is required reading. Absalom's better but you have to read The Sound first to get the ball rolling. And have a friend at the ready; it WILL depress you. Poor Quentin (the boy, I mean).
Sapph, I may need your help next year. I signed up for fall classes over the weekend and I am taking my first English junior-senior seminar, which is the uppermost work in the major before the writing of the senior thesis. The name of the class is TAH-DAH "Joyce's Ulysses", a class devoted completely to that book and everything that went into it. Are you willing to give a poor undergrad some help? :p :D
And yes, anyone that lives in the South at any point must read Faulkner, and if you are a lifelong Southern boy like myself, you must devote considerable amounts of your life to him. He is a truly astounding writer.
StrikerCW
06 Mar 2006, 08:30 AM
I may do these things you recommend in a few millinea, Saph. But I had to read The Bear in Junior year and it was about like watching the US national team play it was so boring. :( I'm sure hunting is facinating but not in those damn long sentences. :o
Sapphire
06 Mar 2006, 12:35 PM
Sapph, I may need your help next year. I signed up for fall classes over the weekend and I am taking my first English junior-senior seminar, which is the uppermost work in the major before the writing of the senior thesis. The name of the class is TAH-DAH "Joyce's Ulysses", a class devoted completely to that book and everything that went into it. Are you willing to give a poor undergrad some help? :p :D Heheh, sure. I don't know how much I could help you though; I stopped with Joyce after I finished my senior paper.
You're signing up for fall classes now?? Bates is a strange place.
Sapphire
06 Mar 2006, 12:41 PM
I may do these things you recommend in a few millinea, Saph. But I had to read The Bear in Junior year and it was about like watching the US national team play it was so boring. :( I'm sure hunting is facinating but not in those damn long sentences. :oI actually hated The Bear, or really, I can't remember it. I remember being miserable reading it.
This is a good (and short, and without his famously long sentences) Faulkner short story, getting into the southern mentality of the 1920s:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/wf_rose.html
StrikerCW
06 Mar 2006, 12:46 PM
Ah.. you got me, I have read that story and like it very much. I have done a few papers on it actually (although those days are behind me now, thank you Engineering) in English classes in my years.
I think its just hard for a laymay (as I am in literature) to understand stories like that really without having guidance.
JC7rox
26 Mar 2006, 06:47 PM
Just started reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera. So far so good.
Was looking to resurrect this and I saw this quote, which I completely missed the first time around. Did you finish with the book yet, and if so, what did you think about it? I read it a while back and I remember loving it.
Currently skimming through the King James and have ironically picked this up...
http://www.booksamillion.com/bam/covers/0/55/321/365/0553213652.jpg
which is interesting, to say the least. Has anyone here read this? It kind of reminds me a little of the Megadeth song, 'Holy Wars.' It is not the easiest read, at least not in terms of lining up whatever ideologies exist, and it seems to contradict itself, and then corrects itself in a way to make it seem consistent. I'm making no sense, huh? Has anyone read this and is willing to lend a hand into the understanding. I find it somewhat charming in its presentation, but some aspects alarming.
Howard Zinn
27 Mar 2006, 07:20 PM
At this very moment, I'm reading this for class...
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0810117223.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
MtP07
27 Mar 2006, 07:27 PM
At this very moment, I'm reading this for class...
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0810117223.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
Shouldn't you be reading this...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1419626817/sr=8-3/qid=1143505627/ref=sr_1_3/002-5359163-0485638?%5Fencoding=UTF8
:p :D