What are you reading?

[Faust]

I hope Humboldt's Gift arrives in the mail before I finish Ravelstein. I won't bear the torture of waiting for it.

[klangspiel]

re: redon.
last i heard dedalus books was planning to bring a new translation into print but ran into some difficulties as a result of funding issues. it's a downright shame not only for that particular book but for the publishing house as a whole. they're easily one of best niche (or otherwise) publishers of the last decade or so. one with a very devoted and specialistic focus on fin-de-siècle symbolist / decadent literature and other literary curios from the period often angled right at the proto-surrealist and the grotesque.

among their better publishing efforts, of which i recommend, include new translations of huysmans, those accursed eastern european masters of the period (meyrink, leppin and grabinski), alfred kubin's the other side, rodenbach's bruges-la-morte (classic stuff this one), barbey d'aurevilly, new translation of potocki's tales from the saragossa manuscript, mirbeau, remy de gourmont, valery bruisov's the fiery angel, leonid andreyev's the red laugh and the little angel.

[Faust]

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. The title story is possibly the best short story about war ever written.

[AKA*NYC]

Hubert Selby Jr.'s The Room. Total mind-fuck that is catapulting straight to my all-time favorites list.

[loveless]

Hubert Selby Jr.'s The Room. Total mind-fuck that is catapulting straight to my all-time favorites list.

wanna read that. read requim, last exit and demon. i have to say demon is easily the most tangible evil i've ever experienced.....and one of my selby favs

[AKA*NYC]

wanna read that. read requim, last exit and demon. i have to say demon is easily the most tangible evil i've ever experienced.....and one of my selby favs

apparently selby considered the room the most explicit book ever written and said it took him many years to be able to re-read it after writing it. demon is next on my list.

[LittleTombo]

I've finally decided to start reading a bit of Dostojevskij..
Any recommendations of what first to read to enter his universe?

[Seventh]

Corsair and Klangspeil,

Thanks for information, I have long been interested in Redon. I clearly need to check out dedalus books as well!

[dontbecruel]

I've finally decided to start reading a bit of Dostojevskij..
Any recommendations of what first to read to enter his universe?

For me, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov are his two really beautiful books, the ones that transcend the slightly bizarre adolescent psyche that made him the man he was. I'd be intrigued to know if other members think I'm missing something with the other novels.

[rider]

crime and punishment? nothing like a good existential kick to put you in the mood for winter gloom...

[LittleTombo]

^^I've actually got his:The Double...on my shelf but never read it.
...good for beginners or?

[galia]

Crime & Punishment is best. The story is fairly straightforward and there are less characters than in some of his other novels. Which makes it easer to follow for a first timer
Need to re-read it, it's been 10 years. The time has come

[Faust]

DBC named his two best books. Notes from the underground is another brilliant one. I never liked crime and punishment.

[Fade to Black]

Finally got started on Bellow with Humboldt's Gift...20 pages in and I'm hooked. This book is reading my head.

[Fade to Black]

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. The title story is possibly the best short story about war ever written.

I remember this recommendation you gave me from a while while back...checked this out at the library along w/ the Bellow, they didn't have the Herzog...really random selections with the local Hong Kong library, the entire fiction section is pretty much 2 racks front and back, and mind you this is inclusive of stuff like Danielle Steel and what not...