What are you reading?

[dontbecruel]

Re: What are you reading?



I&#39;m just at the beginning of a book of Schopenhauer&#39;s aphorisms and already I&#39;ve discovered that when pessimism runs deep enough it achieves a special comedy:</p>

&quot;A quick test of the assertion that enjoyment outweighs pain in this world, or that they are at any rate balanced, would be to compare the feelings of an animal engaged in eating another with those of the animal being eaten.&quot;</p>

</p>

[malek]

Re: What are you reading?

I&#39;m reading La Mare au Diable, by George Sand... I like it [:)]

[Faust]

Re: What are you reading?

[quote user=&quot;dontbecruel&quot;]

I&#39;m just at the beginning of a book of Schopenhauer&#39;s aphorisms and already I&#39;ve discovered that when pessimism runs deep enough it achieves a special comedy:</p>

&quot;A quick test of the assertion that enjoyment outweighs pain in this world, or that they are at any rate balanced, would be to compare the feelings of an animal engaged in eating another with those of the animal being eaten.&quot;</p>

</p>

[/quote]</p>

Ahem,
</p>

</p>

</p>

[Faust]

Re: What are you reading?

Matthew Arnold - a chapter from Culture and Anarchy. It&#39;s not EXACTLY like watching paint dry...

[laika]

Re: What are you reading?



[quote user=&quot;Faust&quot;]Matthew Arnold - a chapter from Culture and Anarchy. It&#39;s not EXACTLY like watching paint dry...
[/quote]</p>

Oh but Faust, it&#39;s a classic! Great cocktail party conversation. [;)]</p>

I am reading &quot;What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution,&quot; despite my self-imposed ban on Times-reviewed books and all the MA hoopla. </p>

Good stuff, although the prose is a bit purple. </p>

dontbecruel, that quote made my yesterday, but combined with the image, it&#39;s utterly priceless.
</p>

[Faust]

Re: What are you reading?

[quote user=&quot;laika&quot;]

[quote user=&quot;Faust&quot;]Matthew Arnold - a chapter from Culture and Anarchy. It&#39;s not EXACTLY like watching paint dry...
[/quote]</p>

Oh but Faust, it&#39;s a classic! Great cocktail party conversation. [;)]</p>

I am reading &quot;What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution,&quot; despite my self-imposed ban on Times-reviewed books and all the MA hoopla. </p>

Good stuff, although the prose is a bit purple. </p>

dontbecruel, that quote made my yesterday, but combined with the image, it&#39;s utterly priceless.
</p>

[/quote]</p>

After I got through the whole thing, I liked the Arnold text. It trully is a classic, and was definitely a very progressive text. It&#39;s just the language that was hard, but that&#39;s because like so many of us I am ADD-infected.</p>

Robert Hughes - Culture of Complaint. So far I find it brilliant - thorough, methodical criticism that is grounded in facts and sound opinions.</p>

</p>

[Faust]

Re: What are you reading?



Macbeth.</p>

LAY ON, MCDUFF!!! </p>

</p>

[nairb49]

Re: What are you reading?



great, some serious literature buffs! You can recommend some quality reads to me, and avid amateur. </p>

Currently on a Marquez kick, reading Love in the time of Cholera, after having finished Love and Other Demons, as well as 100 years of Solitude. </p>

</p>

Do you guys have a favorite author?
</p>

[destroyed]

Re: What are you reading?



wow. i love 100 Years. that&#39;s the only Garcia-Marquez i&#39;ve read.</p>

currently reading &quot;wuthering heights&quot; to heighten my appreciation of the kate bush video. just got Bataille&#39;s Tears of Eros yesterday, so that will be in the mix. ah, and Cerebus!
</p>

favorite author? that&#39;s tough. i love andre gide. i&#39;m blanking out otherwise.</p>

[nairb49]

Re: What are you reading?

Shows my ignorance. the name Andre Gide only registers a very faint recollection. But I will take that as a suggestion.

[destroyed]

Re: What are you reading?



i suggest Les caves du Vatican - 1914 (translated as Lafcadio&#39;s Adventures)</p>

it&#39;s a romp! a great introduction to gide, though nothing else that he has written resembles it.</p>

</p>

then read &quot;the counterfeiters&quot;</p>

</p>

he also wrote a deathbed book by the name of &quot;so be it!&quot; which should be required reading for anyone that plans to die</p>

</p>

there should be a list of favorite books written/unfinished by dying authors; denton welch&#39;s &quot;a voice through the clouds&quot; would be near the top of that heap-------and apparently, bataille&#39;s tears of eros was written while the man was dying...



</p>

</p>

</p>

[laika]

Re: What are you reading?



Tears of Eros is great--the best introduction to Bataille&#39;s work, I think. I am a huge fan of his writing on the Lascaux caves, which he overviews in the first chapter. I&#39;ll be curious to know what you think of the book!
</p>

To the books written by dying--and French--authors list, I contribute &quot;Malady of Death&quot; by Marguerite Duras, who is also one of my favorite writers.
</p>

[Seventh]

Re: What are you reading?



Re-reading, &quot;Delirious New York&quot; by rem koolhaas -- my favorite thing koolhaas has built or written</p>

recently read, &quot;Cannery Row&quot; by john steinbeck -- sweet and nostalgic (in mostly a good way)</p>

slowly reading, &quot;Perspective as Symbolic Form&quot; by erwin panofsky -- because I must know these things, and once you parse the language it can be quite interesting...</p>

almost finished and trying to let it linger, &quot;The Rings of Saturn&quot; by w. g. sebald -- I am a huge fan of sebald, i get incoherent with joy reading his books...
</p>

[Fuuma]

Re: What are you reading?

I'm reading "Please kill me: the uncensored oral history of punk", quite an engrossing read, the book started with the Velvets and the factory scene, moved to MC5 and Iggy then through David Bowie came back to the New York Dolls and Patti Smith, wonder where it'll go next.

[nairb49]

Re: What are you reading?



These sound great! I'll try Gide right away, i'm intrigued. I'm just starting "Self" by Martel, a gift for me from my Oprah book club friend. </p>

In any case, I'll let you know how it goes with Gide!
</p>