What are you reading?

[Faust]

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Solzhenitsin dies of a heart attack.

[Boki]

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[quote user="hanajibu"]about to read Mark Harman's translation of Franz Kafka's "Amerika"[/quote]</P>


i rate kafka highly, love the fact that he never finished his novels. so they just END mehhh... its somewhat interesting</P>

[Real Real]

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I wonder if people are still reading One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich? Great book, but I can imagine it falling it by the wayside. Same thing with Darkness at Noon - great book that people might forget about.

[Hali]

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[quote user="Faust"]BTW, do any of you have autographed volumes in your home libraries? I have Hunter Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut, and Ray Bradbury.
[/quote]
That's funny, I believe my father has Bradbury and Vonnegut as his sole autographs.</p>

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No autographs, but I have some excellent first editions.</p>

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Just picked up a copy of "New York Jew", Alfred Kazin's memoirs, in very good condition for dirt cheap. I was pleased to learn upon getting it home that it was a first edition. Certainly not worth much, but it makes it that much more interesting to me.</p>

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[quote user="Real Real"]I wonder if people are still reading One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich? Great book, but I can imagine it falling it by the wayside. Same thing with Darkness at Noon - great book that people might forget about.[/quote]</p>

I hope so. Ivan Denosovich is an absolute stroke of brilliance in that it offers a complete introduction to the style, tone, and message of Solzhenitsyn while being exponentially more approachable than his other (often ridiculously dense) work. I've only read that and The First Circle, but while I'd save First Circle for the more broad reader, I'd recommend Ivan to anyone. I think it would make excellent required reading in school. </p>


Faust, have you ever read his work in Russian? If so, how does it compare? Are there major differences? I have the Willet's translation, which is I believe the one Solzhenitsyn agrees most with. I know that he was a writer who had significant issues with the way his work was translated and I was curious as to how the native experience differs.</p>

This is, of course, assuming the person who told me you were Russian wasn't mistaken. If that's the case, I apologize.</p>

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[quote user="hanajibu"]about to read Mark Harman's translation of Franz Kafka's "Amerika"[/quote]</p>

I am so excited about this. His treatment of The Castle was one of the first works that really made me reflect on the importance of translation and what the middleman brings to the equation. There's a really great essay by the critic Cynthia Ozick that reflects on (among other things Kafka) the major differences and significance of the new translation. You should take a look if you're able, I think it's called "The Impossibility of Being Kafka".
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[Faust]

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Hali, I have not read it in English, so can't compare :-). I read it a long time though - I wouldn't mind reading it again. Real Real, I think his books have become part of the canon in academia, so it's still read in colleges. Not sure about casual readership, but I don't think his work is a time-and-place piece. There are dozens of places today where this book rings true.</p>

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Man, I love his writing - it makes you feel the words. [Y]</p>

[Hali]

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[quote user="Faust"]

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Man, I love his writing - it makes you feel the words. [Y]</p>

[/quote]</p>

If you recognized that without google then I'm very pleased. </p>

The only book apart from the silly fantasy novels of my childhood that I've read over and over and over again. It really just keeps giving. I hate the word "lapidary" because it doesn't sound nearly as powerful as what it describes, but that's the best word for his prose style, especially in the early westerns.
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[kira]

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Reading about the German language and trying to teach myself some basic sentences. I always at least like to try to speak a little, whenever I travel. [8-|] </p>


ich bin allergish gegen Nusse</p>

wo ist das Bad</p>

wie viel</p>

danke</p>

i can write it sooooo much better than i can speak it. [86] They speak way too fast on the CD...
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[Faust]

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[quote user="Faust"]

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Man, I love his writing - it makes you feel the words. [Y]</p>

[/quote]</p>

Fucking insane. He's quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.</p>

[Magician]

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[quote user="Faust"][quote user="Faust"]

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Man, I love his writing - it makes you feel the words. [Y]</p>

[/quote]</p>

Fucking insane. He's quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.</p>

[/quote]</p>

About 3 months ago, I worked my way through much of his ouevre. It was a mindnumbing/profound experience. I don't I have ever had any form of art (book, cinema, music) affect me that much. Those books are the literally equivalent of a sledgehammer. Reading "Blood Meridian" literally left me physically tired.
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Highly recommended, if you know what you are getting yourself in to. (To any Cormac McCarthy neophytes, I would say start with pulitzer prize winner "The Road." It is not quite as bleak as his other work, nor as tasking to read)
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[Real Real]

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"The Road"? "The Road" is the least bleak of McCarthy's books? Haha, good god, I'm glad that's not true (because "The Road" is pretty fucking bleak).



How about "All the Pretty Horses"? That's still a good one, one that hasn't been brought up yet, I don't think.

[Faust]

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[quote user="Real Real"]"The Road"? "The Road" is the least bleak of McCarthy's books? Haha, good god, I'm glad that's not true (because "The Road" is pretty fucking bleak).



How about "All the Pretty Horses"? That's still a good one, one that hasn't been brought up yet, I don't think.[/quote]</p>

Seriously. I didn't say anything, because I haven't read anything else by him, but that's quite a statement.</p>

[Magician]

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[quote user="Real Real"]"The Road"? "The Road" is the least bleak of McCarthy's books? Haha, good god, I'm glad that's not true (because "The Road" is pretty fucking bleak).

[/quote]</p>

I feel "The Road is a pretty good indication of McCarthy's ideas and philosophies, without being as much of a slog as "Blood Meridian" or "No Country." While it is very fatalistic/bleak, there is an element of hope (dare I say love?) in the relationship between the father and son that is not present or just very well hidden in his other work.</p>


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(Also I did say less bleak, not the least bleak)
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(Full disclosure: I haven't read "All the Pretty Horses" yet)
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[Real Real]

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Nah, I know you said "less", not "least", just joshing you. The kid=savior thing throughout the Road does provide an element of hopefulness throughout the book. I do think there's something hopeful/redemptive in all of his books (like the kid telling off the Judge and then the caveman fire coda at the end of Blood Meridian), at least all of the books after Child of God.



If you want to experience the lighter side of McCarthy, though, then both Suttree and All the Pretty Horses are good...Suttree is really important to read if you like his stuff.

[Faust]

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Thanks, Real Real, for giving away the end of Blood Meridian. [71]

[Magician]

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[quote user="Faust"]Thanks, Real Real, for giving away the end of Blood Meridian. [71]
[/quote]</p>

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haha. I wouldn't really worry. McCarthy actually gives away the events of each upcoming chapter in the chapter heading. When I mentioned this bothered me to my snobby friend who got me in to McCarthy, my friend told me "suspense is for the intellectually weak"</p>

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And thanks for the recommendations. I think I'm going to do Suttree next.</p>