What are you reading?

[Faust]

It is a very challenging work. Those one-page sentences are not for the faint of heart. If I did not take a graduate course on High Modernism, I don't know if I'd be able to read it either.

[Fuuma]

To my great shame am I reading some Beigbeder. Needed "light" reading. It's fluffy but well done, sorta like fast food I guess.

[Mail-Moth]

i'll just stick to michaux, daumal, etc for the time being.

That's rather good company.
I only have blurred memories from Le Mont analogue and La Grande beuverie, which I read almost fifteen years ago - but those are good memories.
As for Michaux, I never really ceased to read him. Poteaux d'angle is one of my bedside books : I can't decide whether it is poetry in shape of aphorisms or a sincere attempt from an old man to put wise words on the paper, but it seems to perfectly verify Kenko's thought, according to which an imitation of wisdom is already wisdom.

[calv]

The third and final book of 'The Night Angel Trilogy'.



Definitely a good fantasy series. Great read for the nights .

[jamesd]

I've always had a thing for super long sentences so Proust in both English and French wasn't particularly painful for me...its those short, spare sentences that I can't get through. Reading Hemingway is a real challenge for me.

Agree, love them in Proust, especially love them in Woolf.

[ambition]

Currently reading Art Power by Boris Groys and Locus Solus by Raymond Roussel.

[hanajibu]

@ Avantser: I love "Notes from Underground", I sometimes pick it up after reading a really crap book, to cleanse the palate.

I am beginning/attempting "Nejimaki-dori Kuronikuru" (aka "Windup Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami) in the original Japanese and "The Collected Stories of Guy de Maupassant", translated by Richard Fusco. i really wish my French were better (not that my Japanese is that hot, either) and this is my first brush w/ de Maupassant so any pointers are welcome.

[dolochov]

finished reading Der Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse... too bad he died many years before i was born, seems like the perfect person to discuss life with.

[mamaboy]

from all hemingway books only one i like...."fiesta".....but i like it so much i reread it once a year......its like replaying old music....its such a hipster book.....williamsburg with trustfund babies......getting fucked up and talking bullshit with friends.......its so sweet.....and of course he starts with "fuck the jews" but rolls it with kindness.....he had a lot of style then,had his "little flame" going.......very manly wrighter very antigay......slightly ashamed to like it so much i d recommend it to anybody...book about a man without penis.....how cool is that
(ia chital heminguia i ne ponial ni heminguia......my mom says that)

[mamaboy]

for proust long sentences lovers.....proust liked baudelaire so much that he started wrighting essays against saint-beauve,critic who did not supported baudelaire so much,and he turned against "saint-beauve method" and from these essays "la recherche" grew.....u see proust before he became proust....he would lay his cards open and uncomplicated......some sentences even reminds of hemingway.....short and direct...."contre saint-beauve" for real "fans" only......(u can see that all "stream of counciesness" shit is not applicable to proust at all---its like compare eleborate gothic cathedral to seawave frozen in motion ....leave it to joyce....by the way i used to adore joyce....but now proust wins all the time,im so succeptable to his charms ....where is my freedom?)

[Mail-Moth]

I am beginning/attempting "Nejimaki-dori Kuronikuru" (aka "Windup Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami) in the original Japanese and "The Collected Stories of Guy de Maupassant", translated by Richard Fusco. i really wish my French were better (not that my Japanese is that hot, either) and this is my first brush w/ de Maupassant so any pointers are welcome.

I've been quite indifferent to his work until I have been led to use it with my classes, some years ago. I particularily like the fantastic ones amongst his short stories, because he is IMO one of the few french writers to have succeeded in this genre (fantastic is like rock'n'roll to us french : most of us just don't get it).
More seriously and more generally, he is a great writer of loneliness. His characters can trust no one, nor can they trust themselves.

Do you want some precise titles ?

[hanajibu]

...he is a great writer of loneliness. His characters can trust no one, nor can they trust themselves.

that is beautifully stated. i am reading this collection straight through (i believe chronologically), as i know no better...and i was blown away with the obvious first read, "boule de suif". the petty, petty characters, the (at first, for me anyway) unlikable titular figure, who quickly becomes the decent, moral, patriotic, sympathetic character...and how her travelers turn on her at the denouement. it's still reverberating with me and i may well reread it after a few more stories. what you stated above, i got from "boule de suif" and "paul's mistress", the second story in this collection (which for some reason reminded me a bit of pen-ek ratanaruang's films (especially "invisible waves")...bit knackered at the moment and can't explain further but something very despairing in the titular character paul.

as for specific stories, this collection has about two dozen ("the necklace", "yvette", "le horla", "l'inutile beauté"), so i'll gladly take any you might know and recommend and read them first.

[Mail-Moth]

Some quick suggestions before I go to work : "Le Horla" of course ; "Sur l'eau", "Apparition", "La Nuit", "La Chevelure" are great fantastic short stories.

"La Petite roque", "La ficelle", "Denis", "Le Diable", "Le Baptême", "Coco", "Auprès d'un mort" - I'm stopping here. "La Parure" - "the Necklace" in your edition - is excellent too. I hope you will be able to find the proper english translations.

[Faust]

zboss: why read king you? crazy nightmares.

[kbi]

a bit mainstream since there's a movie coming out but I just read "mao's last dancer" for the second time and it's just such a beautiful book to experience asian culture. so honest, pure and emotional.. beautiful read, also from a historical point of view.