What book are you currently reading?

[Lankan]

Reading n rereading the texts I gotta do for 'A's:

Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
The Guide by R.K. Narayan
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Collection of War Poems by Wilfred Owen

 

[Laetca]

I once read the Great Gatsby, it was translated though. Don't remember much of it, it's been a few years :s

Let my eyes wander in the uni library, read first three chapters of Porn by Irvine Welsh, then traded it in for the first akt of Lady Windermere's fan by Oscar Wilde.
I'll be returning often xD

 

[shtove]

Two Kafka's at once, as soon as you finish them both you'll be as puzzled as you never were in your life!

Was Dorian Gray Good? I have a copy, never got to reading it. [/b]

Kafka's The Trial is one of the great novels, with a great final line. It's probably better than Orwell in showing the insanity of the systems that dominate us. And if you've ever had to deal with unaccountable authority, it cuts close to your bones - endless obscure delays and decisions, and no good deed going unpunished.



Dorian Gray is clever, although a bit like an expanded Victorian ghost story: all the witty exchanges, without emotional punch. I think it's been redone recently - not sure - but I guess a modern writer would give it a lot more menace. The best thing about Wilde was his full name.

 

[Laetca]

I do hope no one ever had to sit outside a courtroom for ages like that.

Never read the trial, might be taking a kafka course next year, I'll have to decide on that later. Only ever read a few pages in ùmy german classes in Secondary school. I did read his Verwandlung, though I don't know how it's been translated in English. And that book was just plain sad

 

[melon]

CROSSFIRE by Andy McNab

 

[Laetca]

Reading Restaurant at the end of the universe, by Douglas Adams

 

[KZNSharksFan]

catch 22

 

[Laetca]

Reading The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
I read through the first twenty pages or so of the introduction or 'sketch' as he calls it, then I decided 'to hell with it', and started reading the actual story. Which is better than the sketch, luckily. Not entirely my cup of tea, but what must be done, must be done. I prefer reading a novel over reading poetry anyway, with a few minor exceptions (Poe really knew his ****, but I am not going to learn the Raven by heart. Not sure if the profesor was joking about that :s). A novel has a beginning, and an ending, and stuff in between. Even if it's really weird in it's use of time, space, action, it usually makes some sense.
Poetry hardly ever does :s
And the poems that make sense, are either too long, too religious, or too tree-hugging (I'm thinking of Wordsworth with this last one).

I'm not saying poetry is a lesser form of literature, or that poets like Wordsworth didn't write great stuff, just that I don't find it very appealing overal.

 

[bayonnais]

reading "da vinci code"...it's a good book, it's different to the film..

 

[shtove]

And the poems that make sense, are either too long, too religious, or too tree-hugging (I'm thinking of Wordsworth with this last one).

I'm not saying poetry is a lesser form of literature, or that poets like Wordsworth didn't write great stuff, just that I don't find it very appealing overal.
[/b]

Try Tintern Abbey: full of nature, but it's more about people, memory and love - and has great rhythm.

The best reads are the difficult ones, but you need lots of time to get through them. Don Quixote?

 

[Laetca]

(I heard my English professor pronounce that with an actual 'x' sound in it )

Don Quijote is on my to read list, I'd like to try the Spanish version some day, I already know the first words. 'En un lugar de la Mancha,' and then something about the name he won't mention or something.

I was supposed to read Tintern Abbey, or at least a bit of it (it's in my Anthology of English Literature, 2870 pages, why must I take all the weight with me to Uni each Wednesday?) I also have one for American Literature, 2930 pages. Some day I'll start reading them for fun.

Anyway, I never read Tintern Abbey since I chose for sleep instead. I'll probably read it some time this week, as I'm trying to study my romanticism once already.

One thing I must say, Wordsworth sister was daft!! And I don't mean when she became senile, no long before!

 

[SaintsFan_Webby]

I've been to Tintern Abbey. Not really relevant, just enables you to visualise the poem. Well you'd have thought to anyway. My advice is to steer clear, seeing a run-down pile of rocks does nothing for the Romanitc spirit.

 

[Laetca]

That's what I don't get about the Wordsworth walks. I mean, there are people actually organizing walking trips throughout the lake district, calling them Wordsworth walks.

I wouldn't mind seeing some English nature, but not just because it would enable me to envision what inspired romantic writers.

 

[semental]

jaja, jaj, i study for lawyer, so the only books that i read is referenced to that

 

[SaintsFan_Webby]

jaja, jaj, i study for lawyer, so the only books that i read is referenced to that [/b]

I'll be sure to have a glance around next time I'm in the library, see if I can't dig that out. Sounds like a thriller that isn't at all irrelevant to this thread.

 

[O'Rothlain]

I'm reading "Western Civilization, Volume B: 1300 - 1815, Sixth Edition" by Jackson J. Spielvogel.
I'm reading "Western Civilization, Volume B: 1300 - 1815, Sixth Edition" by Jackson J. Spielvogel.
I'm reading "Western Civilization, Volume B: 1300 - 1815, Sixth Edition" by Jackson J. Spielvogel.
I'm reading "Western Civilization, Volume B: 1300 - 1815, Sixth Edition" by Jackson J. Spielvogel.
I'm reading "Western Civilization, Volume B: 1300 - 1815, Sixth Edition" by Jackson J. Spielvogel.
I'm reading "Western Civilization, Volume B: 1300 - 1815, Sixth Edition" by Jackson J. Spielvogel.
I'm reading "Western Civilization, Volume B: 1300 - 1815, Sixth Edition" by Jackson J. Spielvogel.
I'm reading "Western Civilization, Volume B: 1300 - 1815, Sixth Edition" by Jackson J. Spielvogel.
I'm reading "Western Civilization, Volume B: 1300 - 1815, Sixth Edition" by Jackson J. Spielvogel.
I'm reading "Western Civilization, Volume B: 1300 - 1815, Sixth Edition" by Jackson J. Spielvogel.
I'm reading "Western Civilization, Volume B: 1300 - 1815, Sixth Edition" by Jackson J. Spielvogel.
I'm reading "Western Civilization, Volume B: 1300 - 1815, Sixth Edition" by Jackson J. Spielvogel.
I'm reading "Western Civilization, Volume B: 1300 - 1815, Sixth Edition" by Jackson J. Spielvogel.
I'm reading "Western Civilization, Volume B: 1300 - 1815, Sixth Edition" by Jackson J. Spielvogel.
I'm reading "Western Civilization, Volume B: 1300 - 1815, Sixth Edition" by Jackson J. Spielvogel.
I'm reading "Western Civilization, Volume B: 1300 - 1815, Sixth Edition" by Jackson J. Spielvogel.

...and in now way is that posting as repetitive as the amount of reading I'm doing in this book...feckin' finals.

 

[Laetca]

Plus rep if you can tell me which book I'm reading, and who wrote it:

Had to edit image, as it had the name of the author at the top

 

[O'Rothlain]

Plus rep if you can tell me which book I'm reading, and who wrote it:

Had to edit image, as it had the name of the author at the top

[/b]

I'd only imagine that you are reading "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorn.

 

[Laetca]

Started reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman, after seeing the film.
Second book I read by him, I also read American Gods.

 

[shtove]

Plus rep if you can tell me which book I'm reading, and who wrote it:

Had to edit image, as it had the name of the author at the top

[/b]

Madame Bovary, by Flaubert. Definitely. Or Anna Karenina, by Tolstoy. Or has that girl just squeezed the ass of a dead man in a vertical coffin, and then become embarrassed because her friends found her having a lively conversation with a couple of dolls she made out of toilet roll and sticky tape? Interesting.