tsarstepan
 
  1  
Reply Mon 13 May, 2024 02:44 pm
0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  1  
Reply Mon 13 May, 2024 05:05 pm
I've been on a Georgian bent of late and read Tristram Shandy and Humphry Clinker, along with Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe novels.

I read all 29 Sharpe novels in less time than it took me to read half of one of the others.
izzythepush
 
  1  
Reply Mon 13 May, 2024 05:09 pm
@izzythepush,
I've also read a book on Mary Shelley and Frankenstein and a biography of the comedian Grimaldi who met Byron amongst others.
0 Replies
 
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Mon 13 May, 2024 09:09 pm
I would love to be able to read Don Quixote in the original language. The English translations made me hate it.

0 Replies
 
hightor
 
  1  
Reply Tue 14 May, 2024 05:00 am
I'm currently reading some of the more obscure works of Robert Louis Stevenson. Project Gutenberg is great for this as I can download books for free on an e-reader. I wish I'd known about this when I was in my Anthony Trollope phase – I bought volume after volume and now have a collection which I really don't need.
izzythepush
 
  1  
Reply Tue 14 May, 2024 05:12 am
@hightor,
As an English teacher I proper overdosed on Treasure Island and Jeckyl and Hyde.

I should read some of the others, but I've only read those two, (more times than I can remember.)
hightor
 
  1  
Reply Tue 14 May, 2024 06:21 am
@izzythepush,
I suppose there are occupational hazards in every vocation!

I'm really enjoying RLS – sumptuous prose and slowly-paced, complex yarns which unravel in surprising ways.
izzythepush
 
  2  
Reply Tue 14 May, 2024 06:52 am
@hightor,
Of Mice and Men, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet are three works I've completely overdosed on.

At first I enjoyed teaching 12th Night because I hadn't read it before, but that's another I'm too familiar with now.

I try to see the less popular Shakespeare plays now so I have a chance of seeing something new.

I never want to see Romeo and Juliet again, I don't care how "innovative and new" the production may be, I'm sick of it.

The fact that it's about stroppy teenagers doesn't help either.

Mercutio is the only character worth bothering with.
hightor
 
  1  
Reply Tue 14 May, 2024 07:12 am
@izzythepush,
(I actually played "George" in my first – and last – dramatic performance.)

izzythepush
 
  1  
Reply Tue 14 May, 2024 07:32 am
@hightor,
For a second I thought I'd misremembered Romeo and Juliet.

Was George the nurse, or was it Lennie?

(That ws a real problem for the kids btw who kept spelling it Lenny.)
hightor
 
  1  
Reply Tue 14 May, 2024 08:29 am
@izzythepush,
George was the nurse. It was actually quite a successful amateur production for a backwoods Maine company. I was fortunate because the guy who played Lennie was really riveting and got all the attention.
izzythepush
 
  1  
Reply Tue 14 May, 2024 10:01 am
@hightor,
John Malkovich is probably the best screen portayal I've seen.
0 Replies
 
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Tue 14 May, 2024 02:25 pm
This thread mentioned many of my favorites. And a few I don't like, such as Catcher in the Rye. Some other favorites of mine are Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, Catch 22.

I tried to read Ulysses a number of times before actually getting it done. I loved the characterizations and the beautiful writing but let some obscure passages derail me. I had bought a ragged old copy for the reading, but in the end loved the book enough to buy a brand new copy. I can keep that copy pristine because now I can revisit it online any time I choose and it's easier to navigate online.
roger
 
  1  
Reply Tue 14 May, 2024 03:36 pm
@edgarblythe,
I'm not much on the classics, but I did read Catch 22. It was interesting and thought provoking.
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Tue 14 May, 2024 04:24 pm
@roger,
Thanks for replying, roger. Many of my all-time favorite reads are not even classics, such as Max Brand westerns and Philip Wylie's stuff.
izzythepush
 
  2  
Reply Tue 14 May, 2024 06:42 pm
@edgarblythe,
Which is why I can read 29 Sharpe novels in less time than it takes to read half of Tristram Shandy.
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Tue 14 May, 2024 07:41 pm
@izzythepush,
When I worked on an oil rig for a couple of weeks I found a stack of about 15 Louis Lamour westerns where I bunked. By the time I finished the last one I had Sackett fatigue but it was a marvelous experience. Such things make me want a world where books are not ranked as classics but just all books available to any interested readers.
0 Replies
 
roger
 
  2  
Reply Tue 14 May, 2024 07:55 pm
@edgarblythe,
Oh! I used to read Philip Wylie's stuff whenever I ran across it.
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Tue 14 May, 2024 08:45 pm
@roger,
Some of Wylie's stuff is too outdated, but a number of his works are still good.
roger
 
  1  
Reply Tue 14 May, 2024 10:28 pm
@edgarblythe,
Hey, I sometimes read Ed McBain (if I'm spelling it right). Very good cop stories from back before computers and cell phones.
 

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