What BOOK are you reading right now?

Re notes in margins as a sign of the reader's erudition: Ditto here. What pathetic spectacles we must have been, Tartarin! Except, fortunately for me, no one ever noticed...

I recently tried to reread Main Street, which I loved when I was in high school. It bored me too much to finish it.

My hometown had a restrictive library policy: you had to be in high school to check out adult books. Since my mother was afraid such books (were talking about classics and NYTimes best sellers here not blue books) might "give (me) ideas," she refused to check out books on my behalf so I was stuck with young adult novels: Beanie Has a Secret Life, etc.

The first books I read when allowed into the adult room were Ben-Hur, and Forsyte Saga. Hated Forsyte. Reread it when local pbs broadcast the BBC new version and loved the book, although I did think it was flawed. For example, the character of George Forsyte, a cousin of the same generation as Soames and Jolyon,seems to exist solely to find info and relay it to the family.

PS: I highlight like mad!!!

I'm reading "Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare, it's brilliant!

When I was in high school the cool ones were carrying Hesse. Not sure they were reading Hesse, but they were carrying him.

Dux, Glad you're enjoying Caesar. Is it your first reading of the play?

Yes, it's the first time I read that play, however I've read 12 plays by Shakespeare so far, not counting Caesar

I love the way Shakespeare puts in the mouth of his characters his own philosophic issues. The way Brutus struggles between his love for Rome & his love for Caesar is expressed by Shakespeare in a brilliant way.

nextone,
Speaking of carrying, I remember when everyone carried that book by the insane French theatre theorist whose name begins with A but which I can not remember.

My brain-remnant thinks you may be referring to Fernando Arrabal, Plain??

And yes, when you're a certain young age and a wannabe innalexshule it is very important to be seen carrying the right book. During evenings at the coffee house, look bored now and then with your companions' conversation, pick up your book and leaf through it, settle on page, and then make little sounds of laughter and pleasure. If the book is in (say) cyrillic, so much the better...

To be seen in the right bookstore is important, too.

I absorbed Hesse like it was air and water during my salad days. As a lit major, I even got to take an entire course on Hesse! We thought that was too cool--all the other offerings were, of course, the traditional writers. I rather doubt they're offering Hesse at any American university nowadays!

What was your focus, D'art? Mine was 17th century poetry, though I really can't tell you why! (I "minored" in American Studies. It was a new department, very lively, and gradually seduced me away from total fealty to English Lit, resulting a double major (a little bit of this, a little bit of that!).

Quincunx -- Charles Palliser

I just dipped my toe into "Jonathan Edwards: A Life" by George Marsden. Not sure I'll wade in all the way--this ain't light reading, but I've always been interested in that period in U.S. history. Or rather, pre-history, since Edwards died before the Revolution. It was a fascinating period--the settlers in western New England (considered "the West" back then) had to worry about angry Indians and the French swooping down. The latter, of course, were Catholic, or representatives of the anti-Christ, as far as the Puritans were concerned.

Anyhow, Edwards can be viewed as the the father of our current evangalists, so I thought it might be worth knowing a bit about him. We shall see...

Is this the Edwards who wrote Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God?

Tart and Dart, and Gustav, lessee, gustav, I have shied away from Boyle, lo these many years, must've hated the first one. Read something by him recently that I really liked. Something early made me skip him, or, more correctly, something in me made me skip over his stories.
I know he is well thought of, and I will knuckle down one of these days and read more of his writing.

Plain, yes, I do mean to read Zadie.

I live in a strange hinterworld, that isn't completely closed out for intellectual spac, but it has few new bookstores. A cool place, but we just a month ago or so got a Borders.

I admit that for a while I have played by the whims of Booklegger's Used Book Emporium...as it has entertained me well. Run by apparent graduates of some english department, it is chock a block full of all the all sorts of books of note...and I haven't finished wiping out the store yet. Always good news, to have a store like that.

I do have my own interests, other than playing Used Book Store See What You Can Find, and now have Powell's and Amazon to reach out to.

Which reminds, me, Tartarin, hey look at my signature. I am a fraction of the way into Art of Travel...savoring every page. Maybe that will pass, as I get weary of wisdom, but it is really good.

Edwards, hmm, shivering.

The City on the Hill. An ominously misunderstood peace of Biblical wisdom...

Yes, Osso! Love your signature quote. I live by it!! Glad the book pleases -- the size, feel, print and illustrations were what got me, almost as much as the content!

Nextone: Yes, the very Edwards who wrote "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Alas, let the record note that I gave up on the book this afternoon. I've always had a problem with reading philosophy--not concrete enough for my tiny mind, I guess--and I found myself reading and re-reading the same sentences to try to make some sense of his ideology. It's a shame, because the book is well written, but there are too many gaps in the plot (to leave space for the spiritual content) to hold my interest.

I think my next book is going to be a novel! Probably "White Teeth". Tell me a story, Zadie!

Unless my spelling is totally skewed, I mean Antonin Artaud and the book everyone carried was the Artaud Anthology.

Was going to read Orlando by Virginia Woolf next but could not find it in the house this morning.

Finished my other books and picked up a history of the French Left and, for bathtub reading, Norman Kantor's (or is it Cantor?) book on the Black Plague. Kantor writes like a whirlwind.