Am half way through reading Catch 22 by Joseph Heller at the moment. Always have a mental reading list of books I want to read next and reading this thread is only making that list longer!
'Catch 22' is a brilliant book. I have a similar list of books... there are too many things to read and not enough time.
What do you think will you read next?
Well I've been meaning to read Orwell's 1984 for a while now. Though, in a way it'll probably depend on what mood I'm in when I finish Catch-22, as I quite often launch straight into my next read on completing the last!
...meant to say that am enjoying reading it very much in that last post! I like the way Heller chose to write it, very funny but as am sure you know, not so hilarious a situation ...will get back to my book soon if can prise myself away from the screen that is.
I love Nineteen Eighty-Four; it's hard to think that he wrote such a masterpiece whilst dying from TB.
It's enviable the way that Heller puts so much wonderful comedy into a book about something completely unfunny.. it works to great effect.
I'm going to mention a book I'm not reading right now nor have I ever read it. I've only just discovered that one of my all-time favorite films is based on a famous novel which I'd never known about: Harry Mulisch's The Assault.
It's a wonderful (and awful) story about an incident in Holland during WWII and the outflow of that incident over thirty years, and it's important to the way we find people thinking now in the US -- in black and white, either/or. The Assault shows how, just when you think you've grasped the moral problem, a slight shift, an ambiguity shows you that life is more complicated than that.
I highly recommend the film (which not easy to get hold of in this country -- it's a Dutch film). But go to Amazon, type in "Mulisch The Assault," and see if you're not tempted to get the book. I am.
Well, I went to Portland for the holiday, looking forward to visiting, among other places, Powell's Books. Went there the day after the T'giving to find pickets out front--Powell's was having another of its recurrent labor quarrels. So, no trip to the shop for me. My brother and I got to the pub a bit earlier than we'd planned...
I did read Naipaul's "Half a Life" on the train. Not up to his best novels, but it was engaging. A reworking, perhaps, of his early days...
I have decided to turn my focus upon Theodore Roosevelt. Seems the man has had not only an interesting life but demonstrated varied interests from conservation to foreign policy.
Any suggestions as to Bio's or literature regarding this great American?
Thanks,
JM
Elizabeth Kuhns, The Habit: A History of the Clothing of Catholic Nuns New York, Doubleday. 2003
Quote:I did read Naipaul's "Half a Life" on the train.
d'A....I took this on a Thanksgiving beach trip but never found time to finish the book I was already reading, Vernon God Little.
Should I read the Naipaul? I have liked some of his others...
I just finished reading "Shall we tell the president" by Archer...
Even though I was reading the book the nth time, it was still difficult to put it down - one of the best books I have read in my opinion !!!
I read the last of Rodriguez over thanksgiving and have moved onto catching up on the reading I was supposed to do this semester. . . first on the list: Collected Works of Erasmus. . . ugh. . .
Gautam, thanks for the book rec.
How can you "ugh" at Erasmus? His Latin is beautiful!
Kara wrote:Quote:I did read Naipaul's "Half a Life" on the train.
d'A....I took this on a Thanksgiving beach trip but never found time to finish the book I was already reading, Vernon God Little.
Should I read the Naipaul? I have liked some of his others...
Kara, re Naipaul: "A House for Mr. Biswas" is considered his finest novel. Well worth reading! I also liked his "Guerillas" and several of his other earlier novels.
Terry Pratchett: "Hogfather."
have just started to read again : "major thompson lives in france and major thompson and i " (originally published as two books) by pierre daninos, published 1959 by the reprint society. both a very hilarious and at the same time educational account of major thompson trying to figure out the french and mr. pochet trying to understand the english. some of the chapter titles give an idea of their experiences in "foreign lands" : "french as she is spoke" ... "diabolical inventions of the french" and "the land of hide and seek" ... "citizen-pets" . even though i've read it a number of times already, it's like taking a trip up a country road that i have travelled before. i know what's ahead of me but i also find something that'll give me a good new chuckle at the foibles of people. hbg ... do these "oldies" qualify for this thread ?
Well, I think re-reads are fine to talk about, Hamburger.
I started a book on my short trip this week, quite a challenge, not for the content, but because it is a vintage paperback, and falls apart as I turn each page, thus getting thinner as I read. It is still in the car, so I am stuck about a quarter of the way through -
The Moonstone, a mystery by Wilkie Collins, written in 1868.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/6422/rev0453.html
ossobucco : thanks for your comments ! to show that i'm not just reading "oldies" : just finished reading " dr. johnson's london - coffee-houses and climbing boys, medicine, toothpaste and gin, poverty and press-gangs, freakshows and female education " by liza piccard, isbn 0-312-27665-6. it's a quick read and pretty interesting; some nice illustrations also. a neat addition is a "pricelist" of various goods being sold; here are a few examples : 1d - enough gin to get drunk on; a day's allowance of coal, candles and firewood for a tradesman's family, 2d - enough gin to get dead drunk on; 2s 6d - a tooth extraction; a whole pig (!) ... ; L 32 - cost of a negro boy; L 73 10s - L 105 - full set of false teeth with gold springs; L 3,780 - cost of lace on queen's state bed ... (think of all the gin one could buy instead ! ). hbg.
