whats ur fav book

Longtime favs: "The Cotillion (or One Good Bull is Half the Herd)" by John Oliver Killens.
"If Beale Street Could Talk" by James Baldwin
Alltime fav: too difficult to name one

Msolga -- Though I scarcely remember it now, I was knocked over by The Golden Notebook when it first came out. Maybe because I was living in London and it seemed very close to home -- the politics, the sex, the introversion. I may have to read it again.

The Master and Margarita is a WONDERFUL book, I guess not that much known here?

Brothers Karamazov. I also loved The Idiot.

The books one loves change with mood and time, for sure. The best books are the ones we go back to over and over again and each time they seem utterly fresh. Who else also reads in streaks -- everything a writer wrote? I remember reading Every Single Simenon I Could Find. Years go.

I'd just like to put in a word for translators -- not all are first-rate but the ones who are... well, look at the books we can get now, almost as soon as they're published in their own country and often in lovely translations. Dagmaraka, make some recommendations please!

I haven't read anything Russian translated into English, prefer to read it in Russian or Slovak, which is very close to Russian anyway. But I must throw in a word for the translator of Umberto Eco - William Weaver, who works closely with Eco himself. THough I don't speak a word of Italian (well, maybe a few words) I think his work is superb. Comparing it to Eco I read in Slovak it was three times better. Wait, I have read Anna Karenina in English, and though it was decent, but it did not come close to the Slovak version (haven't read this one in Russian). I suppose sometimes language really matters (some people do learn German just to be able to read Goethe in original!).
But other times translation can even upgrade a book. I have read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings in Czech - uncomparably better than in original!!! It sucked me in and the language was so poetic and thought through, and everything worked like magic. I was disappointed when I read the original (and when I tried to read it in Slovak, I laughed loud in the bookstore, what a complete failure!!!), although I still love it despite the recent commercial hysteria around the movie and all. So yes, I do agree that translation is crucial. If people want to discuss a book and they haven't read the same translation, they may be discussing very different books. First I read the Crime and Punishment, I casted it away as unreadable junk, then my mom passed me a copy translated in 1940s by a very famous Slovak translator, I was blown away.

Yes, Dag, Weaver also translates my fav, Calvino. Weaver's an ace. Can you recommend Slovak authors to look out for? (Maybe not in translation yet, but... you never know...0

Hmmm. That's a tough one. There is plenty of Czechs that are famous by now (Skvorecky- Republic of Whores, Kundera - Unbearable Lightness of Being, Immortality, Joke, Laughable Loves...) but Slovaks are not so numerous. I would strongly recommend Milan Simecka's Letters From Prison (if for no other reason because I started the project and helped to translate the first few letters ;-)). He was my father's friend, spent long time in prison during Communism. THis book is comparable to Vaclav Havel's Letters to Olga and Adam Michnik's letters from prison. But his work is more 'universal', it really reads as if it was written to you and it is so deeply humanistic and optimistic, it blowes one's mind (mine for sure). Available on Amazon I think, should also be in major libraries.
But, two other suggestions: some works by Dominik Tatarka must have been translated - the Demon of Consent and others. Him I knew as well, very Dali-like personna in appearance, Hemingway-like personality. In his eighties he was still full of life, unfortunately died but a few months before the Revolution, so he never experienced the breakdown of Communism. Also spent years in prison.
Ivan Kadlecik is another worthy essayist-novelist.

But for the Czechs, those who love travel woudl surely treasure the books by Hanzelka-Zikmund duo, who travelled around the world in 1940s-1960s (then got kicked out of the party, were banned and harrassed by the regime) in their fabulous Tatra car. Their thick books with photos and stories are incredible, nobody was doing what they were at the time (or very very few, and certainly nobody on such scale) and when you compare the places they have been through with what they are today, it is astonishing. AND it is all available in English in all major libraries. Um, I could go on forever, so I may as well stop right here.

I've been enjoying the preceding, especially the discussion re Eastern European writers by dagmaraka and Tartarin. Thanks! I read some Bruno Schulz a while ago and liked that (in translation) and I'm looking forward to rereading Dostoevsy's "Notes from Underground" (ditto).

All-time favorite? Wow, that's hard. Maybe "White Noise" by Don DeLillo. Or "Oliver Twist"...

Very informative thread y'all,
I have a terrible memory which will get me into trouble in re: to people, remembering their damn names and what not. But when it comes to books, it's a gift to be able to read Sarte every two years like it's the first time.

Lately though I haven't had the time to read at all, until recently when I finally got around to reading "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb.
Am 1/4 of the way through. I bought this book a full two years ago after I read Lamb's "She's Come Undone". I enjoy his writing.

whats ur fav book
Hands down-- Tolkien's trilogy Lord of the rings. I've read and reread it many times. Each time even knowing the end I delight in how he spread for our consumption such an enormous feast to be enjoyed.

Just finished Kesey's "Sometimes A Great Notion" and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Have you read it, Flatted 5th? It's redolent of the Oregon Coast...

Yes D'art I read "Sometimes...." awhile back. Thought it was Kesey's best work. A definate aromatic Oregon book.

Ok, i'm a sap...

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.

My hubby and I got into an arguement over it last night. I have shut the book for about the 183rd time last night.

F5th: Sad that Kesey wasn't up to much--as a novelist--after "Sometimes...", which came out nearly 40 years before he died. I wonder if all the fun on the bus might have affected his creative flow...

Though I did see him a few times in Eugene back in the '70s--he was an interesting guy and a real gent. Maybe he'd said all he felt he needed to as a novelist.

oops, doppelgangered

I always thought Kesey was more about life as an occupation than writing D'art. He had himself a great family and life in Eugene after the bus ran out of pavement and that was all that mattered to him.

The writer Robert Stone apparently is going to write a memoir on Kesey.
They studied creative writing together at Stanford and knew each other for years.
This is from the Sunday Oregonian May 4, sorry, not able to post the link without paying a fee.
This is what Stone said : " He knocked himself out looking for ways to change his life into art, looking for some kind of philosopher's stone, if you will. I can only imagine how it must have worn him out."

I think you're right re Kesey as a writer, F5th. There was a really nice piece on the subject by Larry McMurtry in the NY Review of Books not so long ago. They were in the same writing program way back when (I guess Stone was, too).

Many years ago (25+) he was invited to be the guest speaker for a fund raiser for the Friends of the Eugene Public Library. I worked there at the time, so I attended. He talked about how important it is to assure that school kids appreciate reading. He said that if he ran the schools, he'd have the teacher stand with a baseball bat to make sure the kids read aloud "Moby Dick" one after another. I think people were a little shocked, but his point--the importance of literary--was clear!

Peace Breaks Out by John Knowles (the sequel to A Seperate Peace)

My favorite book is... okay, I know it's a children's book, but I haven't found one I like better, so here goes. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. It is so much better than the movie, and when I was finished with it, I cried (not because of a sad ending, but because... there was no more to read).

My favourite book at the moment is 'Sophie's World' by Jostein Gaarder.
It's about philosophy, how it has changed the way we view the world we live in, and starts from the ancient times (Greek philosophers etc) and moves on to our times. This book is great because it has managed to describe in simple terms and in not so many pages (considering the huge amount of information) the philosophical issues that evolved over thousands of years.

i love michael ende
Hi, i have also read 'the neverending story' and totally loved it. I have also read 'the night of wishes' and i am currently looking for 'mirror in the mirror' also by Michael Ende which is out of print everywhere. do you have any idea where i could find it?
Thanks
Maria

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