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You guys read some heavy stuff.

Dandolin wrote:The Woman in White is classic, and once you get in the groove, wonderful....

I'm reading Daniel Defoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year" which is, as you might imagine, fairly pertinent. Another that takes an adjustment to the prose style, but Defoe, though perhaps not as noted as a satirist (compared to Swift or Rabelais) has an eye and an ear for the absurdities and the patterns in the darkness. Bracing.

Yes I found the first few chapters a bit weak (though by no means bad) and the obviousness of the serial nature of the original is kinda funny. But I very quickly got into it and now halfway through I'm practically glued to it!

I have been meaning to read plague year for a while for obvious reasons. ha. Must get round to it soon.

goroth wrote:You guys read some heavy stuff.

\m/ \m/
i'm saving a re-read of The Road for election week

Have you seen the movie version? I can't decide if it'll be worth a try or if it'll be super underwhelming...

not *super* under-whelming, but just can't match the sustained darkness and otherworldliness of the book, a lot of which for me was in McCarthy's unique language. Still a very dark, intense experience, though i remember being struck by the presence of a more hopeful quality toward the end. 't'was, what, over ten years ago though, so...yeah. I tend to hate nearly all movie adaptations of books, especially if i loved the book. i didn't hate this one, but it def didn't replace the book for me. hence my urge to re-read, when watching would be quicker, lol....

but with that book, i didn't want any sequels or prequels or anything connected...i just wanted more of that darkness and that voice
sadly i haven't really found that, even in other McCarthy

coldbrightsunlight wrote:

Dandolin wrote:Daniel Defoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year" which is, as you might imagine, fairly pertinent.

I have been meaning to read plague year for a while for obvious reasons. ha.

Boccaccio's The Decameron and The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco both
might be worth putting on the list during these plague years.

oh yes, both

Both noted! Lots more to add to the physical pile on my shelves, the digital pile on my e-reader, and the virtual pile in a browser bookmarks folder

I just read Woman In White last year and liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Another, more recent classic that I got sucked into was True Grit. That one's a much easier book to get in to.

another distinctive american voice

Not read that. Will check it out!

Something I read recently that really grabbed me and from the same era is Stoner by John Williams. Really wonderful quiet but powerful book.

coldbrightsunlight wrote: Something I read recently that really grabbed me and from the same era is Stoner by John Williams. Really wonderful quiet but powerful book.

I read that not too long ago. Felt like a slow-build, but it takes you along.

Have you read Reuben, Reuben by Peter De Vries? It isn't about academia
exactly, but a section of the book takes a satirical look at a poet making the
rounds. Which for whatever reason Stoner made me think of.

Finished Defoe - taking a break with something lighter, the latest (I think) Tim Powers - Forced Perspectives. Maybe not his best, but I'm a sucker for his blend of actual events/real world settings and (usually) supernatural alternative underpinnings This will be a quick jaunt, lengthened only by my silly insistence on looking up every little tidbit he drops

I'm getting nowhere on my reading right now.

Bought a book, Wild Signs and Star Paths which is theoretically a good book about I guess... being more aware of natural signs and navigating and stuff with the aid of these. I've been having a pretty outdoorsy summer with the fam, so it seemed like a good idea. But the author is such a pretentious git, each chapter is literally 2 or 3 pages long, there is no relationship between the chapters, and after a while it's just too much. Like fuck, half the stuff he's banging on about is only useful if you sit in the same field for 7 hours a day, 365 days a year for 7 years. But I keep reading it because I feel obliged to finish it and in the vain hope I'll learn something useful.

Also trying to read Too Like the Lightning. It's good, but stylistically it is annoying as shit. It's set in a sort of future enlightment throwback thing, so it reads like shitty Melville with spaceships. It's nowhere near as bad as stupid bloody Cloud Atlas, but it's still proving to be a barrier.
I kinda like the book and keep thinking if I get in a good session I'll get into the style and be able to enjoy it. But of course I'm not enjoying reading it so I don't put in the time so I never get past the style, and it just sits on my bedside table. And I can't read any other stuff because I want to get through that one first.

It's bookblocking me.

The worst of it is I've got Before They are Hanged waiting (which is super fun turn your brain off fantasy) and Walkway: A novel, which seems interesting (my bro bought it for me for my bday).

Ungh.

you need a book wingman to get you out of this deadend