What are you reading? - Page 8 - Writers Forum

Pawn · 02-26-2004, 10:28 AM

Sounds distressing.

Just finished Anna Karenin, and am now reading Dostoyevski's 'Crime and Punishment' and Sartre's 'Being and Nothingness'.

strangedaze · 02-26-2004, 04:02 PM

I've read some bits and pieces of "Being and Nothingness" for an essay I wrote on Sarte. Very heavy reading. Come to think of it, so is Dostoevsky!

Yeah, I'm sort of reading a plethora of books right now - haha I can't seem to commit. I'm 2/3's into Kafka's Amerika, twenty pages away from finishing Joyce's Portrait, a third into Graham Swift's Waterland, halfway into a book of letters between Lytton Strachey and Virginia Woolf, and I started a book called Letters to a Young Poet by the german poet Rilke. Argh! Can't I just stick to one thing? At any rate, I'm going to try to finish them all in the next week or so, since my school is setting me free for reading week tomorrow. After all of this, it's on to Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood and Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray.

Lily · 02-26-2004, 04:23 PM

I'm working through Catch-22 at the moment, and not particularly enjoying it, but I think that has something to do with the fact that I have a ridiculous amount to worry about.

This is a list of books I plan to read soon:
1. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
2. The Wind in the Willows
3. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Pawn · 02-29-2004, 09:09 AM

Wind in the Willows? Isn't that a tad grown up for you? Still, I suppose we all read Harry Potter..

strangedaze - Yeh i'm in that kinda mood atm. I read Sartre's short lecture "Existentialism and Humanism," but it was too short to really give his arguments much persausiveness if you looked at them enough, so I went in search of something more hardcore. I'd move Dorian Gray up your list if i was you, you should enjoy that.

Zachary Glass · 03-01-2004, 05:25 AM

I read about 20 pages of Harry and then flipped him the bird. Absolute crap-heap garbage...sorry Harry fans! I wouldn't wipe my poopie-burdened shoes with that crap.

Pawn · 03-01-2004, 08:20 AM

I read the first three books out of boredom in two days, and read the subsequent ones on the day I bought them purely by virtue of having read their predecessors. Contary to this, I am absolutely of the opinion that they are shocking, appalingly terrible books. I tend to do that too much; buy books in a series merely because I trudged through the first ones, whether they were good or not. That's how I managed to read Robert Jordan's appalingly written 'Wheel of Time' series. Ten books or so of terribly written, unoriginal boredom.

strangedaze · 03-01-2004, 09:07 AM

Yeah, I really want to get cracking on Wilde, but now it seems that Kurt Vonnegut and Slaughter House Five has cracked my list. *shakes fist* damn you world, damn you all!

-SD

Lily · 03-01-2004, 01:46 PM

Pawn, I'm well aware that Wind in the Willows is a book that's supposed to be geared towards younger readers. I've been told, however, that there are different ways of interpreting the novel, and I'd like to determine my own take on that, which is why I've put it on my reading list, even though I probably won't get to it for a very long time since I have several books on the list before that, most of them nonfiction.

I finished Brideshead Revisited- I don't know if it was just me and the mood that I was in when I read it, but I don't find any of the characters very likeable. Also, it seemed very much like a soap opera to me, though of course those are the least important factors. I think the problem is that I was trying to juggle reading that with the multiple papers, essays, and such I have to hand in. I also tried reading Laura Kipnis's Against Love, and got about 48 pages through. It's a waste of paper.

I also read Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. I can't make up my mind about it- there are some things I certainly have to grok over a little bit more. I did, however, enjoy Breakfast at Tiffany's. For the most part.

Now I need something long and engaging to read on a 19-hour flight overseas. I'm deciding between Anna Karenina, War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov. Dr. Zhivago, Moment in Peking, My Antonia, Pygmalion, or any of Oscar Wilde's plays.

Maybe Dr. Seuss will do, since I'm apparently so infantile.

Zachary Glass · 03-01-2004, 04:25 PM

ooh ooh...how about ONE FLEW OVER THE COOKOOS NEST or THE ELECTRIC KOOLAID ACID TEST? Those were great books! For some reason seeing Kurt's name there reminded me of these books...bizarre trains, these trains of thought!

Pawn · 03-02-2004, 08:43 AM

Lily, every book on your to read list is either a good read from person experience of acclaimed to be such. My only suggestion is to read War and Peace after Anna Karenin. That said, if it's a 19 hour flight, War and Peace might be just the thing..

I was naturally joking in my comment about Watership Down, which is incidentally a very good book (I can't remember in what way I took it; I recall something about rabbits). If I was you, I'd bring Dr. Seuss along to lighten the trip

Lily · 03-02-2004, 10:19 AM

Hmm . . . I was under the impression that the comment was geared towards Wind in the Willows, but that's OK. I'm a little oversensitive about being called immature . . . call it having a Napoleon Complex or something. At 17, I'm only 5 ft tall, so I tend to get treated as a kid sister wherever I go, which I can't stand. So that explains my touchiness

I'm actually looking into Anne Tyler's mystery series at the moment. There are WAY too many books to read for my comfort.

As for the Dr. Seuss thing, I probably shouldn't read any of those above mentioned classics- I think I'll save those for school. The thought of being surrounded by relatives and old people all jabbering away in a language I can't speak well but understand perfectly is depressing enough as is.

Pawn · 03-02-2004, 01:12 PM

Haha. It was geared to Wind in the Willows, but it appears me memory is failing me. Perhaps I'm becoming prematurely senile (I'm also 17). What can I say... they both begin with 'W'; how do you expect me to deal with that level of complexity?

Blackdragonhide · 03-09-2004, 02:48 PM

Im currently reading: "Fox Evil ~ Minette Walters"

it is very good, fast paced and has kept me guessing so far.
(It's a crime novel)

I have read all the HP books and I have to DISAGREE!!! j/l. i totally agree. She (JK Rowling-in-it*) is disapointing.

* i came up with that name here on the fly, impressive huh?

matty · 03-09-2004, 07:05 PM

I would have to as far as style goes I love "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson. That book blew my mind, I got it on a whim and could not put it down. It has so many levels it is insane. The book is part story, part textbook, and part politcal paper. Other than that I would have to say 1984 by "Orwell" and "The Jungle". There are many other great books out there that I relate to such as "The Fountainhead", "Crime and Punshiment", and "All Quiet on the Western Front". I like books and authors that challenge you to think as much as entertain you with a story.

Matty

daniela · 03-09-2004, 09:02 PM

I am reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson and Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard. I too picked up Cryptonomicon on a whim and I am pleased to say that I am enjoying every minute. As for Battlefield Earth, I was curious after seeing that movie John Travolta did. While the film version is horrible, I love the book.

Next on my list is another book by Neal Stephenson entitled Quicksilver, Night Watch by Terry Pratchett, and Jennifer Government by Max Berry (not necessarily in that order).

--DM--