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Wild Creature

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little insect
I am reading a book about Nazis.

As you cam imagine it is consistently uplifting/unbearably cheerful. Back to Cormac McCarthy.

which book?

The Kindly Ones.

It won two big awards in France, then got an awful review in the NY Times. I was curious.

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What I spend a lot of my free time doing.

Reviving this thread because it's a bit late for a "Summer Reading List" and I love to see what people on this forum are reading, as I've found many fascinating books that way. One of these is the book I just finished, Blood and Soap by Linh Dinh, which is one of the best books I've read in quite some time. As much as I love dead authors and still revere the classics, it was nice to read a book by someone who is still writing, much less living for a change. I just started reading Swann's Way by Marcel Proust, and it looks really good. After that I'm going to read a collection of Chekhov's short stories, then The Tempest by Shakespeare, then The Upanishads, which I've meant to read for a while. In between all of these I have to read some stuff for school, including To Kill a Mockingbird, one of my favorite books ever. I try to read it every two years, but I skipped last year because I was too into new stuff, so I'm looking forward to reading that one again, though the others look less promising.

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My music:
[www.facebook.com]
[jamisonmurphy.bandcamp.com]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2010 04:31PM by Jamison.

By the way-- funny story about Linh Dinh.

I saw him lecture and he was both hysterical and irreverent. He was gave a long talk about all sorts of things, mostly literary inspiration and the writing process, and then opened up for Q&A. Keeping in mind that this is taking place in the rather serious environment of a University library, after a question was asked of him, Linh Dinh produced an open can of beer from the desk behind him, essentially out of thin air, and began to drink it before answering the question. We were all stunned. But it was beautiful.

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shlack
By the way-- funny story about Linh Dinh.

I saw him lecture and he was both hysterical and irreverent. He was gave a long talk about all sorts of things, mostly literary inspiration and the writing process, and then opened up for Q&A. Keeping in mind that this is taking place in the rather serious environment of a University library, after a question was asked of him, Linh Dinh produced an open can of beer from the desk behind him, essentially out of thin air, and began to drink it before answering the question. We were all stunned. But it was beautiful.

That's awesome! Linh Dinh sounds like a fascinating guy, and after reading Blood and Soap I know he's a great author. I have never read an author who treats language the way he does. In some of Dinh's characters, language can determine their entire motives and personalities. "Prisoner with a Dictionary" and the story about the fake English teacher (I can't remember what it was called) who basically invents his own language were both in this vein. But shlack, it must have been amazing to see Linh Dinh in person!

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My music:
[www.facebook.com]
[jamisonmurphy.bandcamp.com]

Yeah, it was really cool! I asked him about Kafka influence with "Prisoner With a Dictionary" because I wrote a paper drawing a line from "Before the Line" to that. He thought about it for a second, and then said, "Well, I was going more with 'A Hunger-Artist'." And I (mentally) spent the next fifteen minutes banging my head on the table.

i'm re-reading stephen king's dark tower series. i don't know why. i think it's ka.

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don't clap between movements

Reading Hamlet for school and The Kite Runner at home (although technically it could come up in my exam, so that could also be seen as school reading). The last thing I read just for fun was The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao which was amazingly awesome.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2010 05:31PM by Darkshines.

The collected short stories of Ernest Hemingway. I have nothing but good things to say so far.

Meritorious Virtuous and Original Vows of Medicine Buddha of Pure Crystal Radiance Sutra

The Brothers Karamazov. I always feel nervous and awkward reading in translation. I sort of have to take it on faith that the translator possesses an adequate understanding of the nuances of the language, & the perspicacity & acumen to render in English the unique voice & syntax of the author. There are notoriously poor translators, yes, but if a given translator is merely inadequate rather than hopelessly incompetent, how would I know? It's frustrating.

Anyway, I'll probably read '60 Stories' by Donald Barthelme once I'm done the Brothers K.

Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain

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life is too short to refrain

[www.last.fm]
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Achillius -- which translation of Bros. K are you reading? As far as Russian lit goes, Pevear & Volokhonsky are the gold standard these days. I know they won an award for their version of Bros. K, as well.

"Your God is Too White". It is "meh, not bad". First (and smallest) of the large stack of books I got at the campus $3 book grab. So much to read!

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shlack
Pevear & Volokhonsky are the gold standard these days. I know they won an award for their version of Bros. K, as well.

Definitely. I'm reading their translation of Dead Souls by Gogol right now, and it's fantastic. I read the Garnett version of the Brothers Karamazov (and many other Russian novels), and you could still see that it was a brilliant work of art but it seemed watered down, almost like it was supposed to be made easier to read. I wish I had read the Pevear & Volokhonsky versions of a lot of Russian literature, and I will in the future, but there are some things I wish they would translate, like Turgenev's Fathers and Sons. It's hardly a classic like something Tolstoy or Dostoevsky would write but the translation seemed really outdated and I imagine a Pevear & Volokhonsky version would fix the problem.

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My music:
[www.facebook.com]
[jamisonmurphy.bandcamp.com]

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shlack
Achillius -- which translation of Bros. K are you reading? As far as Russian lit goes, Pevear & Volokhonsky are the gold standard these days. I know they won an award for their version of Bros. K, as well.

I'm reading the David McDuff translation. It's the Penguin Classics edition. I am almost totally unfamiliar with the world of Russian literature, so I made my purchase based on the publisher and, to a somewhat greater extent, the price.

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Jamison
. I read the Garnett version of the Brothers Karamazov (and many other Russian novels), and you could still see that it was a brilliant work of art but it seemed watered down, almost like it was supposed to be made easier to read.

There's a great New Yorker piece on her, which also discusses Pevear and Volokhonsky: "The Translation Wars".

From the article;

The typescripts of Nabokov’s lectures, which he delivered while teaching undergraduates at Wellesley and Cornell, are full of anti-Garnett vitriol; his margins are a congeries of pencilled exclamations and crabby demurrals on where she had “messed up.” For example, where a passage in the Garnett of “Anna” reads, “Holding his head bent down before him,” Nabokov triumphantly notes, “Mark that Mrs. Garnett has decapitated the man.” When Nabokov was working on a study of Gogol, he complained, “I have lost a week already translating passages I need in ‘The Inspector General’ as I can do nothing with Constance Garnett’s dry shit.”



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2010 05:15AM by Achillius.

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mike5998
i'm re-reading stephen king's dark tower series. i don't know why. i think it's ka.

funny, i'll finish the 7th book today or tomorrow. probably today.

9/9 to 11/18.

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don't clap between movements

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mike5998

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mike5998
i'm re-reading stephen king's dark tower series. i don't know why. i think it's ka.

funny, i'll finish the 7th book today or tomorrow. probably today.

9/9 to 11/18.

Question: Do you find yourself even mildly interested in Wind Through the Keyhole?

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The first thing that distinguishes a writer is that he is most alive when alone. - Martin Amis



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2010 09:44PM by Wild Creature.

...do you...listen to god?

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i just sit here in my cave and absorb your facts and figures.

Yeah Michael. Between that story and the quiz you took the other day on FB, should I be concerned for you my friend? :-)

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A fly can't bird but a bird can fly.

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blackliner
...do you...listen to god?

it's fiction . . .

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The first thing that distinguishes a writer is that he is most alive when alone. - Martin Amis

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Mtn. Girl
Yeah Michael. Between that story and the quiz you took the other day on FB, should I be concerned for you my friend? :-)

it's fiction, silly!

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The first thing that distinguishes a writer is that he is most alive when alone. - Martin Amis

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Wild Creature

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Mtn. Girl
Yeah Michael. Between that story and the quiz you took the other day on FB, should I be concerned for you my friend? :-)

it's fiction, silly!

But the quiz??!! Ha ha ha ha

Ok, well it was well written fiction. I did enjoy it regardless of my concern.

Never hurts to ask right?!

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A fly can't bird but a bird can fly.

Besides I'm an INFJ! Its mah job!!!

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A fly can't bird but a bird can fly.

Oh!

And I'm in the middle of reading the Transmetropolitan comic series. Just finished Vol 4. Thanx to fever's fine recommendation.

(so as not to derail the thread)

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A fly can't bird but a bird can fly.