What Are You Reading? (2013 - )

Walt Whitman

Great Expectations

Great cure for insomnia. Iā€™ve been at it for over two months. By bedside book usually doesnā€™t last more than two weeks.

[quote=ā€œnavillusā€]Great Expectations

Great cure for insomnia. Iā€™ve been at it for over two months. By bedside book usually doesnā€™t last more than two weeks.[/quote]

Really? Itā€™s always been one of my favourite books. Itā€™s an archetypical pageturner: it was serialised in a magazine when it was first published.

Iā€™ve been obsessed with Dickens since I was a kid.

Iā€™ve been reading ā€˜The Magic Mountainā€™ for 13 years, though. Iā€™m sure itā€™s something Iā€™m supposed to read, I just donā€™t understand it. :cactus:

[quote=ā€œErmintrudeā€]

Iā€™ve been reading ā€˜The Magic Mountainā€™ for 13 years, though. Iā€™m sure itā€™s something Iā€™m supposed to read, I just donā€™t understand it. :cactus:[/quote]

I felt the same way with Lord of the Rings. (ā€œOMG, you havenā€™t read Lord of the Rings!!ā€) Just couldnā€™t get through it. Read half of the first book and itā€™s been on the shelf now for about 10 years. Couldnā€™t even watch the movies.

Iā€™ll finish Great Expectations eventually, though. I plug through three or four pages a night. To be fair, some of it is exciting. I think part of my problem was I guessed too much of the plot correctly, so there were no surprises. I donā€™t usually do that. Iā€™ve got about 40 pages left so there might be something. And there are times when the language just becomes a little too much for my tired brain and Iā€™d rather something written this century.

No shame in not finishing a book, especially a shit childrenā€™s book. Donā€™t waste your life on yawns.

Iā€™m reading ā€˜Literature and Evilā€™ by Bataille, ā€˜Oblivionā€™ by Wallace and rereading ā€˜The Master and Margaritaā€™ by Bulgakov. Reading a local travel book which is as interesting as watching paint dry but I thought might give me ideas for day trips.

Are there any interesting modern Chinese novels I could be trying to read?

Soā€¦ your expectationsā€¦ were not so great? :sunglasses:

Oddly the last book I finished was Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones - a pacific island school teacher in Papua New Guinea has one textbook - Great Expectations. Currently muddling through Germs, Guns and Steel, which I wonā€™t summarize here as the first place I heard of it was Forumosa.

On audiobook: just finished 1Q84. Kind of strange, but if considering it as SF/Fantasy, not strange enough for me.
Now, reading Spin by Wilson. The world is put in a ā€œshellā€, and made to move 1000s of times slower inside the ā€œshellā€. Seems good so far, but too soon to tell.

On paper: Just finished Embassytown by Mieville, also. It started too slow-it seemed to be all about embassy parties and similar. But, interesting in its treatment of linguistics. Iā€™ve heard some old school Delaney used linguistics in SF, but havenā€™t read him yet.
Currently, rereading Dune. I rarely reread anything, so this is a big compliment. Summarizing is difficult. Itā€™s a far future messiah story. Religion, where the object of the faith is actually a [hard to summarize].

I was wondering as many of you guys like to watch movies -and are quite good cinema critics- if you could recommend some books on this issue. I am particularly interested in Asian cinema. I recently found a couple about filming locations in Asia, Hong Kong cinema history and some specific analysis of determined books, new Wave stuff, etc. plus the Golden Horse guides -which are not much help, but as reference, are Okish.

I have been looking for instance at the Directory of World Cinema series, for instance the Directory of World Cinema: Japan and others -they have South Korea, China, etc. Has anyone here read them or can recommend something along those lines?

This one looks good

Man Downā€“ā€˜The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace,ā€™ by Jeff Hobbs

Finished the Game of Thrones series last month, except I didnā€™t because it hasnā€™t been finished writing. 5000 pages and no ending. Seriously not happy. Should have researched that one before starting.

Now reading ā€˜Thinking, Fast and Slowā€™ by Daniel Kahneman. It is about the process of making choices. Pretty interesting so far.

Great book on Nelson Rockefeller. Disliked (incorrectly from my perspective) by many on the right, after reading the book, I was surprised by how right wing he was despite the facade of Rockefeller Republicanism. Was steadfastly and consistently anti-Communist (e.g., disagreed with Eisenhower admin in selling surplus wheat to the Russians), was tough on drugs as Governor with the 1973 ā€œRockefeller drug laws,ā€ but was liberal on education (expanded enrollment almost ten fold as governor into the state uni system) and social issues. Book touches on his strong relationship with FDR when he worked as an administrator in the FDR administration for Latin America (like Conrad Black, sees FDR as saving capitalism), his friendships that crossed the aisle in the 40s (e.g., FDRā€™s left wing Vice President Henry Wallace was a frequent dinner party guest), and his anti-ideological and managerial-style of republicanism that was ill-suited to the Vice Presidency under Ford (where he battled up and comers such as Rumsfeld and Cheney). Very interesting read.

I keep meaning to thank Ginger Man for introducing me to Confederacy of Dunces. One of the best novels I ever read. Maybe the best. I was so sad when I got to the end. I mustā€™ve laughed nearly every page. I think Iā€™m going to reread soon. Itā€™s been criticized for not having much of a plot. I donā€™t think thatā€™s true at all. Thereā€™s clear structure, multiple strands, a buildup towards the end. Iā€™ve no idea why it got rejected so often.

Shame we never got to see a sequel. IJR goes to New York wouldā€™ve been a classic.

goodreads.com/author/quotes/ ā€¦ nedy_Toole

Thanks Ginger Man.

The Eichmann Trials, Hannah Arendt
Neverland, Joseph Oā€™Neill
The Jews of Early Modern Venice, some guy I forgot.
The Garlic Ballads, Mo Yan (CHinese lit isnā€™t much of a hoot, is it?)
The Cat with the Tell Tale Tattoo, Nathanial Scobie

I keep waiting to actually enjoy something translated from Chinese. I think my favourite has been a translation of Outlaws of the Marsh, just because the ethical code was so odd that I kept bursting into laughter. I enjoyed one version of Monkey as well, but I think that was more a retelling than a translation.

I remain unsure if itā€™s the translations or the literature itself thatā€™s not to my taste. Iā€™ve certainly enjoyed translations from many other languages.

Currently reading the Y: The Last Man comic book series. Fun but kind of disappointing considering all the hype around it that I remember from a decade back. Also halfway through Tim Wintonā€™s The Riders, which Iā€™m not getting into at all, unlike his other novels Dirt Music, Cloudstreet, and Breath, all of which I loved.

I dunno, I liked The Red Mansions, but even that has a lot of ā€˜the chick dies because everyone around her is a piece of shitā€™.

20th century stuff, I like some stuff, like Camel Xiangzi but most of the later stuff is just a culture trying to get its head around the cultural wipeout of China in the 20th century. Brutal and horrible.

[quote=ā€œErmintrudeā€]I dunno, I liked The Red Mansions, but even that has a lot of ā€˜the chick dies because everyone around her is a piece of shitā€™.

20th century stuff, I like some stuff, like Camel Xiangzi but most of the later stuff is just a culture trying to get its head around the cultural wipeout of China in the 20th century. Brutal and horrible.[/quote]
You donā€™t happen to remember which version of The Red Mansions you read, do you? I think itā€™s the Penguin one thatā€™s something like six or seven volumes of a thousand or so pages each - and Iā€™m not really willing to commit to something that huge. (OK, hereā€™s Volume 2 - so itā€™s five volumes of around 600 pages each I guess.)

And yeah, the Cultural Revolution recollections were very interesting the first few times I read them, but eventually it began to seem like thatā€™s all I was reading. I guess when novels typically go back and recount trauma, and the entire countryā€™s intelligentsia suffered pretty much the same trauma, things are going to get repetitive.

[quote=ā€œlostinasiaā€][quote=ā€œErmintrudeā€]I dunno, I liked The Red Mansions, but even that has a lot of ā€˜the chick dies because everyone around her is a piece of shitā€™.

20th century stuff, I like some stuff, like Camel Xiangzi but most of the later stuff is just a culture trying to get its head around the cultural wipeout of China in the 20th century. Brutal and horrible.[/quote]
You donā€™t happen to remember which version of The Red Mansions you read, do you? I think itā€™s the Penguin one thatā€™s something like six or seven volumes of a thousand or so pages each - and Iā€™m not really willing to commit to something that huge. (OK, hereā€™s Volume 2 - so itā€™s five volumes of around 600 pages each I guess.)

And yeah, the Cultural Revolution recollections were very interesting the first few times I read them, but eventually it began to seem like thatā€™s all I was reading. I guess when novels typically go back and recount trauma, and the entire countryā€™s intelligentsia suffered pretty much the same trauma, things are going to get repetitive.[/quote]

Yeah, the Penguin translation. I had a short one volume version that I bought from Shuanglian Caves about 15 years ago (!) but itā€™s kind of hard to follow because there are a million names and you donā€™t get how it all fits together that well. Itā€™s five volumes and they werenā€™t 1000 pages. Much shorter. I actually whizzed through them because I was pretty into the story. Iā€™d say just grab volume one of the Penguin and just throw it out the window if it doesnā€™t grab you. Volumes 1 and 4 are the sexy bits, if you canā€™t be arsed reading it all.

Yeah. Itā€™s a whole lot of ā€˜everything was shit and thereā€™s a woman who hangs herselfā€™. I read Gao Xingjianā€™s stuff, the ā€˜Cold literatureā€™ idea was intriguing. Not many chuckles either, but good.

Just read Pandoraā€™s Star by Peter F. Hamilton. I fancied some new sci-fi. I liked most of the ideas in the book, but it felt a bit padded out. A skipped a few bits when the boring characters were doing stuff.

Iā€™ve read Outlaws of the Marsh a few years ago as well. Some of the parts were comical - as mentioned - the honour code stuff and all that. I know itā€™s one of the oldest classic novels, but it felt almost like a computer game. The goodies get together and just manage to beat someone, who then sees the errors of their way, and joins the goodies. This main theme repeats about a dozen or so times until the heroes have collected all 108 stars (or something like that). Each battle just that bit tougher than the last. I did really enjoy the Anthony C. Yu translation of Journey to the West. That had me in laughter. Some of these scenes were as genuinely funny as they were intended to be way back when it was originally written. Itā€™s a long translation - probably about 2000 or more pages split over 4 huge books, but still very worth it.

200 Hundred Years Together - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Historical account of relationship between Russians & Jews, dealing with one of the last taboos of the communist revolution: that Jews were as much perpetrators of the repression as its victims. Unpublished in English (due to the perceived anti-semitic text).

Unofficial translation of many chapters can be found here:
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/200_Years_Together