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I just finished The Enormous Room by E.E. Cummings. It was marvelous and I'd really like to read some more of his prose, if anyone has any suggestions?
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Nov 22, 2006 12:52
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VoxPVoxD posted:I just finished The Fall by Albert Camus. I absolutely loved it. It was spare but dense, the way a really thoughtful and thought-provoking book ought to be. It's also incredibly quotable; I swear I found at least one proverb-caliber line on every other page. This one's my favorite: Marvelous, I bought the Penguin edition of The Fall yesterday that I've had my eye on for a while. It looks a little like this:  If I like it half as much as I liked The Plague, I'll be happy. I'm sure you'll love Catch-22, and I hope to join you in reading Lolita soon.
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Dec 10, 2006 18:10
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Yiggy posted:The other night I finished Jeffrey Sachs's The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities of our time. I thought it painted a pretty harrowing picture and made a compelling case of the need (and benefit to be gained) from increased effort to eliminate poverty by 2025. Maybe if I were an economist I would be on better ground to analyze his arguments, but from where I stand it seems pretty solid. I really wish the US was doing its part. I've really been meaning to read something other than fiction recently, especially since I'll have to impress a university on an application form pretty soon, and this seems like it might be a good idea. Thanks for the suggestion.
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Dec 15, 2006 15:14
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I finished Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus last night. It's a collection of 6 of his short stories: I loved The Silent Men, The Guest and The Artist at Work. The Growing Stone and The Adulterous Woman were enjoyable. I wasn't quite sure what to make of The Renegade, but I suppose that's half the point, the narrator being a complete madman. I think now I just need to read The Rebel and I've read most of Camus' stuff. That's going to be a heavy read, I fear.
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Dec 30, 2006 20:49
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DonkeyHotay posted:The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor. Before reading this I knew almost nothing about the Spanish Civil War. The book isn't a military history per se, the battles get little more than passing mentions. Instead, Beevor weaves an absolutely heartbreaking history of how semi-feudal Spain tore itself apart. I have read Hemingway, and about Hemingway, and this book makes abundantly clear where his antimilitary disillusionment came from. The war was fought between competing ideologies, with both sides looking to dominate, instead of serve the Spanish people. Between the fascist authoritarianism, Stalinist Communist paranoia, and contemptibly cynical realpolitik by the western powers by the mix, I found myself getting emotionally involved in how horribly hosed Spain really was at the time. Fascinating. I'd really recommend Homage to Catalonia. As you might already know, it's Orwell's account of his involvement with the POUM militia, which was essentially a non-Stalinist Marxist group, and how it became demonised by the Stalinists as a fifth column. Really well-written, as honest as I think it's possible to be in such an ideologically-charged atmosphere, and an obvious seed of Orwell's distrust of any form of totalitarianism.
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Mar 29, 2007 21:21
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I just finished Dharma Bums (admittedly for the second time), and it was marvelous once again. The fact that it was the Penguin Classics Deluxe edition made it extra special. I keep stroking it.
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Jul 6, 2007 22:25
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Finished A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway last night. It was my first experience of Hemingway, and I'm not sure how I feel about it at the moment. It wasn't really grabbing me until about halfway through, when I became a little bit more interested in what was going on. I'd heard it called one of the best anti-war novels, but it didn't really come across as terribly anti-war. I mean, obviously when his company has to retreat and he almost gets shot for desertion prompts him to get out of the army, but I felt like there was too much inane dialogue between him and his wife for most of the rest of the novel to distract me from any great anti-war point he was making. I might just be used to Steinbeck's more poetic descriptions, but there were only a couple of times in the course of reading the novel that I was struck by a nicely constructed sentence. I think I've heard that Hemingway's plain style is part of his appeal, but in AFTA at least, it didn't really grab my attention. Can anyone suggest what to read next of his, that might appeal to me more? Is A Farewell to Arms considered as one of his better works? I've got Green Hills of Africa and Across the RIver and Into the Trees, which I picked up cheaply ages ago.
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Jul 17, 2007 00:54
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kelmaon posted:Oh, and I've also read The Outsider and The Plague, but Camus is proving very difficult for me to get into. Let me know how you go with The Fall, I want to know if I should read it or give The Plague a second chance. Sounds pretty good though. For what it's worth, I really loved The Plague, but apart from a few moments, The Fall didn't really grab me. I do need to re-read both of them, however, as it's been a couple of years.
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Aug 3, 2007 20:37
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fancy pantz posted:
Exile and the Kingdom is really great, particularly that one about the failed strike. Must read that one again too!
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Aug 4, 2007 18:06
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camus is amazing. have you read his short stories? i'd recommend them very much so: Exile and the Kingdom
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joedevola posted:If you liked that you should check out A Clergyman's Daughter. There's a fantastic chapter that's just one long, rolling transcript of the inane and insane chatter of the London homeless who can't sleep because of the cold. Its claustrophobic and horrible, but a great read. Yeah, I read in Crick's biography of Orwell that A Clergyman's Daughter was his only novel that he thought didn't have any redeeming features, but I still think it's well worth reading. You can see how his experiences in Down & Out informed that book.
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Sep 16, 2007 23:44
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I finished On the Beach about a week ago. I've read reviews that have said it has stereotypical characters, it's mawkish and cliched, but I don't much care, as it was a splendid read. The last chapter is one of the saddest things I've ever read  And I just finished John Peel's autobiography today. So many laugh-out-loud moments. RIP John
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Jul 20, 2008 16:22
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