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i tried to read'island' as a kid because i thought it's an adventure story like robinson crusoe. i took it from the library two or three times but never finished it. are there adventures in the second half?
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Aug 4, 2015 10:53
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I recommended it to one of my colleagues a few years ago, and she sounded devastated about the book afterwards, and never asked for a book rec. again. I haven't read it myself, but it sounded like a better-than-average weepie and she said she wanted something touching. Maybe I should've gone with something i'd actually read.
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Aug 12, 2015 15:26
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Baudolino opens with some 20 pages of mangled dog latin or something, so that might be it, too.
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Aug 19, 2015 07:16
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i'm sure i will try reading borges again, because i was a loving child the previous time around, but i remembered that the abstractness made the stories boring for me too. then again, i still have trouble reading any philosophy book without yawning at every sentence. like, it's cool that you're trying to reason out the reasoning itself, but where's the action, man? throw at least a romantic scene in there, two lovers kissing by the waterfall of absurdity, or a benny hill chase sequence between the logic and truth or something.
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Aug 21, 2015 15:33
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Genghis Khan and Marco Polo stare at their shoes and listen to the Decemberists for 200 pages - SparkNotes for Invisible Cities not gonna lie, this sounds cool. and there's nothing wrong with stoner fantasies being given some more thought and form in a beautiful prose. it's a valid way to think about 'invisible cities', i think.
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Aug 28, 2015 06:57
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I think this thread is good and should keep on trucking as it is. i mean, i like genre novels, comic books and children's books and I don't mind a stray discussion about the literary value of Christopher Priest or w/e as long as it doesn't swallow the other conversations.
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Aug 30, 2015 17:08
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Also, Nobel prize ceremony is getting closer, so I guess I'll read some of the perennial candidates I haven't got to yet. Basically, Amos Oz and Jon Fosse. Maybe I should read something else from Krasznahorkai apart from the weird 50 page story (el ultimo lobo) I read last year, but eh. I think I'll go for another Kadare instead (I have The Fall of the Stone City on the shelf). Along with Marias he's my favourite writer of the ones that get mentioned the most in connection with the prize.
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Aug 30, 2015 17:14
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V. Illych L. posted:for some reason I can't imagine Jon Fosse translating very well, at least his plays are heavily infused with that stacatto germanic sentence construction. this may just be the norwegian reading of his work as having a peculiarly national character rather than a more general contemporary character, though - problems of alienation of intimacy and existential ennui certainly aren't unique to modern-day norway, i suppose I remember reading a short one act play of his last year which was basically a couple sitting in a room and brooding (until one of inlaws came in and they brooded together), and I liked it. I don't think that English is that far apart language -wise, although some of the effect might get lost, obv.
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Aug 30, 2015 17:27
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V. Illych L. posted:there are lots of Good and Solid children's books I assume this means Brothers Lionheart? Lindgren was and is enormously popular in Latvia, too - we had our own films based on books and everything -, and I loved her a lot as a kid. Lionhearts was one of the saddest books I remember reading from the time, and it touches on a lot of adult themes, but I don't know how appealing it would be to me now. It's the same as genre books - they can deal with very important topics in a profound way, but I always feel that the rules and expectations of the form make it seem aimed at a cordoned audience. The works that transcend it entirely, only keeping the outward elements (future society or children protagonists) are probably the ones who would get shelved under Literature in bookshops (which is primarily a marketing term, anyway).
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Aug 30, 2015 17:36
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V. Illych L. posted:the trick of great children's literature is that it should be literature accessible to children but with actual substance - Lindgren legitimately does this, and has actual good reflections on the issues. the imagery and turns of phrase are all fairly straightforward, but it's no less present and no less powerful for that. jonatan's sacrifice is hardly explicable, but easily understood in the context of the novel. a complex, human situation is made approachable somehow. i don't know what more we want from our literature than that tbh I think that the main attraction and strength of Lindgren is her ability to make these explorations accessible to children. I don't remember getting bored or anything else but genuinely moved by the book when I was 8 or something - and that's an impressive achievement when writing about serious topics (death and dealing with it). In that sense it definitely is literature. I'm not sure if I would ever recommend to an adult friend however... although it might help them dealing with pain, especially if they aren't big readers. In a shop I would still shelf it under children's books, because that is the target audience, which is not (and shouldn't be) a reflection on the quality of writing in any way. I can't talk much about the books in a deeper way because I read them a very long time, however.
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Aug 31, 2015 21:52
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Swagger Dagger posted:I started reading Knausgard's My Struggle today, and it's living up to the hype so far. The language is very striking, even in translation. yah it's good. some critics made it sound as if it's hundreds of pages of him eating cereals but it's not that at all
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Sep 2, 2015 20:36
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writers get so crazy about prizes it's funny. here's a piece about Osamu Dazai writing a letter in which he begged to be awarded Akutagawa prize for young writers: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201509080065 on the other end there's Antonio Lobo Antunes who has now said he will get the Nobel prize in the next three years (http://www.rtp.pt/play/p1782/o-meu-tempo-e-hoje) it makes me wish Nobel gets awarded to Garison Keillor. "I like his stories. They're funny." (the Nobel Comittee guy)
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Sep 8, 2015 14:59
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I'm willing to bet  every year until the end of time that he won't get it. his work is very different from the kind of things that get awarded top literary prizes.
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Sep 8, 2015 15:11
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Really? He seems to hit that sweet spot of literary and commercial success that the Nobel eats up. Plus, the Nobel needs to do another non-white guy soon so they can defuse criticism and go back to awarding obscure Frenchmen for another two or three years. Murakami is like hundred times more successful commercially than he is in the literary circles though. Even Modiano and Mo Yan who were relatively unknown outside of their home countries had more international literary recognition.
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Sep 8, 2015 18:41
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CestMoi posted:The Nobel prize will go to David Vann, the voice of a generation. 
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Sep 8, 2015 19:27
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Tosk posted:I saw that Coetzee was recommended as a good introduction to literature in this thread for people who are migrating into the real world from the cozy bubble of genre fiction that has surrounded me for some time. I read Waiting for the Barbarians, deeply enjoyed it. I also saw Mel Mudkiper's post earlier in this thread about how literature should probably differ from other forms of reading in that it should be a transformative experience and I tend to agree. With Marquez I would actually start with short stories or maybe No-one Writes to the Colonel. 100 years might work but it's more experimental, if I recall correctly. Actually Gabi can help you track a good path through different difficulty levels of Literature, beginning with the very straightforward (but still very good) Love in the Time of Cholera and ending with Autumn of the Patriarch which is, well, it certainly is something. It's definitely worth reading a few stories of Borges but don't get hung up if you don't gel with him, a lot of people bounce right off. Galeano is a strange one. I haven't read him that much (mostly flash fiction), but Open Veins or the football books should work great if you have interest in the history/politics of Latin America or, well, football. Of the other Latin American authors I agree with Mel Mudkiper's recs, but you can also check out Maqroll novellas of Mutis and Sabato's 'El túnel'. Also, Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao should be good as a light lit-fic of the autobiographical vein.
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Sep 10, 2015 07:25
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I remember reading about it in a history book a long time ago - i think it was a persian kid and he said a word that meant 'bread' in aramaic, so it was taken as a sign that that was the first language and should be exalted I am probably mixing up yhe nations tho Also, if the idea of a metaphysical detective appeals to you, read Pamuk's Black Book. It's rad!
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Sep 10, 2015 20:43
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Herodotus it is then.
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Sep 10, 2015 22:11
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OregonDonor posted:I finished reading Gravity's Rainbow last week and I'm still pretty floored by it. It is so much more bleak than I was led to believe from all of the hilarious parts. I read it over the summer and after the first 100 pages or so I felt pretty settled into the groove, although the last 100 pages or so were hard to make sense of until I thought about them more afterwards. I also finished it last week! I found it helped to have one of those chapter summaries at hand, because the narrative just flows on and on until I forgot what the hell happened five pages ago. Some chapters were really great, while the others were too abstract for me to get any footing. I don't think I'll be re-reading it any time soon, but I still appreciate my time with it. As far as Slothrop goes, I think in the end it was quite explicitly mentioned that he represents humankind in Pynchon's eyes with his/our almost erotic obsession with Death and destruction. So his dissolution makes perfect sense, because he stops functioning as a person or a character, instead becoming a part of the greater Whole of the humanity. Also, it makes sense that the closer to 00000/Death he gets, the less real he becomes - also in the eyes of pursuers, which in turn fuels his dissolution until he stops existing like the bomb - obviously before the sound of his disappearance reaches everybody else. That's my take at least 
Burning Rain fucked around with this message at 11:11 on Sep 11, 2015 |
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Sep 11, 2015 11:08
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Mel Mudkiper posted:It's superficial as hell but this is why I have been dragging my feet on reading Austen. Jane Austen has become this weird literal industry recently and it's hard for me to separate the text from the obnoxious culture it has spawned. she's fun, read Emma until the last 20 pages or so and imagine your own ending instead of the author's
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Sep 21, 2015 18:23
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anybody can call the betting office and ask to place a bet on whomever, so it's not a given he was nominated. then again, there have been 200 ppl nominated this year, so i wouldn't be too surprised if CestMoi's bid got in. the bookies were gamed a couple of years ago, because apparently the betting activity is so low that one 20 euro bet done from sweden made the odds (for Alexievitch, I think) drop heavily. anyway, over the last month i read a few of the authors that are often mentioned in the nobel discussion but I hadn't read before (Oz, ben Jelloun, Magris, Aira, Fosse, Krasznahorkai) and my prize would go to Amos Oz. the only reason he hasn't received it yet is probably because he already has all the prizes. but I have a feeling that this year it should be a non-westerner, so he has a good chance, I think. then again, I remember reading that the new head of the committee has said something about women not being represented enough, so eh
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Oct 7, 2015 21:11
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ulvir posted:I'm rooting for Kjell Askildsen and Knausgård, but I'm biased because "we" haven't won one since the 1920s Knausgård is the popular name but as far as Norwegian writers go people seem to talk about Dag Solstad as the biggest candidate. altho it seems solstad has relatively few but very vocal fans. haven't read him or askildsen tho by the way, you might know: what is it with Fosse and 'yes' repeated at every sentence? is it supposed to be actual 'ja' or whatever it is in Danish or more like 'mhm' agreement sound? or is it just his tick and nobody actually talks like that?
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Oct 7, 2015 21:31
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CestMoi posted:I haven't read any of those authors except for Aira, and therefore he should win. Aira is v. good, too, i'll def read more of his stuff. i read the landscape painter one, but i already got a couple more.
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Oct 7, 2015 21:36
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J_RBG posted:Ngugi should win Ngugi wa Thiong'o posted:In an interview with Swedish news agency TT in 2013, when asked who should win the Nobel Prize, he said that he would like to give it to himself. but yeah, he's cool. 'Grain of Wheat' (w/ marxist edits) is powerful stuff.
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Oct 8, 2015 07:34
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also, Nobel prize comittee just posted this on FB: https://www.facebook.com/nobelprize/photos/a.164901829102.119895.81239734102/10153155952709103/?type=3&theater so... Alexievitch, Nawal el Saadawi, Maryse Conde and Joyce Carol Oates seem to be most popular women candidates at bookies. After Munro and Modiano I don't think they'd choose culturally quite close writers such as Conde or Oates. El Saadawi seems to tick too many boxes (liberal muslim, feminist in a sexist country, Arab writer), but maybe they do want to be seen as a prize with political message once again.
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Oct 8, 2015 07:44
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I wrote about Second-Hand Time earlier in the thread, but I think you can pick the book on whichever topic interests you more. She's a worthy winner, I guess, but for some reason I feel underwhelmed with the choice. Didn't feel the book I read added much to the topic that hadn't been said a hundred times before. Hope it's not a return of the witness literature with the new head of the prize committee.
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Oct 8, 2015 12:34
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CestMoi posted:What is the point of having a big thread to be pretentious in if just anyone can come in and be like "i like that one poem where it's like "faster and faster in the widening thing the falcon cannot hear the falconsman"" That one's my favoirite by ezra shilling!
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Oct 29, 2015 07:58
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hmm... shall i read about dinosaur-riding wizard or this story about an aging lit professor coming to terms with his mortality?
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Nov 2, 2015 11:07
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also, if there are books about dinosaur-riding wizards coming to terms with aging (magicians is p. much that, with less dinosaurs), why are there no books about aging lit professors riding dinosaurs?
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Nov 2, 2015 11:11
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High Warlord Zog posted:The Bone Clocks has an aging lit professor coming to terms with his mortality and body hopping wizards who shoot physic lasers out of their chakra eyes and a sounds cool!
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Nov 2, 2015 12:33
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magic mumbogooblyjumbogook blowout climax.
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of the ones i've read recently: wonder boys, i guess. ot is this a trick question, because you can't ever come to terms with your mortality?
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Nov 2, 2015 16:02
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thanks for the rec, i should read it soon
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Nov 2, 2015 20:16
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books, eh?
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Nov 9, 2015 08:37
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it's even funnier because far from all of Roth's characters are professors
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Nov 15, 2015 12:37
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CestMoi posted:I like jerking off. Added to my cestmoi.txt file, thanks
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Nov 15, 2015 22:50
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CestMoi posted:I haven't had a job for 4 days and I have read half of the Sickness Unto Death, 2 Cosmicomics, played 20 hours of Binding of Isaac and watched the entirety of season 3 of House, M.D. binding of isaac owns i've been reading this year's latvian books for the last month or so and will continue for another month. an assignmnent i don't want to repeat again
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Nov 20, 2015 21:32
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maybe something by Chabon? He's a perennial goonfav and hasn't had any BotM as far as i can see. probably Yiddish Policeman's Union would be better than Kavalier & Clay due to the size.
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Nov 23, 2015 08:28
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or a novel about foot fetishists, i guess. should bring new crowds to TBB
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Nov 23, 2015 08:30
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but then you won't see the cute librarians
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Dec 4, 2015 20:12
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Zesty Mordant posted:I picked up vollmann's The Atlas today, the note on the inside mentions: Snow Country is a short novel, but it demands undivided attention to the smallest details throughout the book. I haven't read his microfiction, though. If you're interested in the genre,I can recommend Peter Handke, Lydia Davies or Eduardo Galeano. I'm sure some of their microfiction work had appeared online, so you can see if it appeals to you.
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Dec 12, 2015 07:25
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