Xander ,'Dirty Girls'
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Crap! The system ate my post. Darn, it was a good one.
Anyway, to paraphrase: HATED the ending of the Dark Tower series. Thought inserting multiple Stephen Kings into the narrative was just awful. I prefer to think that I don't remember having read that far.
Still haven't finished "The Historian," alas. I do look forward to getting back to the action because it's set in Budapest.
John Scalzi narrates a conversation he and a friend have about a bottle of good scotch Scalzi has provided:
Deven: This approximates what Romulan ale ought to be,”
...
Deven: Mind you, it’s not blue, like Romulan Ale is supposed to be.
Scalzi: We could fix that if you’d like.
Deven: No. We couldn’t.
Scalzi: Sure we could. We’ve got blue food coloring.
Deven: Don’t make me stab you.
As part of my 2010 24-in-a-year reading resolution on Facebook, I’d like every other book to be one I should have read but haven’t. Does anyone have a preferred translation of
Don Quixote
or
War and Peace
to recommend?
For the record, the rest of the list is as follows:
The Awakening
Beloved
Catch-22
Le Comte de Monte-Cristo
The Education of Henry Adams
The Handmaid’s Tale
Macbeth
My Antonia
La Princesse de Clèves
Wide Sargasso Sea
Although I’m considering replacing Catch-22 with either One Hundred Years of Solitude or Love in the Time of Cholera. Thoughts?
I loved One Hundred Years of Solitude but didn't care for love in the Time of Cholera at all. Catch-22 is also worth reading.
That's an excellent list, megan. Although I have to say I've never head of La Princesse de Clèves.
Although I’m considering replacing Catch-22 with either One Hundred Years of Solitude or Love in the Time of Cholera. Thoughts?
One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of my favorite novels and one of my most pleasurable reading experiences.
Although I have to say I've never head of La Princesse de Clèves.
It's pretty big in the history of the novel and everybody reads it in school in France. I've been meaning to read it for a long time, but it has been used to protest Sarkozy of late, so I figure now is the time.
Plus, it's about the court of Henri II, and my mother grew up in the shadow of his mistress's chateau (seen in the opening of Thunderball ).
The Education of Henry Adams
Yay!
A favorite quote:
One never expected from a Congressman more than good intentions and public spirit. Newspaper men as a rule had no great respect for the lower House; Senators had less; and Cabinet officers had none at all. Indeed, one day when Adams was pleading with a Cabinet officer for patience and tact in dealing with Representatives, the Secretary impatiently broke out:—“You can’t use tact with a Congressman! A Congressman is a hog! You must take a stick and hit him on the snout!” Adams knew far too little, compared with the Secretary, to contradict him, though he thought the phrase somewhat harsh even as applied to the average Congressman of 1869;—he saw little or nothing of later ones;—but he knew a shorter way of silencing criticism. He had but to ask:—“If a Congressman is a hog, what is a Senator?” This innocent question, put in a candid spirit, petrified any executive officer that ever sat a week in his office. Even Adams admitted that Senators passed belief.
I love both Catch-22 and Love in the Time of Cholera. I own One Hundred Years of Solitude so that I can read it one day.
Megan, definitely read Atwood's Penelopiad for fun when you get a chance. Given that you re-read the Odyssey relatively recently, I think you'll love it.