Reading any good books?

[katya]

I liked Anna Karenina a lot when I read it but I definitely prefer Dostoevsky too As for those K Brothers, I can't put them down. ... well, unless it's to 'moot.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally Posted by tolkienfan

I'm reading the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides. My family thinks I'm crazy but I'm actually enjoying it.

Have you ever read Herodotus' Histories? It's interesting to compare the two as historians.

Personally, I prefer Greek tragedy to histories (their comedy was too crude for my taste). Platonic dialogues are cool, a bit on the wild-eyed mystical idealist side for my taste, but less so than they used to be. Aristotle makes sense, but he's kind of boring. Homer is cool, though the battle scenes of the Iliad get pretty repetitive. The Presocratics were a bunch of madmen with good points, and provide cool quotes (such as "All things are full of Gods").

So, there you have my views of classic Greek letters in a nutshell.

[Valandil]

Originally Posted by RÃ*an

Oh, I like that one a lot! Lucy is truly a snarky rhymes-with-witch! And a really good surprise at the end. The movie that came out a while back with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet was a good adaptation, too.
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I understand from my wife that there's a new BBC production of S&S that hasn't been shown in America yet. It's soon to get its first showing on "Masterpiece Theater". She likes the BBC's, because the are much longer and supposed to be much truer to the books (I haven't watched any of them yet - but I'm the one of us who reads the books! ).

I'm now a little (somewhat less than 100 pages) into Mansfield Park.

[Rosie Gamgee]

Tell us what you think of Mansfield, Val. I read that one a while back.

Currently reading The Hungry Ocean by Linda Greenlaw. It was recommended to me by a friend, and it is quite good--written by the world's only female swordfishing captain.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Read Therese Desqueyroux and two short stories about the same character by Francois Mauriac; grim yet magnificent study of a person thrust into a life which does not fit her. I will be starting the final work on her, The End of the Night.

[Valandil]

Originally Posted by Rosie Gamgee

Tell us what you think of Mansfield, Val. I read that one a while back.
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So far, so good! I'm about 90% through it. Jane Austen leaves all the resolution for the last few pages though.

I like it. All the British naval stuff is interesting - and familiar, because it's in accord with reading I did many years ago of Horatio Hornblower.

[GrayMouser]

Originally Posted by Valandil

So far, so good! I'm about 90% through it. Jane Austen leaves all the resolution for the last few pages though.

I like it. All the British naval stuff is interesting - and familiar, because it's in accord with reading I did many years ago of Horatio Hornblower.

The one Austen novel I absolutely hate.

[Rían]

Why is that, GMouser?

Val - the BBC thing started last Sunday, with a rendition of Northanger Abbey that was pretty good. Not great, but pretty good. But I missed the first third or half or so. I think they're supposed to do every Austen novel!

[GrayMouser]

"Hate" is a little too strong, but I certainly didn't like it, and I'm not alone (including her own mother)

Mansfield Park has the dubious distinction of being disliked by more of Jane Austen's fans than any of her other novels, even to the point of spawning "Fanny Wars" in internet discussion forums.
....
The major problem for most of the novel's detractors is the lead character, Fanny Price. She is shy, timid, lacking in self-confidence, physically weak, and seemingly—to some, annoyingly—always right. Austen's own mother called her "insipid", and many have used the word "priggish".

http://www.austen.com/mans/
Mansfield Park, By Jane Austen

Spoilers!!!!















As well, the snobbish reaction of Fanny to her family- "Oh dear, people who actually work for a living". Given Austen's love of and pride in her brothers who were in the Royal Navy- shown earlier in the novel- this was grating.

But it's mostly Fanny as compared to, say, Lizzie Bennet or Elinor Dashwood.

As well, the snobbish reaction

[Rían]

Yes, Fanny is definitely irritating, and it's kind of a reverse Pride and Prejudice where Fanny resembles Lady Catherine's daughter in a way, and whats-her-name is like Lizzy. I wonder if that's why she wrote it - as kind of a challenge? It took me a while to like the book, because I wasn't fond of its heroine. But as a whole, it's an interesting book, and a good character study, although its certainly not my favorite.

I don't remember Fanny being snobbish, though - what I remember her not liking was their lack of consideration for others.

[sun-star]

I must defend one of my favourite Austen characters

Originally Posted by GrayMouser

As well, the snobbish reaction of Fanny to her family- "Oh dear, people who actually work for a living". Given Austen's love of and pride in her brothers who were in the Royal Navy- shown earlier in the novel- this was grating.

I don't think that's it at all. Fanny doesn't object to her family working for a living; she struggles with the fact that although she wants to love them, she can't help seeing how flawed they are (no less so than the aristocrats at Mansfield - which is important). Austen says it best (from Chapter 39):

William was gone: and the home he had left her in was, Fanny could not conceal it from herself, in almost every respect the very reverse of what she could have wished. It was the abode of noise, disorder, and impropriety. Nobody was in their right place, nothing was done as it ought to be. She could not respect her parents as she had hoped. On her father, her confidence had not been sanguine, but he was more negligent of his family, his habits were worse, and his manners coarser, than she had been prepared for. He did not want abilities but he had no curiosity, and no information beyond his profession; he read only the newspaper and the navy-list; he talked only of the dockyard, the harbour, Spithead, and the Motherbank; he swore and he drank, he was dirty and gross. She had never been able to recall anything approaching to tenderness in his former treatment of herself. There had remained only a general impression of roughness and loudness; and now he scarcely ever noticed her, but to make her the object of a coarse joke...

She might scruple to make use of the words, but she must and did feel that her mother was a partial, ill-judging parent, a dawdle, a slattern, who neither taught nor restrained her children, whose house was the scene of mismanagement and discomfort from beginning to end, and who had no talent, no conversation, no affection towards herself; no curiosity to know her better, no desire of her friendship, and no inclination for her company that could lessen her sense of such feelings.

All of this is a moral judgement, not one of class, and if you want to call it snobbery, it clearly belongs to Austen rather than Fanny.


As for Fanny herself, it will never cease to puzzle me how readers can hate a character for being shy and having strong principles.

[GrayMouser]

Oh well, maybe I'll have to go back and give Fanny a second chance.

Currently reading "Caesar: Life of a Colossus" by Adrian Goldsworthy.

His field is Roman military history, so he tends to focus on that- naturally, if you're dealing with one of the world's Great Captains- and a lot of politics (ditto). A good old-fashioned biography, heavy on the action, light on psychoanalysis - though a fair bit of sex, Caesar being quite the lady's man, among all his other accomplishments.

[cee2lee2]

Currently in the middle of a collection of classic science fiction short stories by Kuttner and Moore. It's titled The Two-Handed Engine.

[GrayMouser]

Originally Posted by cee2lee2

Currently in the middle of a collection of classic science fiction short stories by Kuttner and Moore. It's titled The Two-Handed Engine.

Checked out the Table of Contents. I haven't read them all, but there's some great stuff in there.

[Valandil]

Finished up Mansfield Park, and liked it. Didn't mind Fanny at all. If anything, maybe she's more realistic than either Emma or Elizabeth Bennet.

Currently about halfway through Northanger Abbey. Didn't watch the BBC on it, because I wanted to read it first.

[cee2lee2]

Originally Posted by GrayMouser

Checked out the Table of Contents. I haven't read them all, but there's some great stuff in there.

I'm still working my way through the stories. There's not been a one that hasn't been worth reading.

[GrayMouser]

Originally Posted by cee2lee2

I'm still working my way through the stories. There's not been a one that hasn't been worth reading.

In 1999 Locus sf magazine had a poll in which "Vintage Season" was voted Best Novella of All Time (voting restricted to prior to 1990)

[Arien the Maia]

Ok I read these books last summer but...since I havent' been on much since then, I'm listing them now.

The Red Tent....AWESOME!
The Caananite Trilogy by Marek Halter...again...AWESOME!
Veil of Roses....very good
Nefertiti.....very good

I think that's all for now....I'm currantly reading The Constant Princess by Phillpa Gregory

[Grey_Wolf]

At the moment Im reading Manda Scott's Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle, Churchill's The World Crisis I and John Grogan's Marley & Me.

[cee2lee2]

Agatha Christie's A Secret Adversary, which I read in installments online. It's the first of the Tommy and Tuppence mysteries.

There's a site called DailyLit where you can sign up to read books in the public domain for free. (Or pay a fee to read others.) An installment is sent to your inbox every day (or more frequently if you hit the "send next installment" link at the end of email.