literature galor

[NoHarshChemicals]

I just started my second semester as a senior in high school and I have quite the load on my back in reguards to reading. I am currently reading Tale of Two Cities as independent reading for my AP English Lit class. Next week I will begin Hamlet for the same class but for in-class reading. I am also taking a contemporary literature class in which I need to read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I was reading Martain Chronicles for my own pleasure but that'll have to wait and unfortunately I probobly won't ever get to finish it. Anyways, what are you guys reading?

[taylor]

huckleberry finn for english, i'm a junior. also 'the fifties' by david halberstam for an independant american history course, 'the portable mba in economics' for an economic competition team i'm on, and deer park by mailer, for pleasure. just finished moby dick for my english course, on top of the great gatsby. next up on my personal list is executioner's song by mailer.

[taylor]

haha. moby d-i-c-k. no respect for classic literature.

[Stewart]

Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea- The Illuminatus! Trilogy. It's super fun and pretty crazy, and makes references to the Fugs!

[ladylamentingonalawnchair]

Originally posted by Stewart
Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea- The Illuminatus! Trilogy. It's super fun and pretty crazy, and makes references to the Fugs!

I like that book, it's a mindfuck.

I just finished "Popular Music from Vittula" by Mikael Niemi, which I really enjoyed, about kids in far northern Sweden starting a band. I'm also reading "Tom Jones" by Fielding before I go to sleep. I probably won't finish it for months. Next on my list is "The Salt Roads" by Nalo Hopkinson.

[William]

I'm reading stuff I got for Christmas now, all short stories - "Collected Stories Of Richard Yates", "The Complete Stories Of Franz Kafka", and "Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Stories, Plays, Poems and Essays".

Stuff I've recently finished reading, "The Stranger" - Albert Camus, "On The Road" - Jack Kerouac, & "Mexico City Blues" - Jack Kerouac.

[MrG]

Heh, how did you like your foray into dreary, droopy Camus, William?

Mike

[taylor]

you should read camus' the plague. also, desolation angel was my favorite one by kerouac. everyone should read 'hot water music' by bukowski. talk about a mindfuck.

[William]

I enjoyed "The Stranger" - the style of writing was a bit blank but it was fitting I suppose.

As far as Kerouac goes I loved "On The Road", and I think I even liked his poem book "Mexico City Blues" a bit more.

[chicken]

william, looks like the holidays treated you to some fine reading. excellent score.


about four different texts to decide what to adopt for my 'introduction to psychology' class. two texts for my 'psychology of religion class'. "The Varieties of Religious Experience" by william james.

and i'm reading lemony snicket for fun.

edit: oh yeah, i'm also reading "The Tenderness In The Wood" by Marlon Fick, which is in press right now. since he's cool and is my friend, he sported me a manuscript of it. great poetry, great craftwork...enough for me to feel so very sophomoric:(

[Edited on 1-6-2005 by chicken]

[CoolyMcCoolvin]

I just read "The Mayor of Casterbridge" by thomas hardy and i'm reading bob dylan's chronicles and ernesto che guevara's "the motorcycle diaries"

[NoHarshChemicals]

albert camus' The Stranger is the next book i'm reading for my contemporary literature class

[Salman]

Non-fiction: Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate by Naomi Klien

Fiction: The Song of Bernadette by Franz Werfel

[Edited on 1-7-2005 by Salman]

[birdman]

i really loved thomas hardy's return of the native. i read it last year in enlgish. i think it was one of my favorite books i read in high school. There was something about the scenery that i could associate with. and the characters were done very well.

[CoolyMcCoolvin]

Originally posted by NoHarshChemicals
I was reading Martain Chronicles for my own pleasure but that'll have to wait and unfortunately I probobly won't ever get to finish it.

That's a good book. I went through a bradbury phase in 8th grade and read almost everything he has. My personal favorite books of his, though, were Golden Apples of the Sun and the illustrated man

[MrG]

Originally posted by CoolyMcCoolvin
That's a good book. I went through a bradbury phase in 8th grade and read almost everything he has. My personal favorite books of his, though, were Golden Apples of the Sun and the illustrated man

I went through a Bradbury phase at the exact same time. Yes, that's right! I went through a Bradbury phase when you were in the 8th grade.

But alas, it was just my 8th grade. I remember enjoying Dandelion Wine the most, perhaps mostly for its distinction from his other works.

Mike

[Edited on 1-7-2005 by MrG]

[Edited on 1-7-2005 by MrG]

[auxiliaryoctopus]

I'm reading Flannery O'Connor over the semester break and enjoying the crap out of it.

I read "everything that rises must converge" and "wise blood," and now am on "the violent shall bear it away."

She is VERY recomended.

[airplane]

t.s. eliot

[livbowl]

Fiction- Atlas Shrugged

Non-Fiction: Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers

I've been meaning to get to Tom Jones, it has been sitting on my shelf a while now, let me know how it goes Lady.

[Plastic_hero]

I didn't even know that Popular Music from Vittula was translated or even heard of abroad. It was quite the buzz when it came out in Sweden, though I can't say I enjoyed it that much.

I recently finished reading 100 Years of Solitude by Gabiel GarcÃ*a Márquez, which left me with the feeling of not being able to read another book again ever. I think I'll try to start reading Isabel Allende's La casa de los espiritus to fill up the void left inside me from 100 years...
Jesus!

[DrinkTeaEatBooks]

I enjoy reading ancient childrens adventure books, like 'The Curse of the Pirate's Cove' and whatever. I find childrens literature so much more engaging than adult literature, which, before you might hasten to type so, is not because of any lack of intelligence, I suppose. I'm heading for a first in my English Lit degree so far. It's because they just have so much imagination to them, which you just don't find in adult novels. Personally, I'd rather read about desert islands, ghosts and witches than the history of the everyday. Not in the same sense as those fantasy books. They strike me as being rather clichéd and very dull. I mean like books like Alice in Wonderland or Peter Pan. Or the works of authors like Roald Dahl. That, to me, is everything I could look for in fiction.

However, like all English Lit. students, I do love Dickens.

[ladylamentingonalawnchair]

I like kids' books too! I'm not sure why you're knocking fantasy books, though, DrinkTea. It would be hard to say that Alice and Peter Pan don't have fantastical elements.

Might I recommend to you The Game of Sunken Places by M. T. Anderson? It's a really strange and interesting YA novel published (in the US) last year.

[DrinkTeaEatBooks]

Hmm, I was generally referring to the type with big swords, elves and mages, really. My father used to try and make me read them, but I just found them a bit dull. I realised when I re-read that that it sounded like I was dissing fantasy as a whole. I just mean those fantasy books - the oh-so-stereotypical ones they have a special section for at the book shop. The genre that Tolkein single handedly invented. And I didn't really like Lord of the Rings anyway.

Incidentally, the M. T. Anderson sounds really quite cool - in turn it reminded me of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and Jumanji, which in my book is a good thing. I had an amazon gift voucher left over from Christmas, so I ordered it, thanks!

[s]

shut the f**k up, will ya?

[Stewart]

Any ever read Ursula K. Leguin? I had a super awesome professor who swore by her, once.

[Claire]

Originally posted by auxiliaryoctopus
I'm reading Flannery O'Connor over the semester break and enjoying the crap out of it.

I read "everything that rises must converge" and "wise blood," and now am on "the violent shall bear it away."

She is VERY recomended.

I love Flannery. I read her stories instead of reading Hemingway for my English class. Which probably was not the best thing to do, but I find his style so boring. My English teacher is a great guy, the only one I've actually liked so far (I'm a senior). He's just too hung up on Hemingway.

We started to read The Myth of Sisyphus in class before winter break but so far have not gone back to it. Camus is my favorite author. I borrowed a copy of L'Etranger from my old French teacher and am reading it now. I do not think the English translation does it justice.

And as far as childrens' books go, Dr. Seuss all the way.

[ladylamentingonalawnchair]

I like Ursula K. LeGuin in general, but I've only read a slice of her work, which is voluminous. I like "The Dispossessed"--as a friend used to say, it's anarchists on the moooon! I hear they're making a movie (or a TV movie?) of the Earthsea books, which I remember enjoying in my youth.

As for the fantasy novels, I did misunderstand you, DTEB. Those formulaic sword-and-sorcery novels suck (like, for instance, the Robert Jordan books. Bleh). But there's some great kids' fantasy books around, Garth Nix's Sabriel books and of course that Pullman trilogy as well as all of Diana Wynne Jones' terrific novels. I'm glad you ordered that Anderson book! I hope you like it.

I'm a big fan of those Moomintroll books as well. They're so, well, twee.

"Popular Music" got translated into English in 2003. I just found it at the library recently.

livbowl, what do you think of Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers? It was a bit second-wavey for me.

[auxiliaryoctopus]

Originally posted by Claire
Originally posted by auxiliaryoctopus
I'm reading Flannery O'Connor over the semester break and enjoying the crap out of it.

I read "everything that rises must converge" and "wise blood," and now am on "the violent shall bear it away."

She is VERY recomended.

I love Flannery. I read her stories instead of reading Hemingway for my English class. Which probably was not the best thing to do, but I find his style so boring. My English teacher is a great guy, the only one I've actually liked so far (I'm a senior). He's just too hung up on Hemingway.

We started to read The Myth of Sisyphus in class before winter break but so far have not gone back to it. Camus is my favorite author. I borrowed a copy of L'Etranger from my old French teacher and am reading it now. I do not think the English translation does it justice.

And as far as childrens' books go, Dr. Seuss all the way.

I'd say O'Connor instead of Hemmingway is a pretty darn good thing to do.;) I guess he has his place and all and his dialogue is pretty good, but I just don't really care about the stories, you know?

On the other hand, I just finished "The violent shall bear it away." Great Gravy!!!

[CoolyMcCoolvin]

Hemmingway rules. A Farewell to Arms is brilliant

[kylevh]

Hemingway is great, I just finished A Moveable Feast. Currently I'm reading Sophie's Choice by William Styron for my Contemporary Lit class. Next in line is Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and then Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory.

[Edited on 1-11-2005 by kylevh]

[ladylamentingonalawnchair]

My housemate has some Flannery O'Connor stories: maybe I'll pick them up. Not a big fan of Hemingway though. It's funny, if you walk around Paris, practically every bar has a plaque up saying that Hemingway drank there.

[livbowl]

Quite frankly that is the best of Hemingway's work- sitting at a bar and drinking. Odd Girls reads like a textbook to me, so far anyway, I haven't found too may disagreeable pieces of propaganda. If you're looking for something less second wave check out; Joe Carstairs:Queen of Whale Cay, I just finished it, it's a lovely biopic waiting to be made.

[Politician]

I'm not sure on Hemmingway, but I found Old Man and the Sea inalienably great. Just that, the most apt and ready description was, it was great.

[nothinginspace]

Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons is amazing. My close friend and previous High School English teacher decided to read it together. We both minimized it at first and she even sort of hated it. It grew on us though; it has phantom brilliance. It's the same monolithic quality that The Sound and the Fury has. It's just too thick at first, but later, when taken as a whole it all comes together.

Incidentally, I think Dilsey in that Faulkner one is perhaps the most subtly and expertly crafted characters in literature. More over she's freaking heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time.

Anyway, read Tender Buttons. It does something no other book that i know of has ever really done. It sticks with you and you find it in your pocket weeks later and it's more exciting every time.

by the way, has anyone read any Robert Musil. I'm considering it and im wondering if anybody has any thoughts?

[auxiliaryoctopus]

Originally posted by nothinginspace
Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons is amazing. My close friend and previous High School English teacher decided to read it together. We both minimized it at first and she even sort of hated it. It grew on us though; it has phantom brilliance. It's the same monolithic quality that The Sound and the Fury has. It's just too thick at first, but later, when taken as a whole it all comes together.

Incidentally, I think Dilsey in that Faulkner one is perhaps the most subtly and expertly crafted characters in literature. More over she's freaking heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time.



Word. "Sound and the Fury" is the great. And that church sequence at the end! You said it, heartbreaking and inspiring. Actually that part reminds me a lot of O'Connor, though she resisted the "southern gothic" label.

I've only read portions of "tender buttons" and I didn't dig it too much. It didn't remind me of the Sound and the Fury at all really, just non-sense for the sake of non-sense. Maybe the whole book is different?