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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Life? I prefer reading.
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
My book reading day was derailed by a bear hunt. So, "The Help" is still mostly unread. I was enjoying it, though!
And, no bears. But we did get in a downpour.
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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comet
Snowball in Hell
# 10353
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Hart:
quote:
Originally posted by comet:
Carpe Diem - a book on learning latin. the teen and I are tackling it together this spring.
I don't know quite why... but this brings me great joy! Feel free to pm with questions, or maybe start a thread.
I'm so green I don't even know what to ask yet! but I promise, I will!
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Evil Dragon Lady, Breaker of Men's Constitutions
"It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.” -Calvin
Posts: 17024 | From: halfway between Seduction and Peril | Registered: Sep 2005
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OhSimone
Shipmate
# 16414
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Posted
Another vote for Foucault's Pendulum here, and agree with AA in bracketing him with Pynchon - the amount of guff to wade through annoys most people I know who have read these. It doesn't help that the occasional one or two people that pop up with a "Gravity's Rainbow will open your mind man" are the most pretentious you'll have met...
Apparently I'm in good company here as I loved FP and The Name Of The Rose (and also his essays that I've read) but couldn't get anywhere with The Island Of The Day Before. I'm wary of starting any others although I have Baudolino and Queen Joanna... on the shelf. Are these any good?
My plans for 2012 so far consist of finishing Homage to Catalonia and Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy which I've been ploughing through for months - and probably reading all the Jo Nesbo's for a bit of light relief.
Posts: 198 | From: The Black Country | Registered: May 2011
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Pre-cambrian
Shipmate
# 2055
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Posted
Coming to the end of Barrow's Boys by Fergus Fleming. The title is a bit contrived but it's a fascinating account of Royal Navy exploration in the first half of the 19th century - the search for the North West Passage, Antarctica and various ill-fated treks through Africa. It manages to be detailed and well-paced at the same time and I'd certainly recommend it.
Next up to the starting gate will be Dead Souls.
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"We cannot leave the appointment of Bishops to the Holy Ghost, because no one is confident that the Holy Ghost would understand what makes a good Church of England bishop."
Posts: 2314 | From: Croydon | Registered: Dec 2001
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Pure Sunshine
Shipmate
# 11904
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Posted
Pre-Cambrian: I've been meaning to give Dead Souls a look too, since I read an enticing account of the surviving volume in Stuart Kelly's wonderful Book of Lost Books. Now that I've finished Karamazov, maybe I should check it out.
[ 06. January 2012, 10:46: Message edited by: Pure Sunshine ]
Posts: 472 | From: UK | Registered: Oct 2006
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
[diversion]
I suspect people reading this thread would also enjoy this clip by the BBC.
IMNSHO it is not worth a new thread.
[/diversion]
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
For years, I really couldn't get into reading poetry, but over Christmas I heard a radio programme about UA Fanthorpe's Christmas poetry, which was stunningly good, and now our shop has got in some new poetry stock.
So I'm dipping into Fiere by Jackie Kay - she's Scottish and Nigerian, and some of the poems are in Scottish dialect, and some are about visiting the area her father came from in Nigeria.
And then there's Carol Ann Duffy - I'm working slowly through The World's Wife, poems about the forgotten women of history like Mrs Midas, or the Three Queens visiting Herod. Absolutely wonderful stuff!
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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Paul.
Shipmate
# 37
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Posted
Kicked off 2012 by re-reading two books I haven't read in over a decade - Ringworld and Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. The later was for an online book club.
Both were pretty much as I remember them - which was a good, easy reads, fun in different ways.
Posts: 3689 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2004
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Timothy the Obscure
Mostly Friendly
# 292
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by maleveque:
I got P.D. James's Jane Austen fan fiction, Death Comes to Pemberley for Christmas (by request - I love anything by Baroness James). I'm most of the way through. It's not particularly gripping, but it's good all the same. Mr Darcy *is* Adam Dalgliesh, I think.
- Anne L.
I just finished it, with kind of mixed feelings. It's well-written, of course, but it's not much of a mystery, and mainly seems to be an occasion for James to play in Austen's world (there are passing references to Emma and Persuasion, as well as the major link to P & P).
One thing that did strike me is that James seems not really very interested in Elizabeth--if the book has a focus it's exploring Darcy's psychology, especially why he behaved so badly in the first half of P & P. Which led me to realize that in all her books, James seems comparatively uninterested in her female characters--probably why she dropped the Cordelia Grey series.
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When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.
- C. P. Snow
Posts: 6114 | From: PDX | Registered: May 2001
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Timothy the Obscure:
Which led me to realize that in all her books, James seems comparatively uninterested in her female characters--probably why she dropped the Cordelia Grey series.
Timothy that had never occurred to me before - but I think you're right.
(that's what I love about these threads, people often say things that encourage me to look at things in a different way.)
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Zach82
Shipmate
# 3208
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Posted
I'm about a third of the way through the Dorothy Sayers book Nine Tailors. It's my first Lord Peter Wimsey novel, and so far it's been about bell ringing, mostly.
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Don't give up yet, no, don't ever quit/ There's always a chance of a critical hit. Ghost Mice
Posts: 9148 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Aug 2002
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Timothy the Obscure
Mostly Friendly
# 292
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Posted
It's the most "literary" of the Wimsey books. One of my English Lit professors compared it to Moby Dick, with bell-ringing filling the role whaling does in Melville.
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When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.
- C. P. Snow
Posts: 6114 | From: PDX | Registered: May 2001
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
Having just finished the books I said I was going to read after The Lord of the Rings, I am now about to embark on a re-reading of some at least of the Jim Butcher "Harry Dresden" books.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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Ariston
Insane Unicorn
# 10894
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by OhSimone:
Another vote for Foucault's Pendulum here, and agree with AA in bracketing him with Pynchon - the amount of guff to wade through annoys most people I know who have read these. It doesn't help that the occasional one or two people that pop up with a "Gravity's Rainbow will open your mind man" are the most pretentious you'll have met...
Apparently I'm in good company here as I loved FP and The Name Of The Rose (and also his essays that I've read) but couldn't get anywhere with The Island Of The Day Before. I'm wary of starting any others although I have Baudolino and Queen Joanna... on the shelf. Are these any good?
My plans for 2012 so far consist of finishing Homage to Catalonia and Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy which I've been ploughing through for months - and probably reading all the Jo Nesbo's for a bit of light relief.
1. G'sR will open your mind in about the same way I'd assume a strong case of psychosis or a bad trip on 'shrooms would. It's not so much the book itself that's mind-expanding as it is the effect of having your head broken open by something so dense.
2. Baudolino is pretty good right up until about halfway/two-thirds through. Eco's medieval historical revisionism is amusing, and the titular character makes a great unreliable narrator; it's just that it gets bogged down in philosophizing near the end.
3. Seriously, skip Russell's History if you're actually interested in the history of Western philosophy, rather than Bertie. His comments on Thomas Aquinas are the butt of jokes among anyone with more than a passing familiarity with the middle ages, and much of his other commentary is about as insightful. However, if you're interested in Russell being Russell, the opinionated man of letters (even when he's not exactly in his area of expertise), keep on reading.
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“Therefore, let it be explained that nowhere are the proprieties quite so strictly enforced as in men’s colleges that invite young women guests, especially over-night visitors in the fraternity houses.” Emily Post, 1937.
Posts: 6849 | From: The People's Republic of Balcones | Registered: Jan 2006
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PD
Shipmate
# 12436
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Posted
When it come to Russell and mediaeval philosophy - especially Aquinas - you would get a get a better oversight from the average pisshead in the park. Yes, honestly!
I am on a stress relief reading programme at the moment so I am on Trollope's Barchester series, and Bernard Cornwell's "Sharp" series. I much prefer Trollope to Dickens as I find his shades of rey much easier to live with than Dickens' black and white. I have a sneaking sypathy for the Archdeacon, and love the chaos caused by the Stanhopes on the one hand, and the Crawleys - in a totally different way - on the other. Sharp is not really literature, but books about out smarting the Frogs always cheer me up in the depths of winter.
PD
[ 09. January 2012, 05:31: Message edited by: PD ]
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Roadkill on the Information Super Highway!
My Assorted Rantings - http://www.theoldhighchurchman.blogspot.com
Posts: 4431 | From: Between a Rock and a Hard Place | Registered: Mar 2007
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OhSimone
Shipmate
# 16414
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Posted
Agreed re. Russell - although I appreciate a certain intellectual honesty in not even trying to be objective...
I like his writing though: it's always jovial, fast-paced and interesting. He reminds me of an atheistic counter-point to CS Lewis, for some reason.
Posts: 198 | From: The Black Country | Registered: May 2011
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
Funnily enough, I bought Foucault’s Pendulum and Gravity's Rainnbow at the same time. It was suggested to me by a gay friend that I'd prefer GR, which he loved.
I was aghast at Pynchon's relentless immature macho and consistent contempt for gay men. I also suspected that not many women would care for it.
("It's all theater" he says on the opening page in relation to the threat of nuclear destruction and the rest of the book is just that, ending up with a gay international conspiracy sacrificing a pretty young man to set off a bomb. If it's meant to be funny, leave me out.)
Foucault's Pendulum by contrast I thought rather good:
There was no secret, that the real secret was to let the cells proceed according to their own instinctive wisdom, that seeking mysteries beneath the surface reduced the world to a foul cancer. page 567
And he (ie Christ) promised salvation to all: you only had to love your neighbour. Page 620
[ 09. January 2012, 10:26: Message edited by: venbede ]
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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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Boadicea Trott
Shipmate
# 9621
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Posted
I was absolutely delighted to have been given a copy of "Britain's Holiest Places" for my birthday, and it is a truly lovely book, chock full of all sorts of wondrous ecclesiastical information about many denominations' significant places....
Apart from the fact that the author has ommitted the shrine of Our Lady of Penrhys........ the well extant at the shrine is at least mediaeval in origin and is far more deserving of mention than some other places in Wales, IMNSHO :-)
I did *not* know about the remains of Capel Gwladys at Gelligaer, home of St Gwladys and the village where my grandparents lived, and am tickled pink to discover this !
Posts: 563 | From: Roaming the World in my imagination..... | Registered: Jun 2005
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
BT - it is a lovely book, isn't it?
He's also missed out the shrine of Our Lady at Gresford, where there's a genuine medieval glass window and a modern statue and pricket stand.
What's really nice about it is the personality of the author, I thought.
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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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Pure Sunshine
Shipmate
# 11904
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pure Sunshine:
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
quote:
Originally posted by Kyzyl:
Finishing up Simon Sebag-Montifiore's "Jerusalem: The Biography". Highly recommend it.
The Jerusalem book is brilliant and treats the Arabs well (given that the author is Jewish).
Good to have the recommendations! I saw the documentary and was glued to the screen. I'm starting to read a lot of travel literature, especially related to the Mediterranean countries, so I'd love to have a clearer idea of the history of Jerusalem (which the programme certainly gave, though a book would be even better).
Thanks again for the recommendation, Kyzyl! Thanks to a much-appreciated gift of a Waterstone's voucher, a copy of Jerusalem: the Biography is now mine!
Posts: 472 | From: UK | Registered: Oct 2006
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Paul.
Shipmate
# 37
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Posted
Just finished A Quiet Belief in Angels which I bought a couple of years ago and only got a little way into. I did enjoy it but it is a bit grim. Concerns a series of child murders over a period of 20+ years and someone, not the murderer or a relative of a victim, whose life was ruined by them.
Tough but compelling.
Posts: 3689 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2004
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leo
Shipmate
# 1458
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Posted
The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence in History and Its Causes Steven Pinker
It may seem that the world is becoming more violent when we look at the numbers of those who died during the two world wars of the Twentieth Century but the author uses statistics to show that there is less violence today than hitherto.
This book should be required reading for pacifists: stick at it because the cause is on ‘the winning side’. ‘Things can only get better.’
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My Jewish-positive lectionary blog is at http://recognisingjewishrootsinthelectionary.wordpress.com/
My reviews at http://layreadersbookreviews.wordpress.com
Posts: 23198 | From: Bristol | Registered: Oct 2001
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Greenend
Apprentice
# 15674
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Posted
Received Stephen King's 11/22/63 for Christmas and read it non-stop without hardly being able to put it down. For me it was brilliant, (although not quite as good as Under the Dome) but I have to admit to being a big fan of pretty much all King's books.
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"As long as my legs can take me, I will participate in anti-war activity." Hetty Bower, aged 106
Posts: 11 | From: UK | Registered: May 2010
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jbohn
Shipmate
# 8753
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Posted
My current stack:
Hackers, by Steven Levy (again, it's worth it);
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography , by Simon Singh- I haven't started this one yet, but it looks intriguing;
Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu- Jane English translation (as part of my Taijiquan class);
The Homebrewer's Companion, by Charlie Papazian (again- it's a great reference)
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We are punished by our sins, not for them.
--Elbert Hubbard
Posts: 989 | From: East of Eden, west of St. Paul | Registered: Nov 2004
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
A slight deviation to note with great sadness the death of Reginald Hill who wrote some of the quirkiest murder books I have ever read.
"Death's Joke BooK" is one of my all time favourites for the way he plays with words and their meanings.
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Paul.
Shipmate
# 37
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Posted
Just finished Amsterdam by Ian McEwan which I picked up at a second hand book shop a while back*. It's the story of old friends who meet at the funeral of an ex-lover of both of them (at different times). One is a composer, the other a newspaper editor. Both are a little pompous and blind to their own flaws. It's wryly amusing and a quick read.
(*I love my Kindle but nice to read a paper book for a change once in a while)
Posts: 3689 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2004
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Huia:
A slight deviation to note with great sadness the death of Reginald Hill
Indeed. Many 's a one could have been sooner spared, as they say at home.
His characters were in a bit of a time warp - Dalziel was always fat, ageing, drunk - but oddly successful with women - for about 40 years. But the novels were solid and (almost) believable nevertheless.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Timothy the Obscure
Mostly Friendly
# 292
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Posted
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (a novel) by Charles Yu. Absolutely required reading for any SF geek who also likes "serious" literature.
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When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.
- C. P. Snow
Posts: 6114 | From: PDX | Registered: May 2001
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Paul.
Shipmate
# 37
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Posted
Going through a bit of a SciFi phase at the moment (as well as re-reading books I haven't read in years). Just finished Protector by Larry Niven. A lot of fun but I find the space battle near the end drags a bit. Had genuinely forgotten the ending but had time to figure out/realize what it was going to be before I got there.
Posts: 3689 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2004
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
Richard Holloway's 'Looking in the Distance: the human search for meaning'. Compared to his earlier writings, the book at first appears to be quite empty of hope. However, he is actually putting Christianity into context rather than abandoning it altogether as worthless. It took a while for me to realise this, though. I look forward to his conclusions, even though I might not agree with them.
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Dormouse
Glis glis – Ship's rodent
# 5954
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Posted
I'm not reading anything intellectual, I'm afraid, and on my Tabbie (Tablet with Kindle app) I've only downloaded free books that aren't classics (I was put off classics by my A level books 35 years ago and I've never been inclined to try any since!)
But in Real Book Form I'm re-reading Phillippa Gregory's "The White Queen" in preparation for "The Red Queen" which I received for Christmas.
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What are you doing for Lent?
40 days, 40 reflections, 40 acts of generosity. Join the #40acts challenge for #Lent and let's start a movement. www.40acts.org.uk
Posts: 3042 | From: 'twixt les Bois Noirs & Les Monts de la Madeleine | Registered: May 2004
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
I'm not reading anything intellectual either Dormouse! I'm currently reading (and very much enjoying) Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Sex and Science by Mary Roach. This is a study of the curious world of sex research, and is very entertaining (though I have to say that it can get a bit eye-watering in places: during the section on the various contraptions which have been used to treat erectile dysfunction over the years I have to say I was very very thankful indeed that I'm not a guy ![[Eek!]](eek.gif) ). It's also a source of all sorts of entertaining and curious factoids: for example, did you know that the only other mammal other than the human where the male instinctively fondles the female's breasts is the pig? I didn't either.
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"My body is a temple - it's big and doesn't move." (Jo Brand)
wiblog blipfoto blog
Posts: 5767 | From: the land of the deep-fried Mars Bar | Registered: Oct 2002
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justlooking
Shipmate
# 12079
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Posted
I'm re-reading Barchester Towers. It must be around 30 years since I first read it. I don't have a copy but was able to download an e-copy from my city library which I can keep for 21 days. I'm loving it. I know rather more now and can appreciate the tensions around High Church-v-Low Church practices and all the personal rivalries carried on under cover of polite behaviour.
Posts: 2319 | From: thither and yon | Registered: Nov 2006
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jack the Lass:
contraptions which have been used to treat It's also a source of all sorts of entertaining and curious factoids: for example, did you know that the only other mammal other than the human where the male instinctively fondles the female's breasts is the pig? I didn't either.
Not surprised - I've met a lot of pigs in my time.
Justlooking - when I first read Barchester Towers I didn't have the backgroung to think of the high/low church divide but I likened it to a power politics drama on TV called. the Plane Makers . Re-reading it more recently was interesting as I was more aware of the ideologies driving both sides.
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
I've just been reading one of the Tony Hillerman series of mysteries about the Navajo Tribal Police, Sacred Clowns, which was very good. I particularly liked the concept of the "valuable man" in the community - in this case both the (seemingly unconnected) murder victims.
I'm following it up with a book I found in the 50p Honesty Bookshop, Indian Traders by Frank McNitt, which is a history of the white men who traded with the Indians in the American South West up to the 1950s - I'm finding it fascinating so far.
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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JoannaP
Shipmate
# 4493
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Eigon:
I've just been reading one of the Tony Hillerman series of mysteries about the Navajo Tribal Police, Sacred Clowns, which was very good. I particularly liked the concept of the "valuable man" in the community - in this case both the (seemingly unconnected) murder victims.
I'm following it up with a book I found in the 50p Honesty Bookshop, Indian Traders by Frank McNitt, which is a history of the white men who traded with the Indians in the American South West up to the 1950s - I'm finding it fascinating so far.
I do like Tony Hillerman - and find his depiction of Navajo culture fascinating as it is so alien.
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"Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow." R. H. Tawney (quoted by Isaiah Berlin)
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin
Posts: 1877 | From: England | Registered: May 2003
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
I'm reading Miri Rubin Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary.
I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone who felt Mariology iffy, and she (ie Ms Rubin) seems to make hardly any critical comments at all, other than pointing out repeatedly the connection between anti-semitism and Marian devotion.
It's years and years since I read Marina Warner's Alone of All Her Sex, but despite that book's highly critical stance, I remember it gave a far greater sense of how devotion to Mary could work positively, rather than merely stating that it could and had as here.
But I'm always glad to read about the Mother of God.
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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
PS In tandem, I'm re-reading P G Wodehouse Very Good Jeeves the final one of his three Wooster/Jeeves short story collections. They really are brill.
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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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comet
Snowball in Hell
# 10353
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Eigon:
I've just been reading one of the Tony Hillerman series of mysteries about the Navajo Tribal Police, Sacred Clowns, which was very good. I particularly liked the concept of the "valuable man" in the community - in this case both the (seemingly unconnected) murder victims.
I'm following it up with a book I found in the 50p Honesty Bookshop, Indian Traders by Frank McNitt, which is a history of the white men who traded with the Indians in the American South West up to the 1950s - I'm finding it fascinating so far.
I love Hillerman. He is writing about the Navajo Nation, but his stories could take place in Athabascan country here - cultures are so similar.
good novels on the Native American history bent that I strongly recommend - Little Big Man (movie is good, book it ten times better), Creek Mary's Blood, a Yellow Raft in Blue Water, and Ordinary Wolves. I can't recommend those enough.
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Evil Dragon Lady, Breaker of Men's Constitutions
"It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.” -Calvin
Posts: 17024 | From: halfway between Seduction and Peril | Registered: Sep 2005
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
Although we have way too many books, I am somewhat disappointed I did not get any for Christmas. I gave our nieces and nephews gift cards for books. I am leading the Ship's book thread next month (and no, it is not the latest book by Murakami which I affectionately call the phone book, it being 925 pages). I am looking forward to reading the latest book written by my brother-in-law. My niece is also dabbling in writing, having successfully competed in the teenage version of NaNoWriMo and written 10,000 words on what she says may become a series of novels.
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
Thanks, comet - I'll look out for those titles (can you tell me who wrote them, please?)
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167
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Posted
Last week I finished "Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont" (Elizabeth Taylor) and then noticed on iPlayer that the Beeb had dramatised it - I enjoyed the book (which had been likened to a Jane Austen novel for its observations) and was pleased to see how well it had been interpreted for the screen, bringing it from the 1970's into the 2010's.
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006
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QLib
Bad Example
# 43
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Posted
I'm reading Elizabeth Bowen's The House in Paris for an RL book group. It's been recommended to me several times by people I respect, but somehow I never fancied it. Anyway, it's turning into one of those books that I want to spin out to make it last as long as possible.
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Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.
Posts: 8913 | From: Page 28 | Registered: May 2001
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Caissa
Shipmate
# 16710
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Posted
I just finished Spong's latest book, Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World. I'm currently reading Zizek's Living in the End Times.
Posts: 972 | From: Saint John, N.B. | Registered: Oct 2011
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
Caissa, what did you think of the Spong?
I have been reading a book about Maori protocol for tangihana (funerals) and hui (gatherings) by Anne Salmond entitled Hui . What I really like about the book is that it covers the very formal ceremonial aspects and also has comments from people she interviewed that give it a much more human dimension.
I wish I'd read it earlier in my life - it would have saved me from making some stupid mistakes ![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Caissa
Shipmate
# 16710
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Posted
Not much new in the Spong book for me since he has read most of his other books. It probably helps if you have because the chapters are only about 6-10 pages long. He continues his thesis of putting the Gospels into a 1 CE Jewish Liturgical Year. He takes a definitely anti-literalis approach and treats all of the books of the Bible in historical context. That said he does paint with broad strokes.
I like Spong. People on the more conservative, traditional or literalis side of Christianity won't enjoy this book.
Posts: 972 | From: Saint John, N.B. | Registered: Oct 2011
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JoannaP
Shipmate
# 4493
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Posted
I have just finished by Pat A Pig of Cold Poison by Pat McIntosh. It was a good story with interesting development of the main characters but I do wish she would provide a glossary; I do not expect to have to consult the Intertubes to make sense of a whodunnit. ![[Disappointed]](graemlins/disappointed.gif)
I am currently reading the Jane Austen juvenilia which came pre-loaded on my Christmas Kindle, which is great fun.
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"Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow." R. H. Tawney (quoted by Isaiah Berlin)
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin
Posts: 1877 | From: England | Registered: May 2003
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by JoannaP:
I am currently reading the Jane Austen juvenilia which came pre-loaded on my Christmas Kindle, which is great fun.
I love Jane Austen's juvenilia--all that talent and no restraint. One of my favorite passages is where a character 'gracefully purloins' some money.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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