What Are You Reading?

I know there have been similar topics before, but the last one appears to be both long and inactive, so I thought I would start a new one. Much as I am inspired by what people buy, I am even more inspired by what people are actually reading (not always the same thing!), and hearing what they think.

Having acquired a handful of new titles in the Summer Sale, I started with a couple of short books (Brat Farrar, a first time read, and Mrs Dalloway, read again for the umpteenth time) before moving on to meatier fare. I have this morning just finished Duff Cooper's Talleyrand which frankly took my breathe away. I haven't enjoyed a biography (or indeed any book) as much in a very long time. It is written with verve and wit, and although a sympathetic portrait of a flawed genius, it is at the same time far from uncritical. I highly recommend it, and have now just picked out Georges Lefebvre's Napoleon to tackle next to find out more about a period I am ashamed to say I know far too little (despite my love of fiction from the period!).

What are you reading?

Actually, the only thing i've been reading the past few days or so has been this forum. The old posts are a fount of information!

I have the Knight in Panther Skin lined up for next, but in the past weeks I have been reading through my Penguin classics set of Scott Fitzgerald - am now onto the last one, The Beautiful and Damned.

I've got two books on the go at the moment. My "take everywhere with me" book is a paperback of Robert Jordan's "The Dragon Reborn" (the third in the Wheel of Time series). My "sit down for special me time" book is the Folio edition of Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene." It's fascinating so far and surprisingly easy to follow seeing as I've never had a scientific bone in my body and know nothing of biology and genetics!

I've just finished HMS Surprise (O'Brian). At the moment I'm reading:

The Iliad (Loeb translation, but dipping into the wonderful Chester River Press/Pope version)

Rogue Herries by Hugh Walpole - an umpteenth re-read

The Labyrinth of Time: Introducing the Universe by Michael Lockwood - but there's too much Math(s) for my liking!

Herodotus, Histories (Everyman)

Tough work, but worth it.

Anna Karenina, very slowly. Traveling, work, sleep, and other things keep interfering with my reading!

The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments. Just finished Titus Groan.

Lord of the Rings. Using my Legolas bookmark that I've had for a decade as well.

Nania and the Any Winehouse bio by her father. (Does that one count?)

Folios The Selfish Gene and Dublinesque by Enrique Vila-Matas and 44 Scotland Street on the Kindle.

I interrupted The Beautiful and Damned to reread Bound for Glory, Woody Guthrie's autobiography, because he was born 100 years ago yesterday.

Alongside LeFebvre's Napoleon, I am now reading Moby Dick (having first read Nathaniel Philbrick's "Why Read Moby Dick?" to get me in the mood!). I am also dipping into Myths and Legends of Russia for a little light reading when I have insufficient time to devote to those two weighty tomes.

Finished Apologia Pro Via Sua yesterday - Was good.

Mario Vargas Llosa's The War of the End of the World (in the stunning, albeit pricey, FS version)--a wonderful book written in a timeless style (at least the way Helen Lane has translated it) which reminds me of Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archibishop (also a great FS production).

Have paused in rereading A Dance to the Music of Time: Spring after A Question of Upbringing in the beautiful and weighty Folio edition to read The Girl In The Polka Dot Dress, Beryl Bainbridge's last novel.
(Off topic, having looked at author information for Beryl Bainbridge, I suspect that she may not be much read beyond British shores.)

>17 CarltonC:

I suspect you may be right. She is a very British author, but it is a great shame she ia not recognised more widely beyond these shores, despite winning the Whitbread Prize twice and five-times nominated for the Booker. I re-read Injury Time whilst on holiday last month, which is a fantastic book, even if it is one of her lesser known novels. I think Master Georgie or An Awfully Big Adventure would make a great FS title

I struggled to get halfway through The Master and Margarita last week as I was finding it extremely dull and spent most of my time looking up from it and out of the train window (what is it that I'm missing - I know it's very popular amongst you Devotees?). I decided to give it up and this morning started Beryl Bainbridge's The Birthday Boys (my first by her), which I found riveting - the 2 and a half hour commute flew by. It's been a bit of a respite and has, strangely, made me want to crack on with giving TMaM another go.

I'm a Yank but love Beryl Bainbridge--given that this is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, I'd recommend her novel on the subject: Every Man for Himself

This Yank has read The Birthday Boys but found it less than riveting. There's no accounting for taste, as the saying goes.

>21 coynedj: Absolutely. You must have been relieved that it was so short.

I'm currently reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood for the first time, and loving it. Other Folios I have read in the last month or so are Fahrenheit 451, The Virginian, and A Month in the Country - all great books. Oh, and my "take-anywhere" paperback is Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

I wish I could read Virginia Woolf. My first book was To the Lighthouse and I have never been able t fininsh it. I've tried other and no luck with those either. (Don't tell anyone though) I'm reading Stories from the Strand.

I am currently reading Dicken's Hard Times, the 1983 printing with the Charles Keeping illustrations. Having picked up a very cheap near-complete set recently, I have really grown to love them. Perfect size for reading too.

>25 clarelouise: Managed to finish "To the Lighthouse" on my third attempt. Took being confined to the couch recovering from surgery to a broken ankle to manage the feat. I'm looking forward to another attempt on "Ulysses" during any future period of incapacity.

> 28 - This baffles me. I found To the Lighthouse to be quite an easy read.

I'm reading Flora Thompson's trilogy published in one volume, Lark Rise to Candleford. I can see why FS originally published just Lark Rise. That first book is an amazing, quirky work that straddles the line between fiction, nonfiction and memoir. The next two books are just further reminiscences based on similar material with diminishing returns.

I have just started The Letter of Marque by Patrick O'Brian; so far it looks as though it will be up to the high standard of the rest of the series.

>30 podaniel: I agree. I decided to keep my old Lark Rise rather than replace it with the newer Lark Rise to Candleford for that reason, but also because I loved the old black and white photos from the era in that volume which convey wonderful detail so much more than can wood engravings, as beautiful as the latter may be.

Am currently reading a non-FS, the Cambridge Illustrated History of the Middle Ages by Fossier, a fascinating history, and sumptuously illustrated with excellent quality paper and binding to boot!

I'm (re-)reading War and Peace (this time the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation) and enjoying it very much indeed.

I set the goal of reading 40 books this year that have been on my TBR-list for way too long, and have made my way through 35 so far (+ a handful of new books that I just had to read immediately). Had War and Peace not been quite so long, I would probably read it more often.

Last week I finished The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. I found book 3 rather painful to read, but other than that section I really enjoyed it.
After that I read Cat's Cradle and loved that.
Then I read The Prince, by Macchiavelli (did I spell that right?), but I guess it's not really the sort of thing I'm overly interested in.
Yesterday I finished Nineteen Eighty-Four, and I think I actually enjoyed it even more than Brave New World, and it's now in my top ten favourite books of all time.
Now I'm about to start Frankenstein.
I love train trips to uni: they give me so much time to read.

>28 EclecticIndulgence:,29 I really don't know. Much to my shame I just cannot read her and what's more I really feel I should love her work. I will try again and let you know how I go. While I am confessing, I can't read Joyce either.

>34 johni92: I read 1984 a few months ago and loved it and it is now in my top ten list too. I need a FS copy.

Finally got around to the Complete Works of Plato, edited by Cooper and Hutchinson.
http://www.amazon.com/Plato-Complete-Works/dp/0872203492

I'm surprised to find the dialogues are engaging as they are. Perhaps with some more years under my belt, I'm reading much more subtext than the naive, superficial reading of younger years.

It's no wonder that they're survived for 2300 years, in spite of every obstacle to transmission. Thoroughly recommended...

>34 johni92: Orwell was a genius. 1984 is his masterwork and (unfortunately) perennially fresh. Definitely in the top ten. Must be off to my Room 101.

Been reading Richard Brautigan "A Confederate General From Big Sur" and "Trout Fishing in America" again. I think they are wonderful - anyone else have a view?

After that the Folio "Count of Monte Cristo" is calling me from the bookshelf where it has been waiting for some years!!!!

>37 charleseugenebongo3: I just finished the Folio "Count of Monte Cristo." The line drawings are wonderful and the story is great a yarn in spite of an execrable nineteenth century translation from that all-time favorite, "anonymous." Interestingly, the revenge theme doesn't kick in until page 400 or so. Also of note is that the Count of Monte Cristo appears to be, in many ways, the prototype for Count Dracula (it was written some 50 years before Bram Stoker's work). The Count is unnaturally white and youthful looking due to his immurement in prison and is seen usually at night. He, of course, is a malevolent presence in most of the other characters' lives and his home is underground on a remote island. And although not supernatural in any way, the Count is smarter and more accomplished than anyone else. The final clincher: even the Count's race horse is named "Vampa."

> 37 It would be over 30 years since I read those books - I think it was when I was going through my Hermann Hesse, Jack Kerouac, Thomas Mann, Gunther Glass, Robert Prisig, Knut Hamsen, Kurt Vonnegurt phase.

My memory is somewhat hazy, but I think I read about Brautigan in the "Rolling Stone" magazine. I bought (and read) the books you mention and a couple of his others. After all these years the only thing I can remember from the books is a description of sex in a pond.

Maybe it's time to reread them in the nostalgic light of my misremembered youth!

>38 podaniel:
Thanks - interesting Dracula link I hadn't been aware of.

> 27, 28, 29

A good test for endurance is reading and following the stream of consciousness technique that Virginia Woolf employs for the dinner (Chapter 17 of Part One) in To the Lighthouse. Mrs Ramsay and (indeed) Mrs Dalloway are great, complex human beings who, as feminine characters, are very similar in outlook, cultural upbringing and sensibilities. And nobody (in my opinion) has been able to capture the essence of modernism from the feminist point of view as Virginia Woolf has. Her style is so carefully paced and measured that it is a joy to become immersed in the thought processes of her women. A few seconds of real time open up a whole world of meaning. The reader is fortunate who can go over again and again discovering new interpretations. Need I say that I love Virginia Woolf for her innovative writing, her courage and intelligence?

>41 drasvola: Thanks. I think it's the innovative writing that I've struggled with. I has been a few years since I've tried to read her. It's a public holiday here today so I am giving her another go.

Currently reading Ender's Game, then will move onto The Magicians Nephew, and then back on the LOTR train.

I have a bit of a Dickens thing going on right now, so having just finished Hard Times, I have moved on to A Tale of Two Cities, which I am reading alongside Simon Callow's "Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World" (less than half price on Amazon, with the added unexpected bonus on its arrival of finding out it was a signed copy!)

I am working my way through my renewal books. I have recently finished The Bloody Chamber and Eugene Onegin. I am now about a quarter of the way through the rather chunky The Worst Journey in the World. It is an absolutely thrilling read (and I am really feeling for the poor dogs and ponies!)

I am finally attempting Holinshed's Chronicles. While I am quite pleased with the FS edition in terms of production quality (the woodcuts from the 1577 edition are particularly nice), I am somewhat disappointed with the work itself which is a slow slog. The unmodernized spelling contributes to the plodding pace, but so does all of the editing, where it is sometimes difficult to pick up the thread of the selections. Narrative history it is not. It has been a long time since I tried reading a primary source and my memory of it is far more fulfilling than this experience is proving to be. Nonetheless, I will finish it. Perhaps it will become more enjoyable the closer we get to the Tudors. Right now I am in the Edward III section and Holinshed throws so many names at you (none with modern spellings) that is often difficult to follow the story, keep track of which side someone fought on, and even figure out who won a battle with lots of unclear antecedents (after listing out five nobles the next sentence begins with "he..." and rarely is it clear which "he" is being discussed).

After struggling to read my FS books on the train, balancing handbag, protective covering, slipcase and hold the book, I bought a Kindle yesterday. Wuthering Heights was the first book I downloaded followed by Five Weeks in a Balloon. I was so looking forward to reading this when the Kindle froze and I have been unable to unfreeze it. So now I have nothing to read going home. Should have stuck to real books!

Last couple of days I've been reading Stephen King's It. Such a great read and about as scary as it's possible for a book to be. I'd really love for FS to publish some Stephen King books. There are some really great ones.

#47> (Holinshed) What you wrote is not very encouraging for other readers... I only perused the passage on Joan of Arc, and it is true that names are so deformed that one needs to be quite acquainted with the story to understand the text.

The Chronicles are on my reading pile, but not for the moment, because I'm still struggling with the second volume of Macaulay's History of England. It's very well written and enjoyable, but I'm now at the time of James's flight, and I wonder how Macaulay will be able to keep my attention with 3 other volumes on William's and Mary's reigns...

>48 clarelouise: Technology necessarily does not make life easy

>51 ironjaw:
But Ironjaw, technology does allow us to communicate and form a fascinatingly diverse community of Folio Society booklovers. And Kindles/iPads etc. are great for trains and planes, while real books can be properly appreciated and cared for at home.
It does peeve me though, that they make you turn off these devices when taking off and landing, despite there being no evidence that they interfere with aircraft instruments. At least this does not happen on trains.

>51 ironjaw: &52 I've got the thing working. It was a bit of a juggling act on the train as even with a seat its really crowded and squishy not a good place for FS books.

My husband was horrified when he realised I was taking FS books on the train and was very keen for me to get a Kindle. Funny things husbands! I've been reading the BBC History Magazine today which I would not usually get to read. So at the moment technology is good! I can sit on the train and download books which is pretty exciting.

>53 clarelouise:

You'll learn the trick - always keep a paperback in your bag -- just in case Kindle decides to misbehave (or you forget to charge it and the laptop is about to die as well) or it is during takeoff and landing of a plane :)

> 53 I have a Kindle Touch (in a beautiful Kate Spade Pride & Prejudice case), and it's never crashed. I'm sure you already know, but it's kind of like an iPod, you just need to reset it by holding he power button down for a few seconds.

I take my Kindle with me everywhere, but I have taken my FS books on the train too. I keep them in a dust bag that came with my more expensive shoes. I just bought a new Prada bag, so I'm hesitant to over stuff it with a copy of FS LOTR: Two Towers. (Normally I'd feel awful for "name dropping" but since everyone in this community has incredible taste I know no one will take it the wrong way.)

>53 clarelouise: BBC History Magazine on the Kindle, hmm never new that :-)

>56 ironjaw: No worries, designer brands are awfully popular here in Copenhagen, especially with the 50% discount over the summer period! We love our Royal Copenhagen tea set, B&O tv's and Montana furniture.

Life is too short to drink bad wine.

> 56

50% off you say? I'm shopping in the wrong country!

50% on Folio Society brand, too? ;)

>54 AnnieMod:,55 I'm getting used to it. I'm not sure there isn't something wrong with the battery. It doesn't stay charged for very long. The guy in the shop said I didn't need a charger as I have the one for my ipad but I might buy a new one and see what happens. (one of my boys broke my ipad)

You will have to whatch over loading the Prada bag. I have a Waynne Cooper bag (not the same league, I know) and nearly ripped the handles off lugging the ipad etc., around.

>56 ironjaw: I didn't even know about the mag till I found it on Amazon.

> 59 Do you have the Kindle Fire or Touch? My Touch can last a month on one full charge, but I'm not sure about the Fire. It has way more features than the other Kindle models, so I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't last for more than a day or two depending on use. Also, your iPad breaking is the reason why my niece can't hold my iPhone for too long lol.

Ack! Sorry to hear about your WC bag, that's always a fear of mine. But hey, its a reason to go bag shopping :-D.

>60 eatanygoodbooks: Touch I think. I know it's not Fire. I'm taking it back to the shop tomorrow. I'm charging if for about 12 hours at a time and it is fully charged but only lasting about 24 hours. I've tried turning it off fully but it doesn't make any difference.

After the ipad, the boys are barred from touching it. They want to know if they can read Goosebumps on it. I've lied and said there are no childrens books for Kindles.

Will go bag shopping soon!

>61 clarelouise:

A friend complained from the same problem on one of the new Kindles with the ads... My second one is with ads but I do not have issues with the battery (although both of mine are keyboard ones). So not sure - but it should not die after 24 hours (unless if you read non-stop through these hours - I suspect the battery may be done after that...

> 61

Wow, that shouldn't happen. Mines lasts so long. Definitely try to get a replacement on that. Good luck!

Hahah! They can just save up allowance for some paperbacks or borrow from the library. I love it! I don't blame you at all. My niece put a sticker on one of my UK Harry Potter Hardcovers, my heart stopped until I carefully peeled it off.

Enjoy shopping! :-D I'm putting myself on a time out, so I can save up for fall clothes.

> 62

I never thought about the ad based Kindle's affecting battery life. When I realized my Kindle Touch came with ads, I immediately paid to upgrade.

The Kindle Fire HD will be available here on October 25... another gadget to consider... it would be by fourth Kindle!

I'm reading "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee." It's amazing, and has many photographs of Native American tribal chiefs, including famous ones such as Sitting Bull.

I am just about to start the Patrick O'Brian series....

That sounds ambitious...

The size of the series has kept me at bay for the last few years... but I think its time... I keep hearing great things about it.

>62 AnnieMod:,63 I now have a new Kindle. The shop just handed over a new one!

FS read at present is Midnight Folk. I'm reading Hardy's Tess on the kindle. It's harrowing but beautifully written. Another classic I have never read before.

Next gadget the new iphone 12 September. I haven't had a mobile phone for years as I hate them, but as I no longer have the ipad to play games on, I thought I would get the iphone on the pretence of getting a phone.

>62 AnnieMod:, 63
What do you mean by ad-based Kindles please? Which ones do and don't? (I have a keyboard, but am on the verge of buying another type for OH).

> 70

Yay! I'm so glad!! Enjoy the new one. I have been waiting for a new iPhone for months. My contract ended long ago, but I have been as patient as possible. Can't wait for the iPhone 5, my precious.

> 71

The ads, or Special Offers, lower the cost of the device for about $15-20. It's just advertisements shown randomly on the Kindle, it could be the screen saver when the device is on standby, or a banner on the bottom of the main screen.

I bought my Kindle in April, and the minute I saw the ads on my device, I knew I had to get rid of them. I didn't just pay 80 dollars on something to also have ads shown to me. I contacted Amazon via their Online Chat, and was charged 20 dollars to remove them.

Amazon just announced new models for both Kindle and Kindle Fire. All of the Kindle models will come Special Offers for $20 cheaper than its ad free twin. In the Kindle Fire family, only the base model Kindle Fire will come with ads for a rumored $15 dollar off the ad free price.

Gosh, I hope that makes sense! Amazon has some nice comparison tables on their web site, too.

Just finished reading The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle, my first ever Holmes novel, great fun, and all the more enjoyable for being in the classic Folio olive cloth binding with silhouettes of H and W across boards and spines. Mosley's illustrations are perfect. It's been one of my favourite Folio series to simply admire - with all the nine volume in a row depicting the famous duo across the spines - so it's great to have actually started reading them! A fractional improvement in the read:unread ratio.

One is now bethinking oneself of A Study in Scarlet...

>72 eatanygoodbooks:

Makes eminent sense, and thank you. Having been onto amazon.com, I see that it's a US only option, which is why I hadn't seen it before (being in the UK).

>72 eatanygoodbooks: I'm with you. I've been hanging on to my iphone 3g until the 5 comes out. Can't wait to dump AT&T.

Reading Turn of the Screw again. Is there a FS of this?

New iphone out today. Only one problem, do I buy directly from Apple and wait a few days or wait a few days till I can get to the shops.

>76 clarelouise: turn of the screw is included in The folio book of short novels (along with Death in Venice, Call of the wild, Gigi.) It doesn't look bad (on the screen) if you don't already have separate/nice editions of the works included..

http://www.ardis.co.uk/folioref/956.htm

>77 P3p3_Pr4ts: Thanks. I'll get a copy.

>75 varielle: Varielle, I've also got an iPhone 3G, it's in dire state now: speaker is broken, the mute and volume buttons fell off and it's incredible slow and unresponsive when typing sms or calling. Can't wait for the 5

>79 ironjaw: I'm still hanging on to a trusty Nokia 2G from years ago. Works a treat, and I can't bring myself to go for an iPhone or other 3G offering when I think how many Folios they cost...

I'm currently reading the FS edition of Ronald Syme's The Roman Revolution--and what a great work of history it is. Syme consciously modeled his prose style on Gibbon and, although lacking the wit of Gibbon's footnotes, he has otherwise pulled off an astonishing feat of authorial ventrilioquism. The physical book itself is beautifully bound in buckram and is one of the nicer FS "standard" productions that I have seen. Finally, I note that this book is not featured in the catalog but can still be purchased on the FS website. My guess is that it will not be reprinted and once the existing stock is gone that will be it. I'd highly recommend purchasing a copy of the FS edition before it's OOP.

I've finished The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. Have second thoughts about lonely castles, woods and assorted wolves.

>83 drasvola: Great isn't it. I loved it, but I keep the lights on at night in my castle nowadays!

I have at last finished The Worst Journey in the World. What a fantastic book. I have now read all my renewal books (Eugene Onegin and The Bloody Chamber, with Leviathan to come in November). I am now moving on to the freebies, starting with The Ascent of Man, which I have read before but not for many years.

...and no, I don't really have a castle. But if I did, I would keep the lights on.

Oh! I thought 'an Englishman's home is his castle'...

>83 drasvola:,84 I'm waiting for mine to arrive and you have already finnished them!

I've been thinking that the new phone is almost as much as Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Not a good thought.

Just finished Two Towers, will start The Horse and His Boy next, followed up by Cranford (eBay sale).

Finished reading The Vampyre and Other Macabre Stories, a wonderful, handy book to take to bed. Was a bit disappointed with Polidori's story (not 'vampyrish' enough). My favourite in the collection: Washington Irving's 'The Lady with the Velvet Collar'.

I'm reading The Vampyre and Other Macabre Stories.

I'm reading A. L. Rowse, third volume in the recent Folio set on Elizabethan Age, "The Elizabethan Renaissance."

I have just started to work my way through the Dorothy Sayers' Crime Collection. I read Strong Poison at the weekend and am now about a third of the way through Have His Carcass. Perfect light, but intelligent, reading to help relax after a hard day at work (and to recover from some recent heavier FS reading before moving on to tackle Leviathan, one of my renewal books, when it arrives in November).

The Dorothy Sayers are a delight. I read her first Wimsey novel, Whose Body?, recently but must reread the others - I think that The Nine Tailors has a lovely wintry feel to it, although not quite that cold yet.
I am (re)reading A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, which is immensely enjoyable and gently humourous. I really like the FS cover.

>90 UK_History_Fan:

How is the A. L. Rowse?

Finished The Mark of Athena (non-folio), and am working through Anna Karenina on my Kindle. Will renew with the FS version of the book. Loving it so far.

Delayed renewal, badly needed a fix; so I went to ebay and got Towers of Trebizond. FS Devotees did a lengthy criticism of this edition... at the time of its publication.

(Spine gilding tends to come off a bit in my copy too. )

I can't help liking the illustrations. These fluid brush strokes. Even if they do not always work as an "atmosphere enhancer", (which is the stated goal of FS production team). I think that you 'll love this edition if you are able to take them as light-hearted side comments by a co-reader, someone who is also a bit of a charming airhead .

( if this has been a favourite book, then you may feel inclined to say:" please, shut-up " now an then)

> 94
I have mixed feelings about it as a work of history, but have enjoyed the FS "package" as I feel it is a beautifully produced set. I will try to remember to elaborate on this more when it isn't so late and past my bedtime :-)

Posting on iPad from bed.

I'm finishing Burke's Reflection on the Revolution in France. Horrible read. The style is terrible to follow. Hadn't it been in a Folio edition, I would have stopped after a few pages...

I'm tempted to renew my FS subscription with Leviathan. Can those of you who already read it tell me if I'd better forget it because it will be the same kind of political theory very hard to decipher? The little I know of Leviathan doesn't seem as rebarbative as Burke's Reflections. For instance, it seems very much classified by topics, whereas Burke expatiates over 200 pages without any chapter nor section.

I just finished "The Castle of Otranto", a great pick up from a used bookstore in NYC. Although it is a short book, I can think of few others that "fit" so well with a gilt-lettered spine.

Podaniel, I can now offer a fuller explanation of my mixed review of the A. L. Rowse set. As I said before, it is beauitfully produced. Each volume is a different color, with an individual though similar cover design. Also there are lovely endpapers unique to each volume which appear to represent something significant from the period, though I am at a loss as to why there is no information or attribution of the endpaper depiction in either the title page, introduction, or list of illustrations.

As a work of history, these books are not without merit. Even people fairly well versed in the Elizabethan era will undoubtedly learn much from them. My issue it that Mr. Rowse appears to lack balance in that he goes into excessive detail about subtopics that to me are merely ancillary rather than central to the theme and then glosses over far too readily those subtopics that are more central. I think the correct approach would be to reverse this. Also, because he does tend to get "lost in the weeds" frequently with multiple examples of a seemingly minor points and endless lists of names that are simply not relevant to a more general reader or to illustrate his theme. While disgressing into all this detail, he frequently seems to forget to bring it back to the main narrative and weave in the relevance. It is without a doubt very well researched and to a specialist he might very well have been (at the time of original publication) revealing stunning new items from previously undiscovered archives, but I find myself often waiting for him to answer the "so what" question and keep the narrative moving. Finally, he is a very opinionated historian and while I usually agree with his bitterly anti-religious bias, I am unconvinced that it is appropriate to the work. I am not, however, in agreement with some strains of mysogeny that crop up. I can't remember the exact passage but there was one startling statement something along the lines of the stupidity of women. That was quite a turn off.

On balance, I am glad I own and have read it, but A. L. Rowse will never command my respect or admiration as a historian.

Thank you very much--I'll wait to see if the Rowse winds up in one of the book sales.

But that's the beauty of Rowse - you can find the main facts elsewhere - it is these subtopics that make his works (not only these - any of his works) still worth today - even after some of his scholarship had been proven wrong. And then... up to ~60-80 years ago the books about Elizabeth were full of the notion that women are not as clever or worthy as men and that included Elizabeth in way too many cases.

I'm just about to start the FS Moonfleet, which I've never read before. Is it as good as the hype would suggest?

I read Moonfleet for the first time earlier this year. I thought it was delightful. Secret passages, lost treasure, ancient curses -- the only thing better would have been if I had read this at 10 or 12.

> 104, 105

I can now accede to received wisdom in stating that Moonfleet is indeed a rattling good yarn.

I usually have a factual book going at the same time, and my current read is Journey from Obscurity by Harold Owen (3 vols., 1963-65). This tells the story of the Owen family, and particularly its most celebration scion, Wilfred. Harold was his younger brother and served in the navy during the First World War. His is an affectionate tribute, but it is now known to gloss over some aspects of the poet's life, so, as a corrective I will eventually move on to the recently deceased Dominic Hibberd's biography published in 2002. Fascinating stuff!

I am mostly through the recently released Folio set Religion and the Decline of Magic. It is extremely well researched, effectively written, and enormously informative. If you have even a passing interest in the subject matter or Tudor-Stuart England generally, I highly recommend it. Plus the cover design on the second volume is one of the best I've seen in the last 10 years.

For my Hallowe'en reading, I have just started The Collected Ghost Stories by M R James.

My Folio read is "The Ascent of Man", a real treat to reconsider Bronowski's work. Non-Folio is "Joseph Anton" the Salman Rushdie chronicle of his Satanic Verses times. By the way, Mr. Rushdie was speaking to a group in my town of Hamilton, Ontario last night and told numerous and wonderful stories of rollicking good times that he and Christopher Hitchens shared. Wonderful evening.

>106 boldface: I too tend to read a non-fiction book alongside my fiction. I am currently reading Gaudy Nights as I continue to work my way through the Dorothy L. Sayers Crime Collection. My non-fiction read is Umberto Eco's "This is Not the End of the Book".

>109 LG2: It was a treat to re-read The Ascent of Man, which I finished a couple of weeks ago. I even understood some of it this time around!

I just lost out on a bid for the FS Moonfleet on EBay. One of my favorite books as a kid. I rember buying it from the monthly school orders we would do. I think the FS edition is the only hardcover edition from the last 100 years. I think I am going to have to break down and pay full price from FS.

> 112
Despair not, Folio is likely to feature this title in a future sale. If memory serves correctly, it has already been discounted in prior sales, though which one(s) escapes me at the moment.

> 112

Well, a cursory glance at AbeBooks reveals a 1934 hardback from Jonathan Cape, published in the UK, and a 1951 Little, Brown hardcover, first US edition. I doubt if they're as nice as the Folio, though.

I am most of the way through Evelyn Waugh's Scoop - another example of a book I would have never read had it not been for Folio Society.

I'm currently reading Plutarch's Lives as my non-fiction, and Dracula as my fiction.

I'd like to say that I stumbled across this group a few months ago and reading through the threads on here convinced me to take the leap and become a FS member this past September...to the detriment of my bank account, naturally. But that's not really the important thing, right??? :)

>116 scholasticus: Welcome to the slippery slope :-)

Are you reading the FS version of Plutarch? I have been sorely tempted, but had hoped they would publish the Sir Thomas North translation rather than Dryden. Not that I am averse to Dryden. What's it like?

>117 Conte_Mosca: Glad to know I'm not the only one on the slope! :-)

Regarding Plutarch, Folio completely overhauled Plutarch's original ordering.

Volumes I-II have all of the Greek lives in chronological order; volumes III-IV do the same with the Roman lives.

The comparisons are split up across the four volumes and are at the back of each volume.

I'm quite a purist when it comes to my literature, so I must admit I was very disappointed when I realised how FS had 'improved' Plutarch.

If you want to read Plutarch the way he composed his work, you have to use this ordering (I use the first pairing as an example):

1. Theseus, first chapter of vol. I
2. Romulus, first chapter of vol. III
3. Comparison of Theseus-Romulus in the appendix at the back of vol. I

Repeat for all the pairings as needed. It's tiresome, but I've quickly gotten used to it.

The Dryden translation is actually quite good. (Caveat: I don't read Greek, but I do read Latin.) I tend to prefer less modern translations because I feel these translations provide a richer experience insofar as they employ words that a modern translator might not choose to employ.

For instance, in the Roman lives whenever the army is mentioned, you'll often come across a reference to 'lustrations' involving the army. 'Tis just a wonderful word for what a modern translator would probably resort to circumlocution to explain as being a ceremony of purification. Not quite the same oomph, is it?

I've read North as well and only read Dryden for the first time with the FS edition and I'm finding I prefer Dryden.

A word of caution: if you like footnotes, don't purchase this edition; Folio makes it very clear in the preface that they don't provide footnotes in order to 'smoothen' the reading experience or whatever word they used. You don't know your classical history, probably not a good idea to read the FS version first (which you won't be doing, obviously!) :-)

The illustrations are amazing, in my estimation and really give a wonderful 'feel' of the individuals discussed throughout.

Really, the biggest strike in my book is the reordering, but if you're fine with it, I'd recommend it.

I can also take and post some photos if you'd like - let me know.

EDIT: You can give the Dryden translation a spin here - just scroll down a bit until you see the section to the online translations, and Dryden is indicated by (D).

>116 scholasticus:,118 Welcome! Do slide all the way down the slope, it's fun at the bottom.

Have just begun Strong Poison by Dorothy L.Sayers, and am enjoying it already; it's proving light relief from The Long European Reformation by P.G.Wallace (non-Folio).

P.S. How disappointing that Folio (again) omit footnotes but don't mention this anywhere in the marketing description. I find that the excuse of 'smoothing' the reading experience somewhat spurious given that footnotes are easily ignored if so wished (that is the point after all!). Another example of style over substance I'm afraid (cf. Gibbons' Rise and Fall).

> 118
Oh that is so frustrating and disappointing about the footnotes. I find them particularly useful for classical texts. I really wish Folio would stop this excessive editing practice.

I too would be very disappointed about the re-ordering if I didn't already own two other copies of this, one in the Dryden translation and one in the North. Since I tend to like the chronological treatment, I will be happy to use this as my second read through. But my first time will have to be as the author intended.

As for current reads, I just finished the wonderful Religion and The Decline of Magic and like you, in honor of Halloween, have moved on to the FS edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula. I honestly have never read it before and am finding it quite engaging and marvelously suspensefully written!

>119 cronshaw:
Thanks! I look forward to meeting everyone at the bottom. :-)

Yes, it's so disappointing, isn't it? I don't mind reading the Lives chronologically, but it's still not the same.

>120 EclecticIndulgence:
Glad to help. Hope you'll find something more to your taste that doesn't suffer (too excessively?) from the 'FS treatment'. I wholeheartedly agree with you regarding Dryden's Aeneid: I gave up about a third of the way through. I far prefer to read it in the Latin, but I'll also accept the Fagles translation for the non-Latinist; it tends to keep the poetic sense of Vergil more so than some of the more faithful translations, I find. Dryden can go jump into a lake with his translation of Vergil, though.

>121 UK_History_Fan:
Yes, that's what I'm doing myself. I'll probably reread Plutarch in a year or two and just read it chronologically.

Is Religion and The Decline of Magic any good? I've been considering it, especially since it's currently on sale, but am wondering how the treatment is. Is it pretty evenhanded, or does Thomas come down very firmly on one side or the other and turn the other into a sort of straw man to bolster his arguments?

And I'm reading a friend's copy of Dracula; I was hoping to buy a copy on FS, but it looks like FS is all sold out!!!

>122 scholasticus: Yes, quite apart from the omission of footnotes, the re-ordering (AGAIN not mentioned in the marketing description) is unpardonable - Plutarch's original Greek-Roman pairings of the portraits are a central characteristic of his Lives. How intensely frustrating! I shall have to resort again to Everyman's Library as I have done for Gibbons.

>123 cronshaw:

Agreed! I have the Everyman Gibbon amd it's simply stunning. If only FS would emulate Everyman, indeed.

I've finally started reading the Pepys LE I've been admiring on the shelf for over a year. Just finished the very comprehensive introduction covering Pepys' biography and the chequered history of the diary's publication itself - very interesting. Now, Jan 1st 1660...

> 126

Please let us know how you get on with it and share your thoughts.

I've nearly finished The Bloody Chamber; then I will have to choose between the new Susan Coopers, the Worst Journey in the World, the Last Man or finish off one of the many half-read books that are lying around. I never finished the Knight in Pantherskin, so much more bloodthirsty than the Bloody Chamber.

I'm nearing the end of Never Let Me Go and I keep wavering between liking and disliking what I'm reading. What an uneasy feeling. On top of everything, I'm starting to find Ishiguro's writing style in this case unnecessarily (in my opinion) undulating and jerky.

Edited for typo

>127 boldface: Will do!

>129 drasvola: I'm sorry to hear that, I've never read Ishiguro but I love the Folio treatment he's been given: the illustrations for both Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day look beautiful. You've somewhat disabled my getting NLMG.

With my pregnant, post-term bookcases, disabling is no bad thing.

> 130

Oh...my comments have nothing to do with the physical properties of the edition. I quite like the illustrations, the cover, the typeface, etc. It's a handy book to hold in bed, where I happen to be reading it every night. I've read The Remains of the Day and loved it. But this story (i.e. NLMG) appears to not do it for me.

Having recently finished (and thoroughly enjoyed) the Dorothy Sayers Crime Collection box set, I have now started reading my recently acquired Letterpress King Lear. Alongside that, and on a related theme, I am also reading an intriguing book called Shakespeare Stories, edited by Giles Gordon. It is a collection of twenty short stories inspired by and derived from Shakespeare, written by a great selection of authors including Angela Carter, Salman Rushdie, Kingsley Amis and William Boyd.

I am mostly finished with The Golem. It has not been an enjoyable or pleasant read for me. I just can't get into the story, feel any connection to the characters, or even consistently follow the plot. One of the most disappointing reads I've had in a long while. I will say, however, the FS design is quite lovely with pages just the right hue of white, easy on the eyes text, wonderful woodcut illustrations, and an innovative raised paper cover. If only the writing was as pleasing.

Reading The Last Man. I love Victorian Novels so I expected the style although the language is getting a tad too flowery even for me occasionally. The pictures are perfect though - even if they are chosen for the period and not for the book itself (not directly anyway), they are magnificent. Reading about the late 21st century from an author in the early 19th is... interesting :)

And in the last few weeks, finished a few more Folio books:
Folktales of the Native American was interesting -- a bit repetitive if you read a lot of the tales in a row but perfect if you read a few at a time. I am a bit ambivalent on the pictures - I generally dislike the style but it almost worked here...

Animal Farm which was as good as I remembered it and I loved all the B&W illustrations.

The Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution - I am really happy that Folio decided to use photographs and did not decide to try to get it illustrated. And it's a well written book about a small event that we know little about - but which the author puts into context to try to figure out what really happened.

> 134

Thanks for your comments, Annie. I'm looking forward (if that's the right expression in this case) to reading the Wannsee Conference. I recall seeing a dramatized documentary on the subject a while ago which was a real eye-opener to this chilling subject. I also have The Last Man in my tbr pile.

Enjoy the Wannsee (despite the topic). As a side note, the notes at the end of the book are informative in some cases but most of them are just bibliographical references. I suspect that you will find your way of reading but after the first 10 or so, I stopped flipping to the back and simply read the notes after I had finished the chapter.

>137 EclecticIndulgence: That's a relief to hear, three more books I can cross off my Curiosity List.

Which European country is hosting you at the moment, and what are the bookshops like?!

>139 EclecticIndulgence: I've never been to Croatia but would love to go having heard wonderful reports of the Dalmatian coast. The Nazi CV sounds intriguing. Far better than an I HEART T-shirt as you say.

I wonder if Folio have ever though of an I HEART FS T-shirt? It would fit quite nicely, like the original NY version, but would it appeal to the FS demographic? They'd make sweet runner-up prizes for the monthly quiz!

OR they could have T-shirts with 'My Better Half visited the Folio Society Members Room and all I got was bloody 'Clichés and how to avoid them'!

OK time to go before I start getting sillier...

> 141

Or what about a cloak of invisibility for smuggling new purchases into the Shed?

142 > 2nd that. Can I use the cloak when I buy new clothes too?

Just started Mansfield Park after completing Return of the King. Starting The Hobbit on Dec 1st, in time for the movie release.

I am currently reading the Desmond Seward book The Wars of the Roses, having just finished three Folio books about King Richard III and needing to keep my 15th century English history focus intact:

a) The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey
b) Richard III - The Great Debate (More/Walpole)
c) The Princes In The Tower - Alison Weir

I must say that while the order in which I read them was happenstance, it is absolutely the correct order. Most of us are familiar with the Shakespeare parody of evil King Richard III (brought to him via Holinshed via Hall via Sir Thomas More), so it is a good place to start with Daughter of Time to get the revisionist perspective in a mystery novel format. The Great Debate nicely sets up the two major competing interpretations of this history with the Sir Thomas More biography of Richard III set against the Horace Walpole reinterpretation of the late 18th century (with very good commentary and introductions by Paul Kendall). It is best to conclude with the Alison Weir tome as she does an excellent job putting the debate in its full historical context, and then systematically goes through the major sources and identifies their prejudices and reliability. She seems to want to agree with revisionists but reluctantly adopts More's account as the most likely accurate based on all the evidence.

I highly recommend them all!

I'm currently reading Frederic Manning's The Middle Parts of Fortune. I knew nothing about this book until I picked up the FS edition as I'll read anything about World War One. This is a brilliant novel--dare I say it is better than All Quiet on the Western Front? Certainly, the untranslated English is much better. The strange thing about this book is that it seems to have almost a timeless quality about it as if Homer came down to the Somme after finishing The Iliad and then deciding to write a bit about World War One. An amazing work which at least makes me regret that Manning didn't turn his hand to another novel (and apparently he had to be mercilessly badgered to write this one).

As for the aesthetic details, FS did a great job with the design elements which are consistent with other of its World War One offerings. The pen and ink drawings are quite moving although a couple of them look like they may be pastiches taken from other works (e.g., note the odd juxtaposition of the soldiers in the train car). Overall, another FS triumph.

Yes, I'm reading the Hunger Games series. It's always good to have something to talk about with the kids. They're very fast reads.

The 1995 Metamorphoses.

147 > They were definitely enjoyable books. Enjoy! I suggest, if you haven't already, check out Rick Riordan's books. The Mark of Athena was really good, but you should start with Percy Jackson, if you decide to go that route.

>144 UK_History_Fan:

I would throw Kendall's biography in this mix as well - Weir is a bit one-sided on this particular topic - she discards quite a lot of the material that is there (not that Kendall does not do the same but between the two of them, someone can make their opinion)

In the meantime, finished The Last Man. If you love Victorian novels, you might have a chance in liking it. The story is actually not so bad (although the future looks too much as the current time of Shelley with small enhancements) but the style is more flowery than most Victorian novels and that says a lot... In a few places, I almost wished I had skipped chapters - things don't get anywhere and it is just a reflection on something. And even the language does not save it - it saves the first 150 pages or so but after that it sounds tired and boring and not flowery and imaginary. I do not regret reading the book but...

> 150

Thanks for your assessment, Annie. I'm hoping to bump this up my TBR pile in the near future. For one thing, I like the look of the FS edition very much. Strictly speaking, of course, Shelley belongs to that just pre-Victorian period dominated by Jane Austen and Walter Scott, but I know what you mean about the excessive verbosity!

Don't expect anything even close to them both - their verbosity is almost like flash fiction in comparison. It almost feels like she did not have enough material for 3 volumes so just added all these sequences of almost meaningless wandering.

However - the story is worth reading - despite this. And I suspect that with time it will be what I will remember from the book. And as always, don't read the introduction before you read the book if you had never read it before

PS: And the pictures are magnificent - even if they are not done for the book, they do convey the spirit and the feeling of the book.

Smith by Leon Garfield, this book is wonderful.

Had been on a Folio binge lately - mostly because they just arrived and are still on my nightstand while I reorganize the library to make place for them

The Mask of Dimitrios - part old style spy novel, park caricature of one, part a portrait of Europe in the late thirties. I cringed every time when I saw a Bulgarian name, city or place mentioned (they were awfully mangled but that might be the way they had been known to the English world back then...). Somewhere mid book I actually flipped to check again if it was written in the 30s or in the 50s - Ambler's perception of what was going on in Europe was way too accurate to be pre-WWII. And yet it was. The big surprise is not really a surprise if you had read enough spy and/or mystery stories but then that does not even matter. The illustrations' style match the style of the book. The Introduction was as always very good and again should not be read until the reader had read the book at least once.

Over Sea, Under Stone - I really don't get this type of art. Really. In a few of the pictures I had to read the line connected to them to figure out what I am seeing. But the ones that you could recognize from the beginning were growing very fast on me. The Introduction is great and should never be read by someone that had not read the book (and the second one as well most likely) - especially the last few lines of the introduction. As for the book - I am going to go in a corner and be very ashamed that I had not read it earlier.

The Dark is Rising - Very different from the first. Same not for the Introduction although this one is not as bad in revealing big secrets. Same art (expected...), same comments on it.

Waiting for the arrival of The Postman Always Rings Twice. In the meantime I'm continuing with a Joyce pictoliterature binge. Another work by Alfonso Zapico, 'La ruta Joyce' that complements his Dublinés work, and onward to Dotter of Her Father's Eyes a story about Lucia, Joyce's only daughter and her very sad and troubled life.

Have just finished Three Men in a Boat illustrated by Paul Cox (also illustrates Wodehouse), which was the reason I acquired on the second hand market. Very enjoyable work, augmented as I have visited some of the places described.
Now The Origins Of The Second World War 1919-1939, which is an altogether different work. Hopefully it will provide some of the background political information that I should have had(!) when reading The Mask of Dimitrios last year.
>155 AnnieMod: enjoyed your comments on The Mask of Dimitrios, which as you comment seems prescient (or very well informed) to have been written in 1939.

Recently finished The Wars of the Roses by Desmond Seward, which I thoroughly enjoyed. He does a very fine job explaining the background without ever becoming pedantic. It is an interesting approach, and not one I would have chosen, but he does manage to get most of the narrative history in there, though I found I needed to supplement my chronology a bit. His approach is to tell the story of the wars through 5 selected characters: Margaret Beaufort (Countess of Richmond, mother to Henry VII), John Morton (Bishop of Ely and later Archbishop of Canterbury), William Hastings, John Lambert (a citizen of London), and Elizabeth Shore (a mistress to both Edward IV and William Hastings).

I am currently reading the new publication A Traveller In Time by Alison Uttley. This has been a very pleasant surprise in terms of my shear enjoyment of both the story and the design choices. If anyone has been tip-toeing around this one presuming it is a story for children simply because the main character is a young girl, please be reassured that it is every bit a book written for adults. The author has a lovely writing style, quite vivid and quite suspenseful. The book itself, has the most wonderful and appropriate illustrations that resemble oil paintings (think cheerful ones, not dark ones). Because the book involves time travel (always a longstanding topical interest of mine since childhood), there are really two books in one. HIGHLY recommended.

>158 UK_History_Fan: glad to read that recommendation about the Uttley book, because I slipped in an order for it along with the Asimov. Really looking forward to this parcel!

I have just started Master and Commander, principally to see what all the fuss is about. It isn't my usual sort of thing...although perhaps it should be, as I am enjoying it so far. I wouldn't have ever thought about reading this type of book if FS had not piqued my interest by investing so much in the entire series.

My inner snob is appalled, but what does he know anyway!

I am currently reading the FS 1995 edition of William Russell – Special Correspondent of the Times, and cannot believe that I let this fascinating book languish on my bookshelf, gathering dust, for many years. While I knew of Russell’s reporting from the Crimea, I was not aware that he covered many other areas of conflict, such as the Zulu War, Battle of Königgrätz, etc.

A thoroughly enjoyable and interesting book.

>161 Conte_Mosca: Master and Commander is very good rather than brilliant. However with Post Captain, and beyond, the series is brilliant and very addictive: O'Brian gets more fully into his stride with highly absorbing plots, deeper characterisation, and always amazing historical detail.

Currently reading Tuchman's The March of Folly, one her four works published in Folio. Learning about the grotesque abuses and corruption of the Renaissance Popes makes you wonder how there could have been any doubt as to the Reformation succeeding!

>155 AnnieMod:, 158

Thanks for the short reviews on Over Sea, Under Sea; The War of the Roses; and A Traveller in Time. I've been eyeing all three of them, so when I've recovering from my spending spree, I'll pick them up.

Well after A Traveller In Time I decided to continue my reading somewhat thematically, and although the next book was not about time travel, it was about a young girl and her fantasy world. I finally got around to re-reading (first time in elementary school, perhaps 3rd grade) the Folio Society version of Secret Garden. Didn't enjoy it nearly as much as A Traveller In Time, but it was still a worthwhile read. The Folio edition is scrumptious with delightful turn-of-the-century period illustrations on glossy paper. The cloth binding is also quite nice with a silky smooth texture that makes for a very enjoyable hand-held experience.

After that (yes, I've been on a bit of a reading tear lately), it was a couple of Folio Society Josephine Tey books as I wrapped up both The Franchise Affair and Brat Farrar in a couple of days each. Since the latter book is basically about murder and stolen identity, I thought it appropriate to dust off my Patricia Highsmith trilogy beginning with The Talented Mr. Ripley. I have seen and loved the movie, so now it is fun to go back and read the book. So far it seems rather familiar from the film.

I'm reading The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Fascinating cases but a bit dispiriting that nothing can be done for so many of them.

I just started re-reading Foundation. I haven't read in close to 40 years but I was immediately transported back to being a teenager devouring science fiction. The Folio edition is lovely.

Trying to finish Mansfield Park, so I can begin The Hobbit. I have had my tickets for the film preordered for a month.

> I read the Hobbit to my kids at bedtime over the summer. Look forward to taking them to the film.

Current bedtime reading with the kids is Fellowship of the Ring, while for myself I am reading If This is a Man.

>169 DCBlack:
I always feel pleased when I hear that someone is reading If This is a Man. An unforgettable book, that grabbed me emotionally as few other books have.

>170 GoFurther:

I just finished If This is a Man and thought it was an amazing--and heart rending--book. I'm looking forward to The Truce. And thanks for your recommendation of the Russell; it has been sitting collecting dust on my book shelf too and now I'll pick it up and give it a look (although I'm currently wading through Bloch's Feudal Society--absolutely fascinating book).

>169 DCBlack: I've just ordered A Christmas Carol in Danish from the library to read to my niece. It's going to be a different experience. If only she could understand English.

Agree re If This is a Man, a book everyone should read; I feel my heart wrenching just to think of it.

I have to say I agree with EclecticIndulgence... I have read Moby Dick twice now and I thought the story itself was very good but the over abundance of details and tangents that Melville goes into really drag the book down.

IMHO: I think if Moby dick was released in this day and age it would have been a much shorter book, as I cannot fathom any editor allowing it to be released in its current state. There is allot of fat that could easily be trimmed without losing any part of the actual story or spirit behind it.

>174 EclecticIndulgence:, 175

Ah but you are describing exactly what makes Moby Dick so great. It isn't simply a narrative about chasing a whale, it is a multi-layered metaphysical wonder, the subject being nothing less than the human condition. Personally I do not think there is a single misplaced or superfluous word.

If you read it purely for the narrative, I can understand the frustration but the secret is to lose yourself in the words. Don't chase the story, let the story find you...

> 176

Normally I would agree with you and just accept that I dont really get the book (it happens to the best of us)... but I dont know how page after page of describing whales (in general) has anything to do with the story itself, or any deeper meaning that I am missing.

But I may just be biased as I am not a Melville fan at all...

>175 SirFolio16:

Actually if it was published today, it probably would have been twice the current length. A few decades ago it would have had all the extra scenes cut out from an editor most likely...

171 / 173 - I absolutely concur. Everyone should read these books.

174 / 178 - One of the best reading experiences of my life was the FS LE of Moby Dick: a chapter or so a night and every word savoured.

>174 EclecticIndulgence:/175 Well, you can always do like I did the first time I read it, and pick up the Reader's Digest edition.

Actually, I finally went back last year and read the complete Folio LE, and I much prefer the full version. I love the chapters where Ishmael drifts off into daydream while standing watch at the masthead, and waxes transcendental. I love how in chapter after chapter, every aspect of whaling becomes a metaphor for some aspect of life and the human condition.

And the remarkable sense of humor throughout, including the rich irony of lthe following:

" So ignorant are most landsmen of some of the plainest and most palpable wonders of the world, that without some hints touching the plain facts, historical and otherwise, of the fishery, they might scout at Moby Dick as a monstrous fable, or still worse and more detestable, a hideous and intolerable allegory."

It has been some time since I read Moby Dick (one of the few books I've read multiple times) - I need to do so again. I recall being frustrated the first time I read it for the same reasons mentioned above, but on the second and third readings wishing there was more rather than less.

And here's my time to brag about family, which I think I've done before.

My son read that book.

Shortly after his 7th birthday.

Completed Cover Her Face yesterday. I love the illustrations. Started the first book of the Foundation Trilogy.

For those who would like to listen to Moby Dick:
http://www.mobydickbigread.com/

Currently reading:

FS - I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Paperback - The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
Kindle - Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks

FS - City of God (vol I, about to start on vol II), by Augustine
Kindle - Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (vol II), by Edward Gibbon

FS - Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad and Feudal Society by Marc Bloch
The Age of Equipoise by W. L. Burn

> 188 What do you think of the FS edition of City of God?, is it worth the £90? I'm tempted but still unsure.

I'm sure this has been discussed in other threads, but how is the printing of the Kelmscott Chaucer? Did they recreate dies and print the pages from the block, or did they scan the original and print the FS version by offset?

>192 aaronpepperdine:

I'm pretty sure they scanned an original--I believe it was one held by the British Museum (but I'm probably wrong about all the details so hopefully someone will correct my faulty memory).

I've found it helpful to treat Middle English as if it were some strange dialect and to read passages out aloud. :-)

I've ordered a somewhat cheaper edition of the Kelmscott Chaucer, but alas, the first copy arrived with a flawed gilded edge and the replacement had glue smeared across the fore-edge. I took this to mean that the Book Gods wish me to be satisfied with my old, battered copy of the Riverside Chaucer, which I bought in Galway 13 years ago.

Finished Foundation, and in honor of Pride & Prejudice turning 200 years old this Monday, I have started to reread it.

>192 aaronpepperdine:,193

"Only 425 copies of the Kelmscott Chaucer were printed (not 325, as originally announced), so it is not surprising that a number of facsimiles have been produced to satisfy the demand for this legendary work. Head and shoulders above the rest is the Basilisk Press edition of 1975. Printed at the John Roberts Press by letterpress from line blocks, on paper commissioned as a perfect match to the original, it is an astonishing recreation, and even experts have difficulty distinguishing one from the other.

It is thanks to the kindness of Mr. Bernard Roberts, proprietor of the John Roberts Press at that time, that the Folio Society facsimile came into being. He loaned his own copy to be disbound and photographed for the printing of this edition." (Closing note from the pamphlet accompanying the 2002 FS publication).

A photographic reproduction of a facsimile, then. Interesting that the Basilisk Press edition itself, if current Abe prices are a worthwhile guide, is on the whole valued above but not so dramatically above the Folio LE. (Six copies of the Basilisk, £1600 to £2992: five copies of the Folio, four between £925 and £1750 and the fifth at £3120). Four copies of the actual Kelmscott Chaucer there range from £48777 to £61780, with a fifth scarce version bound by the Doves Bindery at £146330.

Having just now finished the second of two uni essays due tomorrow, I'm about to reward myself with the second novel of the Mapp and Lucia series, Lucia in London, FS of course :)

>190 N11284:

It's pretty good. The layout is wonderful - the text includes chapter summaries and the footnotes are very appropriate: biblical citations and classical citations (esp. from Vergil and Cicero) are noted consistently in the footnotes, and obscure references are explained in the footnotes.

The illustrations are also gorgeous - beautifully done photographs of MS pages from several editions of the City of God held by a French library (can't remember which one offhand).

If you're vacillating in terms of the text, here's what I tell people who want to read this stuff (full disclosure: medieval historian with training in Latin and medieval theology, esp. Scholasticism and Platonism and Aristotelian philosophy insofar as they relate to Scholasticism; my primary interest, however, is medieval English social and legal history).

If this is your first time reading Augustine, I strongly advise reading only Part II (i.e. volume II in the FS edition). This is where the real genius of City of God resides; this is where Augustine is at his best. Part I (i.e. vol I) frequently frustrates first-time readers because of its turgid and verbose nature; Augustine is very prone to repeated repetitions throughout and generally spends these 400+ pages complaining about the 'earthly city' in terms of Rome and pagan philosophy (esp. the pre-Socratics, Egyptian, and Eastern philosophy). It also doesn't help that Augustine treats his readers as "learned idiots", as I like to call them: he expects that you have a solid understanding of the Roman writers (esp. Cicero, Virgil, Livy, and Sallust) and Roman history, and that you have some understanding of the basics of Greek philosophy, so that's the "learned" bit. The "idiot" bit is that he keeps reminding you why pagan history and religion don't hold a candle to the true religion of Christianity and does so in a very pompous manner that belies a very genuine zeal for the Christian religion (which is perhaps understandable, as one of his favourite straw men in the whole work is the Manichean sect, of which he used to be a member).

So, in short, if you know you'll give Augustine a good go, I'd absolutely purchase this edition. If you're not interested in slogging through about 450p of dense Greek philosophy and constant references to mostly obscure points in Roman history and legend and just want to focus on the key bits of this work (i.e. vol II, pretty much), I'd give this a pass and get a cheap paperback edition or the Kindle version, and spend your money on another FS set.

Otherwise I'd start brushing up on Roman history (Livy and Sallust) and literature (Virgil's Aeneid and Cicero's writings) and Greek philosophy, especially the pre-Socratics and Plato before diving into Augustine's work. :)

Hope this helps! :)

>198 scholasticus: Many thanks for a very detailed answer. I have read the Confessions and am tempted by this. The latest addition to the sales however might direct my meagre available funds in another direction.

The Days of Abandonment

Breath of fresh air.

Like many, I was inspired by the James Wood review of her works.
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2013/01/21/130121crbo_books_wood?cur...

My credit card statement.

>201 cronshaw: - that's never pleasure reading, when one is suffering from FAD.

Mine this month was painful for non-book reasons. Next month's will be painful for book reasons, especially if I add to my winter sale order. Not to mention my daughter's college textbooks, and their outrageous prices.

Just discovered and reading two marvelous books, beautifully produced but not FS ... the Art of Small things by John Mack.. A wonderful but serious book about gorgeous objects in the British Museum ( published by the BM Press) and how they relate to one another. I've written up a quick review (first on LT). Second choice is The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund De Waal, illustrated edition ..(Chatto & Windus) a 2011 Best seller and deservedly so and in a strange way , as it tells a family's tragic but triumphant history in the 20th Century through a collection of Netsuke, relates to the Mack book but in a surprising way ... Both books raise questions implicitly and indirectly why do people collect beautiful or unusual objects and how do small treasures survive through the centuries ? How do families survive ? ... both books recommended and give great pleasure.

Incidentally I see there are over 1200 LT members with this book (The Hare with Amber Eyes ) and over 50 reviews and the reviews are very mixed , from loving the book to finding it pretentious and not getting past page 100 .. I think the appeal of the book depends on your own perspective, travel experiences and a readiness to want to read 20th Century social/biographical turbulent history . And if it gets you interested in finding out more then turning to the Mack book or opening a web page or a book on Netsukes that is a bonus.

201 > I nearly spit my Sprite all over my keyboard.

Anybody reading The Monk? This is a funny book, rather enjoyable. Although I feel that what I find enjoyable might be due to its being easy to read. I thought that it would be all about religion from cover to cover, but it proves varied, with many side stories, robbers, and crimes. And anyway, it's a good change after my first 3 volumes of Macaulay's History.

Hurrah for The Monk!

It's on my nightstand :) I might push it up the list.

Currently reading "London journal" by Boswell, its interesting enough, have read about 60 pages so far.

Thanks to the influence of a number of ongoing discussions on the FSD forum, I have three books on the go at present, all of which are re-reads:

- The Metamorphoses - Ovid (the FS edition with the prose translation by Mary Innes, read alongside the verse translation by David Raeburn, Penguin Classics). I started this to get me in the mood for The Complete Greek Tragedies which I had just ordered in the Winter Sale.

- The Outlaws of the Marsh - Shi Nai'an (aka The Water Margin, tr. by Sidney Shapiro, Foreign Language Press). I am reading this to get me in the mood for Three Kingdoms which I expect to order imminently.

- Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - Pu Songling (tr. by John Minford, Penguin Classics). This is our read-along book on the Ancient China LT forum.

>203 Africansky1: Katherine, I am one of those that loved The Hare With The Amber Eyes. On the related subject of collecting, this book might interest you. I picked it up when it was first published about 18 months ago having read a positive review in The Literary Review.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Magpies-Squirrels-Thieves-Victorians-Collected/dp/184354...

At the moment, I'm reading The Face of Battle (FS), along with A Sort of Life, by Graham Greene (from Slightly Foxed), as well as volume II of Gibbon's Decline and Fall on the Kindle.

This should be a pretty good start to February, methinks.

Finally, after years of putting it of started Lord of the Rings. Me thinks the paper / parchment sides of the Folio set won't take kindly to too much handling?

Meant to add that I have just finished Master and Commander and don't feel like I understood more than a quarter of it.

Just finished The War of the Worlds (LEC edition). Interesting read, but not as good as some of the other things I have read lately. I just started the EP (HP) edition of the poems of Yeats. This is part of the 100 greatest books series, which I started buying in 1989, so I don't remember when this book came in the mail. Regardless, this edition is beautiful. The illustrations are quite good, the paper is heavy, and the cover is very nice with a shamrock motif stamped in gold on green leather.

After that I am planning to read the FS edition of All's Quiet on the Western Front.

I am currently reading the FS edition of Martin Gilbert's The Holocaust. I think the most common ending for his sentences is "and gassed." A very powerful work.

> 216 - I'm currently reading Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. Powerful as well, and distressing to think that people killed millions so easily.

I'm reading a 1977 book of memoirs and travel written by a Spanish-Chinese woman, Marcela de Juan (Hwan), whose father was ambassador from China in Madrid last century (in the twenties and thirties). Marcela's mother was Belgian. Born in Havana where her father was briefly stationed, Marcela spent her childhood in Spain, her teenage years in China and then returned in her twenties to Spain where she became a translator and interpreter with the Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry. She founded the Spanish Association of Translators and Interpreters. Married to a Spaniard, she was a member of Spanish missions to the People's Republic and became well-known for translating classical Chinese poetry into Spanish. A fascinating life!

I am still working my way through the Water Margin. I am just over a quarter of the way through now, which leaves me with something of a dilemma, as I picked up The Three Kingdoms today from the MR. The Water Margin was only meant to whet my appetite until I got Three Kingdoms, but I can't leave it now...

...but how can I ignore the Three Kingdoms sitting in the corner looking a me?

Can I really consider reading two sprawling epics, each with hundreds of characters, simultaneously? Whilst also trying to read The Aeneid in Latin, which is another little challenge I have set myself to make amends for letting my once quite competent Latin get very rusty!

Aut viam invenium aut faciam!

> 219 - two of those would be far too much for me. I can't imagine trying to read all three simultaneously!

Just about finished Wolf Hall on the Kindle and loving every minute of it, no prizes for guessing that my next read will be Bring up the Bodies.

Just started the new FS version of the Foundation Trilogy (thank you Huxley for the suggestion); I've read about the first 70 pages yesterday night and although I have never read science fiction before, this was a bit hard to get into, with those references to the entries from Encyclopeda Galactica (what a great name in 1951! A bit trivial now). I did feel a bit of allusion to Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire without checking Wikipedia for the authors work. Other than that it is quite enjoyable and I can't wait to get back to it later tonight.

A bit off topic, but I didn't want to start a new thread or resurrect an ancient one.

I had mentioned a while back that I was reading the Folio edition of Lorna Doone. I quite enjoyed it, and was surprised to see a BBC rendition of it on the shelf at my local library. So, I watched it last night.

One word describes it, and that word is "travesty". I expected better from the BBC. Fitting a 520-page book into two and a half hours required some things to be cut out, but they also added a lot that wasn't in the book at all, made the main character act in ways the John Ridd of the book wouldn't even consider, and made occasional references to things in the book that had been cut out of the film. Some film adaptations are good, but others are terrible. Lorna Doone cries out for a miniseries, and the existing BBC production cries out for depositing in a landfill.

Rant over.

Just started "The Worst Journey in the World". Quite remarkable writing of events of 100 years ago. In many ways, very contemporary, in other ways, the events seem of another time and world.

> 223

Yes. Sometimes, even the BBC get it badly wrong. Another example of the Costume Travesty genre is their 1997 version of The Woman in White. The only passing resemblance to Wilkie Collins was his name, taken in vain, in the titles.

> 106

Having recently read Journey from Obscurity by Harold Owen (3 vols., OUP, 1963-65), I am now well into Dominic Hibberd's 2002 biography of Wilfred Owen. I really enjoyed his brother Harold's trilogy and felt I had got to know the family personally, so vivid are his descriptions. Hibberd tells us that Harold's chronology was frequently at fault, as was the spin he sometimes placed on events; but, while essential for a proper understanding of the geat poet, it doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the 'Journey'. And Harold's personal stories can have you on the edge of your seat: from possible pedophilia in Edwardian Birkenhead to being trapped without light in a stricken hulk during a force ten gale in South America, to being invited to a non-existent dinner given by a senile old colonial butterfly collector in the West African jungle.

>226 boldface: Sounds fascinating Jonathan, I will have to seek the Harold Owen trilogy out. On a slightly related theme, I have John Stuart Roberts' biography of Siegfried Sassoon sitting on my bedside table. I have to confess that I have only read the introduction so far, as I have several weighty tomes already on the go, but it is there for me to read next, and I am looking forward to it. The "war poets" are a particular interest of mine. Whilst nowhere near as in-depth a study as the Hibberd and Harold Owen volumes, I thoroughly enjoyed Nicholas Murray's The Red Sweet Wine of Youth last year. I also recommend Jean Moorcroft Wilson's biography of Isaac Rosenberg which I read a few years ago.

EDIT: Just had to add that Now All Roads Lead To France: A Life Of Edward Thomas was one of my favourite books of 2011. I ordered it the day it was released having read glowing reviews, and read it straight through twice in a week. Very highly recommended.

Am currently reading Folio's In The South Seas by R.L.Stevenson, a wonderful collection of his travel narratives of the South Pacific. Stevenson is impressive both in his perception of empire, of natives and foreigners, and in his evocation of the nature of the islands themselves, quite absorbing - you almost see the approaching outline of an island through the dawn mist and smell the vegetation as his ship approaches.

The Folio volume is a handy size, bound in a beautiful shade of blue buckram - the closest I'm going to get to the shades of the Pacific for a while.

I have been boning up on my Hundred Years War knowledge, and in the process have discovered two Folio Society gems. My first of four books was a paperback by Desmond Seward (A Brief History of the Hundred Years War), then I read the 2004 FS account by Alfred Burne, simply titled The Hundred Years War, followed by the Limited Editions Club edition of Froissart, as translated by Lord Berners, (The Chronicles of England, France, Spain and Other Places Adjoining), and most recently the 1979 Folio Society edition of The Life and Campaigns of the Black Prince.

I have to admit I ordered the 2004 Folio book by Burne when it was first released as one of my renewal books, and it remained shrinkwrapped after it arrived until my recent read. This is a shame as it is a beautifully produced book. The cover illustration which includes some sort of raised medallion chivalric design (I am completely incapable of describing accurately anything remotely artistic!) is one of the most beautiful of any of my Folio books. The typesetting is very pleasing to the eye with wide margins. There are the usual high calibre Folio historical illustrations throughout. As far as the writing itself, well this was definitely not my favorite version of events, though it was worthwhile. The introduction does warn that this is a purely military history which gives exceptionally shortchanged coverage to the political and social context in which the military campaigns take place. But I was so mesmerized by the beauty of the book design that the author's lack of comprehensive coverage didn't detract from an overall pleasant reading experience.

But the real gem was the book on the Black Prince. It is a compliation (some of them translated to English for the first time by frequent Folio contributor Richard Barber) of first hand accounts of the Black Prince's contributions to the Hundred Years War, including his famous capture of King John, alliance with Pedro The Cruel, and troubles with his difficult Acquitaine subjects. The book itself is quite small but the cloth book covering is a vibrant red, equisitely pleasing to the touch, with a deeply impressed cover design of the Black Prince's coat of arms. Inside the endpapers are original maps of France, Spain and the Low Countries produced exclusively for this edition. Unlike most of my Folio books, it had a colophon page at the end which reads:

Set in 12 point Van Dijck type leaded 1 point
with Old English Text for display
Printed by W&J Mackay Limited, Chatham
the text by letterpress and
the illustrations by four-colour litho
on cartridge paper.
Bound by W&J Mackay Limited
using Red Bridge Textis cloth blocked
with the arms of the Black Prince

I was delighted to find a book as recent as 1979 still being printed letterpress by FS. The Old English display text is particularly tactile and clearly letterpress. It is only 139 pages and can easily be read in a day or two. It was nice to actually read some of the first hand accounts of the battles written by the Prince himself. But most prominent are the accounts of Gerald le Baker and the Chandos Herald. The illustrations are special as well, though not as plentiful as I would like. The list of illustrations page also includes this explanation:

"The illustrations above are taken from the British Library manuscripts Cotton Nero E ii, pt. 2 and Royal 20 c.viii, finely illuminated copies of the Grandes Chroniques of France probably dating from the last quarter of the fourteenth century. The iluminations show how an artist working about thirty years after the prince's exploits imagined the different scenes; the armour and costume is that of the late fourteenth centry rather than the prince's own day."

I picked this up second hand and the slipcase is very worn and tattered but obviously did its work protecting the book as the book itself was mint condition. Based on the spine resistance to opening, I doubt it had ever been read. Something that should easily have cost 10x its price.

I highly recommend snagging a copy of both of these books if the subject matter is of any interest to you.

> 229

Thanks, Sean. I've just ordered Life and Campaigns ... . At £12.95, it should be easier to convince my history teacher wife that we need it urgently (see Gray's Poems thread)!

>229 UK_History_Fan:
Enabled again! Damn it!
I have gone three weeks without buying a book recommended on this forum, and now you go and ruin it. At least my Black Prince was only $7.50 (plus $15 postage - sigh - the joys of living on the other side of the planet to most books). Purportedly it is in fine condition. I will await its arrival to confirm.

>229 UK_History_Fan:, picked up Folio Burne, Folio Black Prince, and paperback Seward recently. All on my TBR list, along with paperback "The Black Prince" by David Green. The two Folio's mentioned are beautiful, both of mine were in pristine condition when I bought them, apparently unread. The Folio Campaigns of the Black Prince came without a slipcase but the Burne came in a slipcase. Got them both for very little money. In fact the Burne had been sitting in that shop (a fairly busy "Half Price Books" store) for at least six months. Both Folios seemed unwanted, so I decided to give them a home!

Well after the fine people of the FSD have enabled me to hundreds of dollars in purchases for books I did not know existed previously, I am more than happy to return the favor! :-)

I was recently browsing through Folio 60 ( surely one of the most dangerous of occupations known to devotees) when I was struck by a description of Virgil's Eclogues where Paul Nash says "The results are printed in pale brown and , combined with the elegant typography, make this one of the prettiest of all Folio editions".

Coincidentally I saw this edition on E-bay later that week and, to make a long story short it arrived in the post today.
Paul Nash was not wrong in his description. A lovely , lovely edition. I have just read the introduction by Gilbert Highet and will begin the poems tomorrow. It is a very slim book , just 62 pages of poems plus the introduction and illustrations, beautifully presented with a delightful pattern on the boards and really subtle illustrations. It is one of the reasons I love FS.

> 234

Once more enabled. Have ordered a copy.

I have to stop looking at these threads. I'm wondering if I should pick up a copy too.

>235 drasvola: Antonio , you will not regret this !

Currently reading Five Red Herrings (alternating between Folio and Kindle, depending on whether travelling or at home), but have been to the Members' Room today and bought Loving - having read the opening few pages - and will now have to hurry with my Kirkcudbright mystery!
I looked at Orlando whilst at the MB, but was not immediately won over. The other new book that caught my attention was the diminutive The Girls of Slender Means, which looks and feels gorgeous - another one for the Wishlist!

> 237

Have received The Eclogues and it is a very attractive edition, John! Just 61 pages printed as Mr. Nash says in creamy "pale brown" with a beautiful Centaur type. The illustrations, or 'decorations' as they are described, are perfect for the subject matter. It was interesting for me to compare how the Latin comes across. One of the earliest translations into Spanish (Virgil's poems are also known as Bucólicas) was done by Fray Luis de León. Have to say that the modern English compared to the older Spanish is clearer. Something, I guess, in favour of newer translations at least once every century...

I seem to have a few books on the go at the moment, but I am currently enjoying the very wonderful The Wooden World by N.A.M. Rodger. A perfect read for all of you fans of The Aubrey-Maturin series, as a number of others have commented before (and indeed which led me to this book in the first place). I have only read Master and Commander myself, but what I have read of The Wooden World so far has certainly helped me better understand the context to, and the technical jargon of, that particular novel.

I have just finished Edith Grossman's majestic translation of Don Quixote. Absolutely marvellous. It has been a few years since I read Don Quixote (in the Smollett translation last time). I am sorry I left it so long to re-read it!

I have now just started on the Maudes' translation of Anna Karenina (Having only previously read Rosemary Edmonds' translation).

Congratulations, Michael! There's always something new when reading Don Quixote, and Edith Grossman's translation is, indeed, the very best up to now. Most critics seem to agree.

I've just finished the Folio edition of St. Peter's Umbrella, a book I would not have even known about if not for this group. A short and very charming book, filled with the biases of its age but with a number of striking descriptions and conversations. Highly recommended.

The Grossman translation of Don Quixote is something I truly must read soon - I've read the novel three times, but never in this translation. Other books tend to jump ahead of it though.

St. Peter's Umbrella by Miksath, also one of my favourites, but being Magyar, I am definitely a bit biased.

A few interesting things happened last Saturday. For once, it was a particularly quiet day, with no commitments to attend, weekend chores to complete or catch up work to do, and then everybody else in the house had things to do that did not require my participation. Hence, a rare “free day”. So I approached one of my ever growing TBR piles and picked a book at random. It happened to be folio edition of If this is a Man by Primo Levi. I sat on my easy chair sometime around noon and I was totally absorbed for hours. In fact, I did not leave the chair till the book was completed sometime late evening. It certainly was one of the most rewarding and draining reading experiences of my life. I can’t remember the last time I read a book cover to cover in one sitting that transported , touched and inspired me the way If this is a man did. A few days have passed and the story is still with me.

>246 penitent:
I am always pleased when someone finds If This is a Man as compelling and touching as I did. Will you be reading the sequel, The Truce? It covers Primo Levi’s long journey home to Turin, Italy after the Russians liberated the camp in January ’45. It is quite an odyssey, as the journey home takes him from Poland east to the USSR, next to Romania, Hungary, Austria, i.e. I found it to be as absorbing as If This is a Man.

>246 penitent:, 247 my impressions exactly. I can hardly think of the book without choking up. Will look out for The Truce. A suggestion for FS?
>248 EclecticIndulgence: the periodic table is entirely different. But good reading.

>249 overthemoon: The FS did publish The Truce in an edition to match If This is a Man. Reading it was a complete eye-opener as to the chaos in the period after the liberation of the camps.

>249 overthemoon: how did I miss that?

It's harder to find than "If This is a Man" but there are copies around - a few currently on abe although two are at crazy prices.

210. Yes. .... Just bought the Victorian collecting book and looks promising .. Still to read it Thanks for the recommendation ... Let me know others .

>247 GoFurther:
Thank you for the recommendation. I’m aware of The Truce. In fact, it is top priority in my next book purchase/hunt.
>248 EclecticIndulgence:
The periodic table is currently out of print in FS. Hoping for a reprint soon,
>249 overthemoon:, >250 HuxleyTheCat:
And I guess the hunting for the matched edition of the truce starts! Worse comes to worse, Amazon has copies available from second hand sellers of a combined volume of both the truce and if this is a man.

I am enjoying Anna Karenina, now about 200 pages in, but I fancied something different for my 4 hour round trip train journey to London today so took with me my FS copy of Primo Levi's The Periodic Table, and read it through from cover to cover. It was so utterly absorbing! I will follow up with my FS copies of If This Is Man and The Truce, both of which I have been meaning to read for some time, as soon as I have finished with Tolstoy. I know they are very different to The Periodic Table, but the chapter on Cerium has helped pave the way...

I went on a Dickens binge this past month and re-read , Hard Times , Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend. Then followed this up with the wonderful The Third Policeman

>242 drasvola:

After reading your comments on Don Quixote throughout FSD, I've finally bitten the bullet and will start reading Don Quixote this weekend. I admittedly started it about ten years ago, in the summer before I started university, but gave up for some reason or other.

Quite looking forward to giving it another shot, especially now that I have a far better understanding of European history and the like!

'The German Genius' by Pater Watson.A great read that gives real depth and proportionate perspective to the country.It may be a tad cold and chronological in its' style(if I am being uber critical),and not have the panache and
verve of a book like,say, 'The Rise and Fall of the British Empire" by Lawrence James,but this Teutonic offering is one I am enjoying nonetheless.

The author of 'The German Genius' also has another book listed for sale on the FS website('Ideas-Fire to Freud),and once a reasonably priced eBay copy of it comes up in the ether,I will pull the trigger on that one!!

>258 Daithioc: I can heartily recommend Peter Watson's Fire to Freud, it's a majestic account of the evolution and variety of human thought in different cultures across the millenia.

>259 cronshaw:. Thankyou for that hearty recommendation.I had suspected as much,and look forward to reading the aforementioned offering at some stage.

I finished Josef Škvoreckỳ’s "Bass Saxophone" over the weekend, which is actually two novellas (the title story and "Emöke") and an introduction titled "Red Music". I don’t know if I got the recommendation here or not, but if I did I want to thank whoever it was. It was a superb book, and would make an excellent addition to the Folio Society’s publication list (are you reading, our mole?). Very highly recommended.

I just finished reading The Emigrants by W.G.Sebald, a hauntingly beautiful work dealing with the themes of migration and memory in Jews who emigrated from Germany during the first half of the twentieth century. I had previously read The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon, describing the life of afro-Caribbean immigrants in London in the 1950s, an innovative novel following several different characters, narrated in Selvon's 'standardised' Caribbean dialect, and both humorous and full of pathos. The books are part of my current OU lit. course and both would make great Folios!

I am reading Rogue Male after finishing The Professor (the old quarter letter binding - I really like it...) and The Secret Garden.

Just Finished reading the picaresque,"Flashman on the March".Love the satire.

Reading The Odyssey (transl. T. E. Shaw) a.k.a. T.E. Lawrence. Surprised by not being able to read it in poem. I'm not sure what you call it.

> 265

A "Prose Poem", perhaps ? The translation in the Loeb Classics is a prose version as well. I quite like it.

"White Teeth" by "Zadie Smith".A hugely well-received writing debut from this lady,that I have been meaning to get around to reading for a couple of years now.As I type,it's sitting right in front of me awaiting a first page-opening.
Ciao.

I've now finished the three volumes about Wilfred Owen and his family, Journey from Obscurity, by the poet's younger brother, Harold Owen (>226 boldface: above), as well as Dominic Hibberd's 2002 biography. I must say I almost feel as though I know the family personally now, so I shall end my quest into all things Owen with Harold's unofficial fourth volume, covering his life as a struggling artist post-1918, Aftermath.

(Adjusting the touchstones, I never realised how many books called Aftermath there are. One by Robert Asprin kept coming up unbidden, which was a headache.)

Having read Robert Byron's masterly The Road to Oxiana too many years ago, I am now revelling in his earlier Europe in the Looking Glass.
I now have The Road to Oxiana in the 2000 Folio Society edition, but had to buy Europe in the Looking Glass due to the wonderfully evocative cover on the Hesperus Press edition.
Europe in the Looking Glass is written by a 20 year old about driving through Europe in 1925 and is full of humour (sometimes unintended), both in Byron's strongly held artistic convictions and for arch one-liners, such as "The Romans were vulgar before the rest of Europe had even become refined."
However, he opens a window into a lost past, where our narrator travels from name dropping hotel to hotel, automobiles are still a novelty in themselves and the Italian fascists are a source of amusement. It would be lovely to have a Folio edition with contemporary photographs, but with only 9 copies on LT, I unfortunately do not think it would be a bestseller.

Would love to read a review of the earlier Byron book on Europe . I see there is no review on LT . Carlton C please oblige, based on your message above. I have just done a review of Hllaire Belloc's The Bad Child's pop-up Book of Beasts and that led me into Hillaire Belloc's background . Not a writer who seems to have survived well but has he been published by FS ? I have just read Voyages of Discovery by Tony Rice and given that a rave in a review.

>270 Africansky1: Indeed he has, Cautionary Tales and other verses

>270 Africansky1:...very true,said by many(whomever "they" might be) to be his magnum opus. Very entertaining read.
I was given the cautionary tales to read,by my grandmother,at about the age of 14.I doubt if it could be a
bona-fide work for kiddies in very young years to read though,lol,as nightmares may follow......

>270 Africansky1: Review of Europe in the Looking Glass now posted Katherine. If you enjoy travel books, you will revel in this.

273 replying her as will be read by other LT members - loved your review of the Byron book and a book I shall be seeking to acquire. Yes sounds like a travel book that is a delight and written at an interesting and somewhat innocent time. thank you, Carlton C.

>273 CarltonC: Your review certainly makes me want to read that book too. Another thumbs up from me.

P. G. Wodehouse- Joy in the Morning

Fantastic book from a great author.

One quote (from a multitude of funny quotes). The scene is a girl telling Bertie Wooster that she had gotten
engaged to be married and to whom. She asked if he approved?????......................

.............."Thoroughly. Nice work , in my opinion. I think you are both on to a good thing and would be well
advised to push it along with the utmost energy. I have always considered you an extremely sound young
potato......"

** edit- my book is 'Joy in the Morning' but when the link is clicked it brings us to 'Carry On Jeeves'.
Strange,or as Bertie would've said, just not cricket old chap.

>276 Daithioc:
When you did the touchstone, pull "more" and select "Joy in the Morning". It defaults on the Carry on book because of the way you typed the title :)

P. G. Wodehouse- Joy in the Morning

>277 AnnieMod:.

Aha,thankyou.

You are a topper,as Bertie would say.

I just finished The Black Tulip which I think I picked up in the last summer sale. It was delightful. The story entirely predictable but still thoroughly entertaining. The translation was easy to read and the illustrations are a good fit with the story.

The problem with Wodehouse is that while you are reading him, you start dreaming, thinking and talking in Woosterish.

>280 overthemoon:

London Mayor Boris Johnson obviously reads him all the time!

I am having a hard life on holiday by the swimming pool in Crete, sipping cold beer and getting in lots of reading! A great chance to both read some new books, and re-read some old favourites. No FS volumes of course! So far I have got through the following:

Death of a Red Heroine - Qiu Xiaolong. Here we are introduced to the poetry loving Chief Inspector Chen. Much more than merely a detective novel, this is a reflection on modern China in transition following Deng Xiapong's economic reforms, taking in a lot of wonderful Tang and Song Dynasty poetry along the way, and a good measure of other Chinese culture and literature too (Scenes from The Dream Of The Red Chamber are referenced liberally throughout).

Jamilia - Chingiz Aitmatov. A beautifully moving novella by the famous Kyrgyz author.

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald. I last read this over 20 years ago. It has lost none of its power in the intervening period.

Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert. A re-read of Adam Thorpe's masterful translation. Thorpe is a great poet and novelist in his own right, and it shows here. This is a tough novel to translate well, but Thorpe conveys the authentic voice of Flaubert brilliantly.

I have now just started Qiu Xiaolong's second Chen novel, A Loyal Character Dancer, and it is shaping up to be every bit as good as the first.

Having had a few months with little reading, I have had a lazy long weekend (Bank holiday in the UK) finishing Second Foundation, The Maltese Falcon and Blandings Castle (an Everyman, not (yet) published by FS).
I am now returning to A Buyer's Market in the A Dance to the Music of Time: First Movement, Spring.
I have posted a short review of The Maltese Falcon on the FS website, but my reading was overshadowed by the film and in particular, the actors.
Blandings Castle was enjoyable, but light, not having the plot complexity which can bring comic apoplexy!
A Buyer's Market is like a drinking mineral water after some lovely desserts, very cleansing for the literary palate, the structure being apparently simple, although constructed with complex sentences.

Perhaps then, I'm not alone in my habit of purchasing FS books but not touching them. I thought I was peculiar. Books should be handled. I could just wash my hands.

My only FS that has seen any action is Wharton's House of Mirth (enjoyed, would read again). I just purchased the Gormanghast Trilogy (FS) but have not started it.

Meanwhile, I just gobbled up about 30 old library books and castoffs from secondhand bookstores - including the works of Eudora Welty and three by Virginia Woolf, mostly paperbacks because I can beat them up and carry them with me. I've not begun to read them yet, since I'm busy cataloging my library :-)

> 282

If I were visiting Crete, I would try to take a side trip to Fodele, birthplace of El Greco. Have a great time, Michael!

Just finished the very peculiar The Golem.

Now as a break from ubiquitous Gatsby-mania (a great book, but the film looks ludicrous) I am reading Tender is the Night and finding it wonderful so far.

>287 EclecticIndulgence:

Yes, I read that many years ago - it's very good, so far as it goes. A great shame he never got to finish it.

His Pat Hobby stories are a personal favourite.

>287 EclecticIndulgence:, oh, the Last Tycoon was my least favourite; I think I liked his short stories best of all, though I still have to read the Beautiful and Damned.

>285 drasvola: Thanks for the tip Antonio. We were the wrong side of Heraklion this time, with no hire car, but we will be back again next year I suspect, and it is on my list of places to visit.

I have now finished my Cretan read-athon as we pack to come home. After completing the second Qiu Xiaolong novel, I moved on to:

Over Sea, Under Stone - Susan Cooper. An enjoyable enough children's story, but I have to confess I was not gripped. I believe the series picks up after the first book, but (and I know some will think this heretical) this one felt a little like a (slightly) more sophisticated Famous Five story. I will probably give Book Two a read to see if it really does pick up (although I am advised that The Grey King is the best in the series).

Confronting The Classics - Mary Beard. Great stuff. Drawn from her collection of expanded book reviews over the last couple of decades, this is witty, insightful and intelligent. A brilliant read for would-be classicists.

I now just need to choose a book for the flight home, alongside Mathaino Ellinika (Learning Greek) by A. Kessopoulos!

>290 Conte_Mosca:

The second book is where the series takes off as a fantasy one - the first one is a children story with fantasy elements. So yeah... give the second one a chance - just do not expect a direct continuation of the first story.

With my home computer dead (let us observe a moment of silence in its honor), I have been doing more reading than in past months. This is a good trend - that machine was a time eater.

My recent readings, none of which were FS:
- The Center Cannot Hold, by Elyn Saks - a revelatory (for me) memoir of a woman dealing with her paranoid schizophrenia
- Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell - I doubt it will be read in 2113, but it was a fun read in 2013
- Medusa's Gaze and Vampire's Bite: The Science of Monsters, by Matt Kaplan - interesting, but not great
- Killing the Messenger, by Thomas Peele - a chilling story of a cult-like offshoot of the Black Muslim movement, in Oakland, California, that quickly descended into criminality
- On Killing, by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman - certainly unpleasant in topic, and I haven't yet reached the controversial section about video games, but vital reading in my opinion

I think I'll re-read The Great Gatsby (Westvaco edition) next, given the fact that people are talking about it and it's a fairly quick read. Then some Umberto Eco.

I am on the last chapter of Whose Body and can not wait to continue! Wonderful author and character. Personally, I picture Lord Peter Wimsey as Ed Stoppard. I'm sure that will change once I start watching some tv mini series and movies on the books.

I'm currently reading the FS edition of Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber: And other Stories. I've read only the title story but if it's any indication of the others, this will be a crackin' good read of rippin' yarns. Carter writes fairy tales in the style of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales (if Oscar Wilde had been able to be as sexually explicit as Carter). Scrumptious.

I was whining elsewhere some days back about not being able to get to my recent Folio purchases because I was away from home. Now I'm happy to report that I've finally got to see, touch and smell my new books.

For the record, my copy of Thomas Gray's poems is number 169. My copy of van Gogh's sketches is number 68.

Both books are magnificent in their own style. I love the visual impact that Blake produces and the intimacy suggested by the evocative work of van Gogh. I will be taking some time to pour over these.

From the sale, I only ordered the Folk Tales Legends set which is very beautifully bound and well produced besides being the perfect complement for the Narratives.

Of course, nothing could keep me from getting other books, easily obtained from local (Madrid) sources. I have already mentioned The Art of a Book. For my other burning interest, I have added the first two volumes, in pictoliterature fashion, that present WW2 from an alternative viewpoint, that is, Adolf Hitler was murdered in 1939 and the war goes on in 'as if' mode (the series in titled appropiately WW2.2). Volume 2 describes Spain's entry into the war and the invasión of Gibraltar! It is a French series based on a concept by David Chauvel.

Other works in digital mode and/or physical form have also been added to my reading days during this waiting time. One is the development of a strange idea, in manga style, that relates Japanese cultural love for outdoor thermal bathing with similar love from the Romans for INDOOR baths. Also a series. In e-book form I have become acquainted with some who-done-it stories with some very peculiar twists. And to end this report, two other books, one on wine "married" to famous movies and performers, and another on the economic crisis and how some people come to find solutions for a very difficult time.

Forgot to mention that, enabled again by fellow devotees (I believe that Conte_Mosca was behind this this time), I have received two editions of Macbeth, one the Jesse M. Lander with laser cut-outs and the other in the Collector's Library. In this last collection I have also received The Picture of Dorian Gray.

My marathon on the lives of First World war poets continues. Having finished Harold Owen's trilogy about the Owen family, Journey from Obscurity and Dominic Hibberd's biography of Wilfred Owen, which is a valuable corrective on Harold's view protective (I'll never make it as a poet), I was intrigued by Harold's encounters with Siegfried Sassoon and the way the latter could be charming one minute and cut him (and other people) dead the next.

Now I've read Sassoon's three published accounts of his early life:
1. The three volumes of Sherston's Memoirs, Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man, Memoirs of an Infantry Officer and Sherston's Progress;
2. His three volumes of autobiography, The Old Century and Seven More years, The Weald of Youth and Siegfried's Journey;
3. The three published volumes of his Diaries; not to mention, of course, his poems.
But I realised after reading Harold that I was lacking an outsider's view of the man.

To my rescue come the biographies by Jean Moorcroft Wilson (2 vols., 1998 and 2003) and Max Egremont (2005). After having a look at both I see that Jean Wilson is an 'English' academic, while Max Egremont has a degree in Modern History, so I will be interested to see how their relative approaches to the subject differ. I can already see that the latter seems to be more literary (in its style).

However, I shall go first with Jean Moorcroft Wilson's Siegfried Sassoon: The Making of a War Poet : A Biography (1886-1918), for no other reason than that it was published first.

>297 boldface: Have you seen any of the work of Francis Ledwidge? This is from my favourite, Soliloquy.

"And now I'm drinking wine in France,
The helpless child of circumstance.
To-morrow will be loud with war,
How will I be accounted for?"

The Soul of Man under Socialism by Oscar Wilde. Just finished reading this. My FS volume of OW only gives an excerpt of this glorious essay and does no justice to the whole.

>298 N11284:

No, I don't think so. I'll look him up. Thanks.

>299 LesMiserables: I have a very handsome three-volume Folio Society (1993) set of Oscar Wilde's works in cream cloth with art nouveau flourishes across the three adjacent spines. Is that the same edition you have LesMis? The Soul of Man under Socialism essay is 32 pages long in the third volume comprising essays and letters - I had thought/hoped that this was the entire essay...

> 301

No it is just a single volume
http://www.foliosociety.com/book/WT2/wit-of-oscar-wilde

It is gold in colour, not blue like the image in the link. £6·50 as new from Oxfam, Victoria Rd, Glasgow. ♥♡♥

You have the entire essay: This edition only offers a couple of pages.