What Are You Reading? (5)

Slightly Foxed: Reading the latest issue reminded me, yet again, what a little gem this is. For those who are unfamiliar with it I can do no better than quote its own blurb: "The independent quarterly that combines good looks, good writing and a personal approach. SF introduces its readers to books that are no longer new and fashionable but have lasting appeal..." Never a dull moment. Highly recommended.

I am reading the Mishima right now; was it someone in FAD who recommended it, or maybe it was Slightly Foxed...

The Silmarillion during my Japan trip right now.

>4 vietle:
Great choice

Notes From A Small Island

Tenth of December - George Saunders

The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund (2011).

A book which traces the lives of 20 people scattered around the globe through their diaries, journals and letters, and how their lives were affected and disrupted by World War I. One of the most original pieces of historical research of the last several decades and a uniquely insightful book which illustrates how WW I was "different", how it signified the end of the Old World and regimes derived from royalty and nobility, transformed modern warfare and our attitudes toward casualties sustained in war, genocide, etc. In some respects this book presages the onset and nature of World War II several decades later.

Riders of the Purple Sage - Zane Grey

Epic of Gilgamesh - FS
Master & Commander (not FS - sorry)
A Canticle for Leibowitz (Gollancz SF Classics. Sewn binding but really crappy acid paper. Feels like a sewn hardcover paperback. Awesome read so far, by the way).

Just started reading Aeneid with some red wine.

>chrisrsprague I love my FS Epic of Gilgamesh.

The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted by Harry Harrison. One of a series I find highly entertaining, but have little hope of seeing FS ever publishing.

John Reed and the Writing of Revolution is excellent so far. Ordered an out of print Modern Library Collected Works of John Reed as a result. And so it goes...

>15 xrayman: Just read Harrison's 'Alien Agony' in the new FSSF Anthology. A remarkable, thought provoking story. If this is typical of his work then bring it on!

The Folio Science Fiction Anthology: As someone who likes the idea of SF but fears its potential for technical difficulty I approached this book with caution. There was no need to worry, only two of the stories were incomprehensible. I find that so many short stories these days (not SF) are not stories at all and seem totally pointless leaving me thinking I'm an idiot (or the writer is). So, only two out of twelve is ok. I can't judge if this is a good selection of SF or not and would be interested in other views on this but it did hold my attention and that's enough. One criticism, though. I thought the inclusion of the Asimov was an editorial mistake - it is much longer than the others and imbalances the selection, also it duplicates what is in the newly re-issued Foundation threesome.

The book sports a noisily attractive cloth binding and contains artwork that might be considered a bit too impressive but nevertheless great to look at.

A good read and worth a try even if you're not a SF fan.

>1 scratchpad: Agree entirely regarding Slightly Foxed, which might appear high priced per issue, but is a reader's joy, especially as the articles are about books and not some tangential "hobby horse" of the writer.

Currently reading SPQR which is delightful, even though I only have a rudimentary knowledge of Roman history.
I am reading this to provide background before the FS The World of Late Antiquity.

Still wading through Robinson Crusoe. It is the best sleep aid I have encountered for some time and rarely manage more than four pages a night! My 400+ book back log will never get read at this rate...

Don Delillo- White Noise *****, Elie Weisel- Night ****, Jan Morris- Pax Brittanica, vol. 2 ****

>17 scratchpad: The Stainless Steel Rat books are arguably lighter in tone than Alien Agony. But the optimistic cynicism is always a theme, and I find Slippery Jim to be an entertaining antihero.

Just finished The Woman in White, which was good but not quite the suspenseful page-turner I'd been led to believe it would be. I'll probably eBay my copy since I can't imagine ever rereading it. And I'm about to begin Nineteen Eighty-Four with the Jonathan Burton illustrations.

I'm reading an advance copy of Universal Harvester, a midwestern US slacker noir novel. Love it so far.

>20 J.Sealy: Interesting to know your dislike of Robinson Crusoe, to which I gave 4 stars when I read it 2 years ago, a very high rating for me. Just as for ElecticIndulgence, it was for me a page-turner. Les goûts et les couleurs...

I've just given another 4 stars to Death on the Nile which I also found a very good read. Illustrations in the FS edition also help to plunge into the atmosphere. And for the first time after having read the 3 other books of the FS Agatha Christie set, I could spot in this one some unusual behaviour, even if I didn't clearly understand how the murder was committed. Or was it that I had some reminiscence of the film, which I probably saw some time ago?

And I'm now back with the last volume of François Guizot's 6-volume Histoire de la Révolution d'Angleterre, much less a page-turner.

>21 EclecticIndulgence: >26 Pepys: I'm not disliking Robinson Crusoe, it's just sending me to sleep! I managed lots more pages yesterday now that Friday has entered the story. The lack of chapters is also disconcerting as there are no obvious places to stop for a break!

>27 J.Sealy: I suspect it's a question of sex. (Er, I mean 'gender'.) Boys perhaps like Robinson Crusoe more than girls. Funnily enough, I hadn't noticed this lack of chapters...

And anyway, if it makes you sleep, it's already a success. ;-)

The Vegetarian - Han Kang

>28 Pepys:, >29 EclecticIndulgence:

I've seen some stupid sweeping generalizations about "gender", but rarely made on such flimsy basis. One person's casual remark--which itself had nothing whatsoever to do with gender, let it be noted.

>31 LolaWalser: Deeply sorry to have hurt your feelings, Mylady...

>32 Pepys:

You didn't hurt my feelings at all. Maybe you should lay off making assumptions about women, period? :)

>32 Pepys: Because admitting that you might not have had the data to back your generalization with was too much?

>35 EclecticIndulgence:

I'm with you on "anyway", but one should never judge an individual on whatever we think about "gender leanings" (whatever those may be, and that's a very long discussion in itself). We are all individuals, not statistical samples.

If a man said he disliked or was bored by Crusoe, would that be due to gender too? Is it not far more likely that his taste and any number of other things would be taken in account first?

So, I don't see why female individuals would not be treated the same.

>28 Pepys: >29 EclecticIndulgence: Despite being female I've always enjoyed books of adventure. The passages most sleep inducing were those full of religious musings...

>39 EclecticIndulgence: No, I've owned a couple of attractively bound 19th century copies since I started collecting books as a teenager. Perhaps if I start suffering from insomnia I'll give it a go ;-)

>38 EclecticIndulgence:

Correlation would be interesting, regardless. Causation is impossible to prove when it comes to likes/dislikes, boredom/page turner... so a hypothesis that one factor is 'perhaps' correlated is a perfectly valid hypothesis that doesn't warrant your comment as a 'sweeping generalization', which is in fact, a great example of the 'judging' that you accuse him of.

Um, bluntly, this is balderdash, and maybe it's meant humorously in some way, in which case I'm sorry to have misunderstood. (But of what generalization exactly are you accusing ME? I'd like it spelled out.)

I wouldn't ordinarily bother in this group, but this really worries me. Give it a think.

"Gender" is a complete non-explanation--neither "women don't like X" nor "you don't like X because you're a woman" are an explanation in themselves; they merely call up the question of "WHY women don't like X". (And the ready-made answer to THAT is the usual mishmash of stereotype and prejudice about what women are like and like...)

Now, what I'm pointing out is the egregiousness of this maneuver in confrontation with an individual--and a complete stranger, I presume, said in passing--and who is thus summarily depersonalised, shorn of such characteristics as taste, history, habit, education of one or another type etc. and crassly reduced to gender, to being "representative" of an entire gender, in a way that is reserved for women.

I never noticed any of you "boys" in this group invoking your gender when it comes to discussing your literary likes and dislikes. Have you?

I write in haste and the problem is that there are here multiple errors and biases, but I don't have the time now to do them justice--later.

>37 J.Sealy:

I also always loved adventure and Crusoe especially was one of my big childhood favourites. Funnily though, when I reread it (same book) some years ago, I realised I'd conveniently forgotten, if I ever noticed, the religious trappings.

I'm currently finishing up the LE Canterbury Tales. Not having studied the work in modern English, I found my comprehension seriously suffering on some tales -- it's particularly difficult to work out what's figurative language and what's part of the plot in some instances. But an enjoyable read nonetheless.

>44 EclecticIndulgence:
I read the Kelmscott Chaucer at the rate of one page a day. Reading aloud seems to assist in comprehension, although may make anyone within hearing judge your sanity.

>44 EclecticIndulgence:

Fortunately, there is an easy answer to your query. The Folio Society published a 3-volume set of the Canterbury Tales in 1986 and it has everything one could ask for, because:

1. The modern English translation by David Wright is one of the best.

2. The book is published with Chaucer's original English language on the verso page and the modern English translation on the recto page and the pages are matched so that the translation is aligned line-by-line. One can read the original English and quickly glance across the page to the modern English translation to clarify matters.

3. The set is nicely illustrated with wood engravings from a variety of different artists.

4. The books are of excellent design and quality. Bindings are 1/4 maroon leather with cloth over boards. The colour of the cloth varies in each of the three volumes (dark green, red, and navy blue) with gilt designs embossed into the front covers. Spines have gilt lettering as well. Endpapers are light gray with wood-engraved designs of the pilgrims en route to Canterbury and the books were printed by the Alden Press (Oxford) on Edinburgh cream laid paper. Bound by the Bath Press.

You need this set :-).

>44 EclecticIndulgence:

I'm back at the computer. Whenever you are ready to tell me of what generalisation I'm guilty in >36 LolaWalser:, go for it.

>47 LolaWalser:
Now you're at a computer maybe you can look up statistics, correlation and causation. Happy reading!

>47 LolaWalser:

You do seem in a terrible hurry, or you wouldn't be asking what generalization you were accused of when the actual accusation is of being judgmental. What hasn't been said can't very well be explained.

>48 Santas_Slave:

It's because I understand statistics--and sexism--that I'm making the argument. If you're not interested in grasping it, don't bother replying.

>49 terebinth:

Still don't see what generalisation I'm accused of making. >36 LolaWalser: is a short post (>31 LolaWalser: even shorter), surely someone can point it out? Far from generalising, I specifically addressed Pepys and EclecticIndulgence and their notion (I say "their" because the second agreed with the first) that gender explains anything about why JSealy didn't warm up to Crusoe.

I've already written quite a lot about why this is wrong. Care to comment on that?

ETA: added post number

>50 LolaWalser:

This is getting odd: I'll try again.

so a hypothesis that one factor is 'perhaps' correlated is a perfectly valid hypothesis that doesn't warrant your comment as a 'sweeping generalization', which is in fact, a great example of the 'judging' that you accuse him of.

Your post 31 above referred to "stupid sweeping generalizations". EclecticIndulgence's post excerpted here in italics claims that you were rushing unduly to judgment in condemning Pepys' tentative hypothesis as such a generalization. Nobody here has mentioned you making a generalization.

I wouldn't myself have a problem with anyone voicing the guess that my lack of response to a particular work of literature might be down to my being male: or British, or white, or not as young as I used to be, or anything else my interlocutor might know about me. I just doubt that in any particular instance such a guess would contain the whole truth of the matter, and I might care to respond to it with supplementary or alternative guesses of my own.

>51 terebinth:

Right, odd--for example, I never wrote about "judging" anything, which that post makes look like a direct quotation of me. But maybe it's more appropriate to discuss Eclectic's posts with him.

I wouldn't myself have a problem with anyone voicing the guess that my lack of response to a particular work of literature might be down to my being male

The question is, has it happened? In this group?

That's what I'm remarking on--my main concern, as far as this conversation goes, is with how women are regarded and talked about in this group.

>52 LolaWalser:

My memory, fortunately distant, of an almost exclusively male workplace perhaps still desensitizes me to such sexism as may be prevalent here. The group does seem predominantly male, and if it were predominantly female I'd not be at all put out were my failure to love, say, Mrs. Gaskell or Dorothy Richardson to be tentatively ascribed to my maleness. Not that I would be at all put out here, it's just that there aren't so many women around to venture the idea. Another man, who did substantially enjoy a particular woman author, could hardly adduce my maleness as a possible reason for why I didn't, without sounding a little absurd. And, yes, there's probably something a little absurd in such guesses under any circumstances.

I haven't thought of the group as discriminatory, the occasional troll excepted, beyond such superficial appearances as its gender mix makes inevitable: for instance, discussions of the hazards of sharing a life with a partner less enthusiastic about books are bound in a mostly male group to refer mostly to female partners. Maybe my antennae aren't nearly so acute as they should be.

(Edited for a wee error in sentence construction. The night was getting late.)

I'm also with Eclectic and others. I see only one person being judgmental and not particularly nice, and it's not Pepys or Eclectic. You don't see what generalizations you made, Lola? How about saying that a person who dares to suggest that there are differences in interests and behaviour between boys and girls, males and females (you can't really believe that there are no such differences, can you?), and that such differences might possibly be a reason for liking or not liking something, is a sexist bastard making "stupid sweeping generalizations", obviously out of his prejudice and desire to "depersonalize" and put down women?

P.S. Just in case - yes, the word "bastard" is not yours but mine, but all others, starting from "stupid" and ending with "sexist" are yours.

P.P.S. I find it puzzling that such an innocent post which quite obviously was not intended to depersonalize and put down women sparked such a reaction.

P.P.P.S. There are plenty of gender-related problems in our societies worth a fight, from sexual violence and perception of sexual violence among men to domestic violence to prejudice against women based on stupid religious or pseudo-religious beliefs and/or cultural "norms". Suggesting there are differences between males and females and that certain patterns in behavior, likes, and interests might be due to such differences is not one of these problems. In fact, it's not a problem at all. There is no sexism here.

P.P.P.P.S. Apologies to everyone for feeding this OT conversation and for not being as calm, polite, and gentelmanly (oh-oh, did I just commit a sexist faux pas by using a gender-specific adjective?) as terebinth, but I just dislike when innocent comments are pronounced "stupid" and their author is labeled in a derogatory way for no reason whatsoever.

>53 terebinth:

I thank you very much for your effort to understand and can't say how much I appreciate the recognition that we may miss something, based on who, what, where... we are (I hope it's clear I say this without a trace of patronising--it took decades to open my eyes to certain things and I fought bitterly--still do in fact--against some of them.)

To each their own thought experiments, however, that's a lot of unsubstantiated "ifs" for a very dodgy "alternative reality"... there's a big discussion to be had on the differences between male and female stereotypes, and whether we suffer them in the same way and degree.

For my part, I think what actually happened is what's telling and what's important, and in interest of economy (of time and space) I'd concentrate on making sure what I said in >42 LolaWalser: is understood, because that's basically all I had to say.

>54 elladan0891:

I stand by my adjective of "stupid" for the generalisation Pepys invoked and Eclectic agreed with: it's stupid to generalise from single individuals, it's stupid to think in gender stereotypes, and when women are singled out to be treated in this way, in evident contrast to how men are treated, it's also sexist.

Zzzzzz.....

Well! Since this is allegedly a thread about what we're reading, I'll list what I'm reading:

The Fortunes of Africa, by Martin Meredith. I was afraid that the language problems (keeping all of the tribal names straight, in particular) would be a difficulty, but Meredith has done a very good job in keeping it manageable and in telling the sordid story of African exploitation and colonization in a compelling manner. I'll finish this tomorrow, most likely, and consider it time well spent.

American Amnesia, by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson. I'm about halfway done with this, a book about how we need a mix of government and private activity for the economy to prosper, and how the push in many parts of the American political ecosystem to cut government out of the equation is shortsighted. Good so far but not great, possibly because I know much of what is covered and thus am getting little new information. It might be more informative for others who don't have multiple degrees in economics, as I unfortunately do.

Stalin, by Oleg Khlevniuk. I studied Russian history as my minor concentration in college, and this new biography comes highly recommended. I'll start it as soon as I finish the African history book.

Also reading and eating my way through two cookbooks concentrating on Indian food. I try a new cuisine every once in a while, and my waistline shows that I'm enjoying this one.

Revisiting radio nostalgia from the 1950s, with Charles Chilton's novelisations of his three Journey Into Space scripts.

>58 EclecticIndulgence:

Trust me - you will thank me for this :-) !!

>58 EclecticIndulgence: >46 dlphcoracl:
I heartily second the 3-volume bi-lingual set suggestion. I think it's the best way to enjoy and really get a feel for the work (unless you're well versed in Middle English already and don't need translations). The only thing is I think that David Wright's translation is perfect for this particular set, where you can read the original verse and then refer to Wrights' translation on the facing page. However, I think it's a poor choice as a stand-alone translation, as artistically it's vastly inferior to Chaucer's original and will NOT give you an idea how Chaucer really sounds. Wright's "verse" is not really verse most of the time; he's not reproducing Chaucer's meters (there is no meter whatsoever most of the time), rhyme is only sporadic, mostly on occasions when Middle English and modern English are just close enough, forced rhymes are sprinkled where everything rhymed perfectly, and much of the rhyme is simple gone. I think as a standalone translation it's actually quite ugly. No rhythm, no rhyme for the most part, with sudden short bursts into poetry. But as a form of visual translation help it works well.

Btw, there are 2 very similar flavors of the set - the 1986 version, as described by dlphcoracl, and the later printings of which Folio 60 says "with bindings and typography smartened up". I own the latter 1989 printing, never handled the 1986 original; the only differences I see binding-wise is that my version has brown leather instead of burgundy and the golden fleurons are missing from the front boards. Not sure how removing the front board decoration qualifies as "smartening up". But I think one can't go wrong with either version.

Just finished up FS edition of The Golem as the last of my spooky reads. Really enjoying the text - the woodcuts are fantastic.

Just finished FS edition of The Diary of a Provincial Lady. Slightly befuddled by high praise for this book -- it was only mildly amusing. Maybe you have to be British.

>65 withawhy99:

I agree--P.G. Wodehouse has nothing to worry about.

The New Prophets of Capital from the Jacobin Verso series. Excellent.

>65 withawhy99: Probably - I lent it to an American friend who had a great sense of humour but it was lost on her; she found it mildly annoying rather than amusing.

Death of Ivan Ilyich - Not FS
Feudal Society - FS (very, very nice volume this is)
Foundation - FS (reading the one good volume from my damaged shipment while I await replacements)

At last I finished the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. I'm glad there was an introduction (which I read afterwards); the mindset of the perpetrator is quite difficult to comprehend.

And I started my FS Love lies bleeding.

Just finished Manhatten 45. Jan Morris takes you right to the places she writes about A very good writer
Also just read my LE Moby Dick which I treasure

>72 shdunne:
The LE Moby Dick is indeed one of the FS's best productions. Sensual to hold and a delight to read.

I've been dipping into my copy of The Wind In The Willows; beautiful edition and really makes reading it a lovely experience. I think the last time I read it was on an e-reader. :-(

I've also started reading Chris Packham's book, Fingers In The Sparkle Jar, which is superb.

Just finished The Art of Wandering

On a bit of a polar streak now, after reading Sir Ranulph Fiennes' Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know.

I've since read Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World, Amundsen's The North West Passage - and did just start Williams' The Quest for the Northwest Passage. (Cherry-Garrard and Williams being FS editions.)

Started on The Truce after Love lies Bleeding.

After much delay and interruption, I'm coming to the end of Bleak House. What a superb, beautifully crafted novel!

Just started reading my Folio edition of Slaughterhouse 5. Even the introduction is interesting.

Just started reading American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant by Ronald C. White. So good.

Just finished Leaf by Niggle by JRR Tolkien.

The Man Who Called Himself Poe by Sam Moskowitz: A collection of stories written in the manner of Poe and featuring Poe himself as a main character. The tales, imaginatively cover all you might expect from such a collection - madness, murder, premature burial, resurrection, a meeting with Lady Death (she has to be a beautiful woman), a stab at Utopianism (from a disputed Poe manuscript), and some science fiction thrown in for good measure together with a story started by Poe and completed by one of the contributors. Each story is introduced by the editor, a brief biography is included and even a few poems. A satisfying mix. If you are a fan, this is a must-read.

Just finished Purgatorio of the Comedy by Dante.

Just finished LoTR, straight off the back The Hobbit.

Not sure what to move on to next, possibly the beautiful Folio HHGTTG novels.

>84 leemeadowcroft:
The Silmarillion? )

>85 elladan0891: I'm not convinced that I would enjoy The Silmarillion. Am tempted to buy it from FS to complete my set but there are other things I think I want to read first. The impression I get is that it isn't a novel/story and is fragmented bits of Tolkien lore.

On my to read pile currently are the FS HHGTTG set, the two Fleming books, the two Pratchett books and I'm very very tempted by The Shining.

>86 leemeadowcroft:
It's actually very cohesive and continious, despite being put together byTolkien's son from bits and pieces, though it's definetely not everyone's cuppa. Get it if you enjoy mythology and epics (Norse, Greek, Kalevala, etc.), skip otherwise. Not light fantasy easy reading.

Just about wrapping up Williams' The Quest for the Northwest Passage and still haven't made up my mind as to what I should read next. I have Ryszard Kapuscinski's Imperium at the top of my TBR pile, but am in the mood for some lighter entertainment. Perhaps I should follow >86 leemeadowcroft:' example and read So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish - it has been a few years since the last time.

Douglas Adams is one of those rare authors whose works I found hilarious 25 years ago and still laugh until it hurts when I read him today.

If not HHGttG, I think I'll dip into some prose I need to wrap my head around while on paternity leave - in order to better understand what makes my customers tick, I'm reading up on the various aspects of oceanography - basically trying to amass enough basic knowledge to not be brushed off as an irrelevant nuisance whenever the boffins start discussing how to solve issue such-and-such.

The Power Broker

>88 odderi:
"I have Ryszard Kapuscinski's Imperium at the top of my TBR pile"

A trade edition?
I wonder if there are any nice editions of Kapuscinski other than Folio's Travels with Herodotus.

Hard Times, Studs Terkel, hopefully not a prelude to our new future.

The only FS book I'm reading at the moment is Twelfth Night, alongside the commentary in the Arden Shakespeare edition of it (on my Kindle).

The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, by Mathias Malzieu. Also just picked up Shakespeare and Company; A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart. But I want to sneak in a reread of my new FS Wuthering Heights before I slip into my traditional Christmas reads! :)

>90 elladan0891: - I have a tattered hardcover German edition (On the Eichborn publisher), picked up at a Berlin fleamarket a few weeks ago for the princely sum of €4; I am not aware of any nice editions - which is just as well, as I'd probably end up shelling out for them; I have come to appreciate his style greatly.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, the Folio edition, which is a delight.

So I decided to go with HHGTG and have finished it already. I've never read it before but have always wanted to. All the way through I was wondering what on earth was going on but somehow it all makes sense by the end of the book. A most bizarre read but very enjoyable, can't wait to read the next in the series.

Just finished Kidnapped

Treasure Island: Hard to believe I've just read this for the first time. It is certainly one for the young teenager but Stevenson's knowledge of nauticalia is very impressive and lifts the age bracket somewhat. One minor point of interest: Silver's parrot features greatly in the popular imagination but figures very little in the book. Interestingly, the bird does not appear until well past the half-way mark but is shown in a much earier illustration - the power of its iconic status, I think.

>99 scratchpad:

Whereas the cover designer for my copy chose a theme which I doubt very many would associate with the book at all, https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/8132051130.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZ... .

>99 scratchpad:

Yes he is a wonderful writer but I would argue that his work suitably satisfies both youth and adult alike; a rare talent indeed.
No offence intended to his compatriot John Buchan, but when you read The Thirty-Nine Steps as boy then man, the work clearly belongs to the days of youth.
There are many other examples like this; books that are classics but are suffered not suitable for the older reader.
Stevenson has the wonderful knack of writing stories that are universal unsuitability bridging the years from the stripling to senex.
I read Kidnapped at least once every year. It is enchanting and the older I get the better it gets.

>100 terebinth:

Good heavens!

Trying to finish Candide by Voltare (on FS recent version) :)

Currently dusting off my Russian by struggling through Jaroslav Golovanov's "Королев - Факты и мифы" - his painstakingly detailed biography of Sergei Korolev, engineering architect of the Soviet space program until his death in 1966.

>106 odderi:
Sounds like an absolutely riveting read!

>107 wcarter: Definitely, though at times it reads more like minutes of events in Korolev's life than an actual biography - but definitely what one could call a life less ordinary.

For instance, he was packed off to Siberia as an enemy of the state during Stalin's worst bouts of paranoia in the thirties, and can with some justification be said to have survived because of WWII - his talents recognized, he was put to work designing aircraft, having his sentence commuted and being allowed to return to design work after the war.

Ah, OK. Now I get it. A bit slow here under the Arctic Circle today. :)

>107 wcarter: very droll!

>108 odderi:
To me that does sound riveting (non-sarcastically). I'm currently awaiting the Diary of a Gulag Prison Guard that will be published, in English, under Portobello early next year. Different strokes for different folks!

Just finished the heartwarming A Christmas Carol.

>112 EclecticIndulgence:

You know, you're right. I read this over two days and although I always get something out of it (hence the reason why I read it every year) I know i have read it too soon this year. This is one for the week prior to Christmas.

>113 LesMiserables:

Yes I have a few editions but none from FS. I'll definitely look at reading another story from the CS this Christmas to compensate for #113

>111 LesMiserables:
I never tire of A Christmas Carol, it is the perfect morality play.

>116 Betelgeuse:

Indeed, and only a Scrooge would be unmoved by such a beautiful tale.

Finished The Mothers and Fire and Blood over the weekend.

The novel is the latest Indiespensable installment from Powells, tracking the coming-of-age of two black women in San Diego, and mothers, and their various presences and absences. Very well done.

Fire and Blood is an extraordinarily depressing read of previous failures in politics and states's decent into civil wars, in light of recent events.

I've just finished a re-read (after many years) of Beau Sabreur, second in the Beau Geste trilogy by P. C. Wren.

Frankly, after Beau Geste, this is terrible. Any sense of reality fades into the desert sands about half way through, to be replaced with a storyline that was probably rejected by Rudolf Valentino. It's just possible, I suppose, that Wren is sending up the genre (the book dates from 1926), but if so his parody is just too convincing.

Nevertheless, a glutton for punishment, I begin part three, Beau Ideal, today. . . .

Have just finished The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and will be moving on to Life, the Universe and Everything.

This is the first time I've read Adam's HHGTTG series; what a wonderfully bizarre imagination he had, the books are insanely brilliant! The quality of the FS editions are also superb.

Slowly working my way through the FS edition of Diarmaid MacCulloch's Reformation. The incredible amount of detail makes this a fascinating and sometimes exhausting read.

Also just started The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and other Stories.

I'm just beginning Monkey (traditionally titled Journey to the West) by Wú Chéng'ĕn, the 1968 Folio edition with Arthur Waley's translation, colourful pictorial boards and a dozen full page illustrations.

Just picked up Bruce Springsteen's autobiography Born to Run - just a couple of chapters in, but I think this is going to be a great read. Of course, being a dyed-in-the-wool fan probably helps... :)

Also, I am busy wrapping my head around a couple of chapters in the Handbook of Applied Cryptography for a project I'll have to get started when I get back to work (currently on paternity leave and enjoying it!)

>122 Mencius: I got about one-third through Reformation which I started in November last year, but have paused for some months. It is wonderful as it has made me appreciate that the Reformation was Europe wide, but evolved differently in different countries.
More recently I read a history of Scotland and having read as much as I had of Reformation made the context of that part of Scotland's history much more understandable.
However, it is dense work, hence the break from reading it.

>125 EclecticIndulgence:

You won't like it: abridged, and paper sides. Russell didn't mention that the illustrations are by Duncan Grant, long after his Bloomsbury heyday - he was over eighty.

>127 affle: The paper sides are attractive paper sides, particularly considering some of the dullish designs of the 60s and 70s, and there's not a hint of wear on the corners of the boards of the volume I'm reading!

>129 cronshaw:

Nor mine - but I have never had trouble with paper sides. You're right about the attractiveness of the boards; they are by Grant, too.

>126 CarltonC:
True, it's definitely a book that inspires and enhances further reading.

>126 CarltonC:
>132 Mencius:

It is such an area of scholarship smacking of gross abuse, notwithstanding I have not read that particular work, that often the most heinous of crimes are passed off as inconsequential. Even the name itself is so value laden.

>133 LesMiserables: I suppose it depends on which crimes should be highlighted over others, as there are so many to choose from, committed by various perpetrators. Just after reading your comment I opened MacCulloch's book and read about the Japanese persecution of the Jesuits with military help from Dutch protestants. This is definitely not a book that takes "sides". Then again, I have no personal or religious stake in the matter, only an interest in history.

Have just read The Aspern Papers by Henry James and enjoyed it very much. It is the first of the folio press fine editions of 1987to 1991 I have succumbed to I know now I won't be able to stop looking for more in lovely series. Even though some of the titles have little interest for me,they are just so good-letterpress,the right size to easily hold,hand made paper binding. I'm hooked

I'm getting to the later stages of Don Quixote now and I have switched way from my Folio Society Smollett translation to the FREE amazon kindle translation by Ormsby. It is by far the funnier of the two.

>135 shdunne: Aren't the binding and illustrations exquisite? It's hard to imagine a finer edition.

Yes it is so lovely. I have now got Yeats and the Woman in White on the way. I'm not sure I can resist finding all of this beautiful series Want some of the marbled binding and the silk The illustrations in Aspern Papers are too lovely to describe

>138 shdunne: The Woman in White has gorgeous wood engravings. If your resistance falters and you collect the entire series, I can't imagine you'd ever regret it. It's by far my favourite Folio series*, real fine press LE stuff, and yet with most titles still available at bargain prices for the quality. Peter Grimes, the Poor of the Borough, The Rape of the Lock, and Motley and other Poems are also notable for their wonderful illustrations; the first two years produced some of the most beautiful marbled bindings I've ever come across; and De Profundis is an all-round must for the Folio bibliophile!

(*though I imagine the forthcoming LE War Poets series, for which to date we only have Rupert Brooke: Selected Poems will give it a run for its money)

I'm intrigued by the seeming oversupply of James Hogg's memoir of Scott and Walton's life of John Donne relative to all the other Folio Press Fine Editions, to the extent that an Abe search arranged in order of price from lowest to highest reveals eight copies of one and seven of the other before any other title in the series is reached. As the Folio cheapskate I am, I didn't look any further when in a mood to add to what was my only volume (The Tower). Walton and Hogg are each, to me, well worth reading, and the latter book's particularly lovely marbled boards and brooding frontispiece portrait of Scott are particular attractions. I'll probably stop at my present three titles: but then I was thinking I would stop at one, until an urge to extravagance seized me one night and I blew a total of £40.35 on acquiring fine copies of the further two, both still in their acetate wrappers.

>140 terebinth: £20 for a fine copy of any title in this series is absurdly cheap. I've not yet read Hogg's memoir, but I agree Walton is unfairly overlooked; as a fan of Donne's verse I thoroughly enjoyed the biography, with pauses at regular intervals to caress the letterpress, mould-made paper and marbled boards :)

Well I have at last finished Don Quixote and although the first half felt like labour and toil, I put that down to the Folio translation by Smollett. For when I moved over to Ormsby, the whole tale ran like the wind and I devoured around a whole fifth of the book today.

It is my first read and who knows, it may be my last! But I'm inclined to follow Dr Allen White's advice and to try for the Cohen translation, in which he testifies that the translator gets the jokes.

Finally, I feel like I have persevered in this book and been rewarded in the end. In fact I am a little melancholy at the end of it all, though the good man went to his death in God's grace and in sound faculties, God bless him.

Currently reading Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang, and really enjoying it. His first story, a take on the Tower of Babel, is extraordinary.

Finally the chess world championship ended early today. Finally i can start to go earlier to bed and focus more `Rebecca` from FS i will bring with me ..

>139 cronshaw:
>140 terebinth:
Useless to pretend I am not going to collect all of this lovely collection. I have ordered the Bronte poems and Donne to add to The Tower and Aspern Papers I am about to order de Profundis now. The paper is lovely too Everything about them is just right

>145 Pellias:

Well there are the play offs on Wednesday...

>139 cronshaw:
>140 terebinth:
>146 shdunne:

And yet, despite these gorgeous small volumes being extremely underpriced for what they were, I.e., true handmade private press books, this FS experiment was poorly received and proved to be an abject failure that was discontinued after two years. In view of the excellent success FS has had with the Letterpress Shakespeare and subsequent series of limited edition facsimiles and books, do you have any thoughts with regard to why this outstanding series of slim, well-priced volumes did not catch on?

Just finished reading the very good Aristotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy -by Mortimer j. Adler

>148 dlphcoracl: The Folio Fine Press series actually ran for five consecutive years rather than two, so perhaps wasn't quite so abject a failure. I remember a Devotee having commented some time ago that the marketing of these was poor, which I can believe. Furthermore, it's likely that the range of titles was too eclectic to appeal at comparatively high prices to as great a number of subscribers as would have embraced a series more clearly defined by genre or author, such as the War Poets series currently in production.

>146 shdunne: It's quite the most delightful slope I ever slipped down. Enjoy the slide!

>150 cronshaw:

Yes: I wonder what effort was made to bring the books to the attention of those who weren't Folio Society members, and Folio Society members themselves won't have been accustomed to being offered fine press productions. Personally I'd not rule out reading any of the texts used, and would rate their selection quite highly, but that's not a universal verdict and I know some of our number find them largely uninspiring if not downright unpalatable. And, with prices that today would translate to say £75 per volume, or a £300 per year expenditure for a collector of the series, I doubt there were or are quite enough sufficiently committed bibliophiles to sustain it. Anyone could gather a full set of the Fine Editions today, albeit patience might be needed for one or two of the books, for less than £1500, but only a few of us do.

>152 terebinth:

Key point, Paul. The Folio Press imprint indicates that the intention was to sell beyond the FS membership; usually this was attempted in partnership with another organisation, often a more conventional publisher. There is no sign of a partner for these books, nor do I recall seeing any external advertising at the time. (I do recall the FS marketing, but had to resist: nearly thirty years ago the book budget was much, much slimmer, and subject to detailed domestic negotiation.) On the other hand, the books did sell out in a reasonable time, indeed some quite rapidly if the brochures, now helpfully on the wiki page, are to be trusted. I suspect lack of profit, rather than lack of sales, may have been the reason for discontinuance, the sales history merely indicating that there was no room for higher prices. I do think the enterprise was a worthy attempt to find a way of bringing shorter texts to market.

Prices of the books have gone up over the last couple of years, no doubt in part due to chatter here, but I was able to complete the set about two and a half years ago for well under half the £1500 equivalent publication price you suggest, about £30 on average, with rather wide variation.

Edited for clarification.

>148 dlphcoracl:
>151 cronshaw:
>152 terebinth:
>153 affle:
I wonder if I would have bought these books if I had been a FS member at the time and had available funds.I was reading mainly 19 century English,Russian and French novels and 20th century woman such as Doris Lessing,Simone de Beauvoir,Margaret Drabble,Iris Murdoch at the time.This narrow range of reading as well as little money would have possibly meant I would have overlooked these lovely editions of novellas and poetry.It is now with age and one main direction that I spend extra money on(books) as well as having my reading horizons broadened by FS and people on this forum,that I have seen how much I admire this series.
As to cost,I have now ordered 10 of the 20 at a cost delivered to Australia of approximately £650.so still a reasonably priced luxury.

Just finished The Divine Comedy - Dante translated by Mark Musa

>154 shdunne:

As I mentioned in a series of three articles on Books and Vines (Jan/Feb. 2015) regarding the FSFE series, the selection of literature and poetry in FSFE was hardly compelling. I was one of the few that recognized this series for what it was at that time - exceptional handcrafted private press books at compelling prices - and I could only coerce myself into purchasing ten of the volumes in this series. I have recently acquired three additional books, but the remaining titles are of zero interest to me.

Re-reading Cormac McCarthy's Suttree. Laugh out loud funny when not crushingly tragic. Modern Library edition, which is the best I've found - hint, hint, mole.

>157 kcshankd:

Love that book. I wouldn't mind an FS edition of Suttree or anything else by McCarthy. Blood Meridian was the first title I entered into my "Book Suggestions" when I joined FS.

>157 kcshankd:
>158 Mencius:

Agreed--except for McCarthy's last two "commercial" books (No Country for Old Men and The Road).

>158 Mencius:

That makes at least two of us.

>159 podaniel:

Well commercially successful, at least. I don't think NCFOM was much of a departure from his oeuvre. I feel that The Road was a significant departure, and that departure contributed to its overall success.

Hopefully we'll learn soon whether the departure was permanent, as the long-awaited 'New Orleans' novel(s) are to be released next year.

>159 podaniel:
>160 kcshankd:

I enjoyed both of his last two novels immensely, but still consider Blood Meridian his greatest work.

Didn't know that his next one is finally scheduled for release. Exciting news!

"Epitaph for a Spy" by Eric Ambler. Folio's edition. Thoroughly enjoying it!

>162 TriKnighg: It's time for a third FS Eric Ambler book.

>162 TriKnighg: It is on my TBR during Christmas list; I read The Mask of Dimitrios this summer, really enjoyed it.

Just finished the brilliant The Four Temperaments - Rev. Conrad Hock

Next up is A Christmas Carol (of course) and then probably A Tale of Two Cities.

Line up for next year is looking good with all the Folios I'm getting for Christmas from various family members; the two Discworld books, the two Bond books, the last two Hitchhiker books and hoping for The Shining to be in the New Year sale.

Just finished Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot

Outstanding.

>167 leemeadowcroft:
The Shining was just published this year, so it's not going to be featured in the next sale (unless FS will change the way they have been running sales).

>168 LesMiserables:
That's fast reading.

I recently finished The Song of Roland (with much thanks to drasvola, who sent me scans of this blank pages in my book).

I'm slogging my way through Feudal Society, though I don't pick it up every day. Usually it's my pre-bedtime reading.
At my desk at work, for lunchtime reading, is Foundation and Empire.
And at home I'm reading Middlemarch.

>169 elladan0891: That would be a shame.

About halfway through The Lion of Munster: The Bishop Who Roared Against the Nazis, a biography of Bl. Cardinal von Galen.

After that, I think it's time for A Christmas Carol.

>170 N11284:
I had started it a month or so back. I read several books concurrently and I posted #164 when I had pick it up for the last lap, after realising I hadn't mentioned it previously on here.

Great read and very inspirational.

Just started the FS edition of Walden by Thoreau. This is an absolutely gorgeous edition and would highly recommend for anyone with an interest in the work (the endpapers have a detailed map of Concord, Mass. and Walden Pond).

Recently finished Big Hair and Plastic Grass, a fun take on baseball and the 1970s. If that sounds interesting, you'll like it. Then powered through a stack of periodicals, including Granta 137 which as usual had several memorable pieces. Now onto the 2nd Library of America volume of Elmore Leonard. He has this bloody Detroit crime biopic down pat.

Cicero. Right now, `on old age` it`s good to be ahead ..

>175 podaniel:
Read Walden for the first time last month, an interesting read. I'd like to know your thoughts when you're finished.

>177 Pellias:

I can never decide if I should read that particular Ciceronian work now, or put it off until my old age (whenever and whatever that actually turns out to be)!

Have you read his Philippicae (The Philippics)? If you ever need a break from Cicero's sedate philosophising, boy, you can't do much better than to read his magnificent attacks upon Mark Antony. Political insults nowadays are nothing compared to Cicero's vitrol!

We really have lost the art of the insult (among many other things) these days.

>180 scholasticus: I have heard about his art of insults, but not yet travelled there. I will read his `Orationes Philippicae (Philippics) II (44 BC)` later tonight, one chapter at a time on his philosophising is enough

Reading about Cato the Elder,`s sayings - much wisom there (or should i say common sense - since this text were here before my existence i presume Cicero`s philosophising has lived on) - but as Heraclitus mentioned, not everybody can think logic. This chapter is probably more for them. Or as Cato (Cicero) said more direct by calling a certain kind of people (the simple minded) stupid, or feeble.

My father is 75 years old. That is what drives me to reading it. According to Cicero, he has common sense too, that must be a good thing. I will tell him that :)

`Don`t fight nature, it would be like titans fighting men` .. if looking away from that quote, there is much comfort on the old age. Think about it, when you sit there, nobody understands you, everybody is stupid, then you read Cicero and find peace .. to end it with Boethius `there is consolation in philosophy`

:typo

>181 Pellias:

Enjoy the Philippics! (I presume this is from the FS edition of Cicero?) And yes, the ancients didn't mince their words when it came to ignorant people employing logic badly. They would almost certainly NOT get hired on at universities today, sadly.

As for Cato the Elder:

Carthago delenda est!

That is all.

And a gold star to you for working in a reference to Boethius' Consolatio philosophiae!

>182 scholasticus: I knew you would like that. It was a nice text overall, i will go back to it and take notes after a forthcoming busy weekend.. and yes, the assyrian blue FS edition :)

Just finished The Temperament God Gave You by Art Bennett and Laraine Bennett

Just finished reading the very enjoyable and thought provoking Culture Counts by Roger Scruton

Finally finish reading Robinson Crusoe last night! Now for something lighter...

Currently giving in to one of my guilty pleasures - I love the occasional rock memoir, the more debauched, the better. I am now wrapping up Henry Rollins' Get in the Van - while his former band, Black Flag, is a bit too noisy for my tastes most days, his recollections of touring the US with them are at times hilarious.

Not likely to be shortlisted for the autobiography Pulitzer's anytime soon, though.

Tomorrow I'll read A Christmas Carol, kids permitting.

Just finished my maiden reading of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. A very good story. I sense one that I would get more and more of as I return to it in the future.

Just finished The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde. What a hoot! :-)

>189 LesMiserables: I believe Conrad packs more into less than any other writer.

Recently finished Four Futures in the Jacobin series from Verso. One of the futures is essentially Mad Max, and whoo boy do recent events seem to verify that direction.

The Underground Railroad imagines a 19th Century US where the 'underground railroad' was literally an underground railroad. The novel is a little Steam Punk, a little The Man in the High Castle re: the American Civil War, and of course almost constant violence for the enslaved.

Run the Red Lights is a new collection by my hometown's greatest contribution to letters since Gwendolyn Brooks. The cover claims 'Always imbued wit pensive intelligence that masks wry humor, Skoog's wildly energetic poems delve into music, memory, and a tumbling rush of delightful sound.' That seems fair.

I'm reading and enjoying Huckleberry Finn.

>188 odderi:

Very entertaining book but also a really great look back at the way things used to be before cell phones and cd's.

Similar to watching the Rockford Files,,,,Just can't help being nostalgic for those days,,,,

I'm on Crime and Punishment right now (LEC, not Folio). It's, um, rather intense stuff.

>190 LesMiserables: I'd love to see Folio re-issue their 1960s edition as a little Collectable.

Just finished my Christmas time book, The Catcher in the Rye.

Now I will watch my favorite Christmas movie, Trading Places.

Finished Oedipus Rex by Sophocles.

Just finished the FS edition of Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. I found I much preferred the initial part - mutiny and all - to the latter, exploring the Antarctic bit.

The FS version is just about the most adorable little volume I've got on my shelves, contrasting starkly with its sinister contents; just about everything about it is right - perfect size for reading with one hand (The other often being utilized to carry a sleeping toddler nowadays), the illustrations (By David Lupton) fit the story wonderfully and the buckram binding is of a strangely attractive tone to these color-blind eyes (my wife thinks it looks a bit off, but what do _normal_ people know about color, anyway...) - not to mention the haunting illustration on the front cover and the text block on the slipcase.

Definitely one of the editions where the FS got it Right(tm).

In no particular order:

1. Feudal Society (FS) - Slowly getting my way through this, as motivation allows. Interesting if sometimes dry. I finally finished book 1 last night. Book 2 is considerably shorter.

2. Mostly Harmless (FS) - my light lunchtime reading at the office

3. Resurrection (LEC - Tolstoy). About 50 pages in and enraptured. What a fascinating premise!

I'm re-reading Jung Chang's Wild Swans for a reading group meeting this month, the Flamingo paperback edition which has a good selection of photos. It's one of my favourite non-fiction reads. I recently also read Geoffrey Household's Rogue Male (in Folio of course, absolutely brilliant illustrations) and thoroughly enjoyed it.

*Sapiens (a brief history of humankind)

>201 cronshaw: Yes. That book is fantastic! Is to be a movie now (again), but i like the story as i have it in my head. Edited to specify `Rogue Male`

>202 Pellias: Just finished Sapiens a brief history of humankind and really enjoyed it. Have bought the follow on Homo Deus which I intend to begin soon. Also finished JoyRiding in Riyadh by Pascal Menoret. A much lighter and lovely read was How to Grow Old which was present from my daughter who picked it up in the last days of the Eagle Street shop.

I have had both Sapiens and Homo Deus on reserve at my local library for a while now. Good to hear that people are finding Sapiens to be a worthwhile read, now I just need to find the time to read them!

I've just finished:
The Cowshed: Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, by Ji Xianlin
Ancillary Justice, by Anne Leckie

I'm almost done reading:
All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr

And just about to start:
Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson
Collected Essays on Evolution, Nature, and the Cosmos, Volume One, by Loren Eisely
The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands 1942-1944, by Ian Toll

I'm also working my way through a cookbook and an exercise book. I'm determined to clear out the books I have on hold at the library. The several cookbooks I've been checking out recently have made the exercise book necessary, I'm afraid. But suppers have been very tasty.

>203 N11284: I`m really enjoying it too. Got it from my sister at christmas (translated to norwegian 5 years after it`s original release) - will probably take another 5 years for the sequel then (which i did not know about). So, thank you for enlightening me!

>204 coynedj: Sure is. I like his writing style, especially the parts were he calls the Sapiense`s `idiots`and when reading it, you could probably not agree more. The evolutionally parts may spring a little fast ahead for some, it`s many years covered in relative few pages, 400 or so .. but it`s fine by me. I mean, it`s supposed to be a brief story

I have three on the go at the moment:

The Sory of Art - Gombrich
Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts - de Hamel
Night Watch - Pratchett

>206 Pellias: To be honest I took Yuval Harari's course on Coursera a few years ago and found it fascinating. Sapiens is very much the content of that course in book form.

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts arrived from Blackwells this morning, and I've just devoured Chrisopher de Hamel's enthusiastic and engaging introduction. I can't wait to enjoy the book proper. It's densely packed with colour illustrations and promises to be a treasure.

Just started Tarka the Otter - has this ever been given the Folio treatment?

Edited to say I've just seen it has!

>210 J.Sealy:

Yes, in 1995, reprinted 2005 with a new foreword. I've not seen it, but am hoping against hope that the FS will embark on Williamson's novels some day: that would reawaken my lately dormant FAD.

The Life of St. Mungo by Jocelyn, Monk of Furness

Currently reading Kafka's the Castle with a heavy bout of flu, some heavier painkillers and a droning repetitive pianoscape in the background. Apart from the crashing headache it is a rather enjoyable semi-lucid experience. Kafka has such scope in how he choses to write, with each specific text being so purposely different from the last, it's almost as if he's going up in through your olfactory and giving your grey matter a good wringing out. Mmm, Kafkaesque cerebral massages - a pleasurable experience: would totally recommend.

Thanks to my copy of Bibliotheca arriving last month, I'm currently attempting my first front-to-back reading of the Bible (I'm part of the way through Isaiah at the moment). I try not to read multiple books at once, so I expect to be occupied through at least early February.

>213 Santas_Slave: >214 EclecticIndulgence: I suppose all novels open themselves to interpretation but Kafka seems to have cornered the market in that regard. So much so that the joy of his books, for me, is hearing what others have to say about them and thus avoid having to think for myself! A bookclub discussion would be the very thing.

Re the absurdity factor you can't beat Kafka's description of the legal system in The Trial. After reading it I had to go and lie down - wonderful stuff.

Finished the Merry Adventures of Robin Hood and now reading Anne of Green Gables.

Just finished After Dark by Haruki Murakami, and have finally started the Folio edition of Kim by Rudyard Kipling.

I liked After Dark, but it was really just focused on one night and didn't really resolve any of the plot threads. I think Murakami is great at developing stories and characters but his approach to writing is often that the the lives of the characters don't end with the book.

>214 EclecticIndulgence: >217 scratchpad:
Ha! I know what you mean - for me it is always a relief to have the absurdity highlighted and I can happy laugh alongside.

I have to disagree on the design. In terms of material it is nothing special and gravitates towards the lower end of Folio publications. However I think the font, illustrations and cover design are perfectly matched to the text - better than some 'finer' publications. Paper boards are no inconvenience to me and to some degree I prefer a change in texture to clammy buckram.

Oh please, do not torment me about the Trail! I have been to the shop numerous times to plead if they still have a copy lying around - to no avail!

Just finished The Life of St. Mungo by Jocelyn, Monk of Furness

Just finished The Moving Toyshop, my first Edmund Crispin and certainly not my last. An imaginative and intriguing set-up, a rollicking and hilarious plot, all relayed in engaging and witty prose. The binding and illustrations of the Folio edition are superb.

Now reading Norwegian travel writer Torbjørn Færøvik's latest, Orientekspressen: en vårreise. Færøvik travels from London to Samarkand by train, interweaving the history of the Orient Express with that of the places he travels through. (Granted, he's taken a few liberties, as, to the best of my knowledge, the Orient Express had its oriental terminus at Istanbul, but I don't mind!) What makes him so eminently readable, IMHO, is his blend of interviews with influential people and random encounters with locals; they each offer their interesting takes on the country they live in.

Also reading In Patagonia (FS) and from time to time dipping into Michael Zagaris' wonderful photo book Total Excess - a generous helping of photos of just about anybody who mattered in rock & roll in the sixties and seventies - The Grateful Dead, The Who, Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin...

Re-reading a joint edition of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. This a bilingual edition English/Spanish wonderfully illustrated by Pat Andrea and translated by Luis Maristany. A large book with absolutely stunning artwork. The original was published in 2015 by Éditions Diane de Selliers. Recommended.

>225 drasvola: "A large book with absolutely stunning artwork." How does it compare to the Dali artwork for Alice, Antonio?

Hello, Fiona. They are two very different books in artistic style. Dalí is more absorbing in trying to find interpretations to the images, while Pat Andrea has a more ligne claire style with penciled-in details, combinations of black-and-white with colour highlights. Another point is that Andrea's book has many more illustrations, one in every other page. The book is available also in an English/French edition (978-2364370371) published last November.

Edited to correct myself: The French edition is only in French!

>227 drasvola: Thanks, Antonio. I've just had a look at some of Pat Andrea's work via Google and I was reminded of David Hughes. Very subjective I know, but personally I find Dali more to my taste. I just wish that an equivalent to 1001 Nights was available for Alice. I have the Princeton University edition but scale and richness of colour in no way compare to the originals, some of which I have seen at the Bodleian.

>222 cronshaw: The Moving Toyshop is all that you say. But I couldn't help feeling I'd wasted my time reading it and wondered (not for the first time) if the FS should be bothering with this kind of material. I know it's an old chestnut but, from the readers perspective, is it really worth paying FS prices for a nicely bound piece of trivia that can be picked up for next to nothing (comparatively) elsewhere?

>229 scratchpad: I could never call such witty and delightful prose trivia and would disagree with you about Edmund Crispin's suitability for Folio treatment. I'm very grateful FS have published The Moving Toyshop and Love Lies Bleeding as I doubt I'd otherwise have heard of Edmund Crispin, let alone have read him. As it is, I've just today finished Love Lies Bleeding and enjoyed it so much, particularly Crispin's delicious style, that I've added him to my list of favourite authors and hope Folio publish more of his novels.

>229 scratchpad: You can also pick up Dickens and any other book from the classics for next to nothing elsewhere... So I wonder of FS should be bothering with this kind of material. After all from the reader's perspective... (no need to quote your full post, right?) :)

The more Folio expands and publishes different styles and authors, the better chance they have to survive. If you do not like a certain selection, don't buy it.

>231 AnnieMod:

I disagree with your last paragraph and feel that the FS has already veered too far in that direction. Selectivity is the key.

Using the realm of science fiction as an example, it makes sense to publish landmark works such as '2001', the Shining, I, Robot, etc. However, veering much further than this will be appealing to a limited FS audience. I may be going out on a limb by saying this but the vast majority of books in the Crime/Mystery and SciFi/Fantasy genre are the literary equivalent of playing video games - entertaining at the time but with little substance.

There is certainly not a dearth of great classics or less well known gems that deserve the Folio treatment and I hope Folio will continue along these paths. Trying to be all things to all readers is not a recipe for survival and the FS will rapidly lose its core audience.

Or it will open it to an audience that is not in the market for the classics and would not look at FS otherwise.

They need new readers if they want to survive. And as much as it pains me, my generation and the ones after that do not read the classics much. Yes - there will always be people that do but with the gutting of the educational system, a lot of the classics are incomprehensible to a lot of people.

Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion and I respect yours on that topic. But I respectfully disagree.

>232 dlphcoracl: >233 AnnieMod:

Horses for courses.

But I do hope (in its ever increasing diversity) Folio don't become the next BCA.

>233 AnnieMod:

You are quite correct with regard to the state of public education, on both sides of the pond. It is appalling and it has been a major factor in electing Donald Trump as our 45th president. When facts no longer matter and well-established scientific truths, e.g. evolution, global warming, the safety of vaccincations, etc., are treated as "Alternative Theories", and the populace no longer possess the ability to use reason and logic, the results are disastrous.

That said, I am not certain the FS has to broaden its scope and appeal to this audience nor do I think this audience is interested in fine press and private press books.

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Henry David Thoreau, Westvaco edition 1966. What a beautiful book.

The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands 1942-1944, Ian Toll. Volume two of a three-part history, very engagingly written. Highly recommended.

An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies, Tyler Cowen. My "fun book", much more food talk than economics though. Could have been better.

Just finished 'The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich' by William Shirer today. Now I've started on 'Letters from a Stoic' by Seneca.

Just finished Paingod and other Delusions, and for a light relief ( which was badly needed after Pinged) Stardust by Neil Gaiman. Have begun America Short Stories by FS which I picked up for £4.95 just before the New year.

Finished the Thoreau and Cowen books, now on to:

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics, by Richard Thaler. I'm a bit of an economics nerd, and I have been following the explosion of behavioral economics for years now. Plus, Thaler graduated from the same business school as I did.

Man Tiger, by Eka Kumiawan. I need to get to the library to pick this one up, but I'll start it soon.

Just started Sebastian Haffner's The Meaning of Hitler (FS). About to start reading Paul Brickhill's The Great Escape, also FS, too.

Just finished The Wind in the Willows (FS Ed.)

I may or I may not have read this in my tender years beyond recollection, but I'm putting this down as a maiden outing.

This is without question, one of the most heart warming, funny, philosophical, joyful, sad and earthy books I have read.

Loved it.

Currently reading a tiny book The Unknown Unknown: Bookshops and the delight of not getting what you wanted after a visit to my local bookshop at the weekend.
>241 LesMiserables: If you like Rackham's illustrations, it is worth searching out a copy illustrated by him. I had not read as a youth and was introduced by my parents-in-law. A double joy.
>237 adriano77: How did you find 'The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'? It is on my to acquire and read list.
>238 N11284: Read Paingod about 40 years ago - after being swept away by Dangerous Visions and that was when trying to find books by Ellison was difficult - I had an imported US version (bought when on our annual holiday to the UK), as I could only find two UK collections (Pan) of his books at that time.

>242 CarltonC:
Now that is what I call variety - I cannot think of four more diverse books than those listed in your post.

Currently:
Impossible Journeys
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (this will take a while to get through)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

>232 dlphcoracl:

I was going to write a rebuttal until I had realised I agree with you.

Finished reading the Gulag Archipelago and some modern Balkans lit; a fun experience - would totally recommend. Also read the Painted Bird which is extreme to the extent that it lost credibility and impact: functioning only to turn my stomach and singe my throat with bile.

Now that I got my mystery parcel, I am reading Talleyrand and quite enjoying it so far. I had only about a sentence worth of information on Talleyrand in my head before I started it (half of which, it turned out, was wrong) so it's all new to me.

I read Guards, Guards! this weekend and loved it, it's my favourite Discworld novel to date. I'm currently reading Colin Thubron's Behind The Wall and am impressed by both the work and the Folio edition (apart from the lightweight slipcover).

I finished Man Tiger, by Eka Kumiawan. It was absolutely superb - I highly recommend it to all. It would make a fine Folio publication.

I've started with Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Harari (on CD, for my daily commute). Next up are Grief Is the Thing With Feathers, by Max Porter, and Presuasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade, by Robert Cialdini. Since the first of those two is very short, I have Millennium: From Religion to Revolution: How Civilization Has Changed Over a Thousand Years, by Ian Mortimer, ready to go.

>240 odderi: - I found Haffner's book to be an excellent rumination on Hitler's twisted thought process. I hope you find it as rewarding as I did.

Currently reading (and very much enjoying) The Small House at Allington, a further stage of the intermittent pilgrimage through Barsetshire I began a few years ago. I feel I have to complete that series before embarking upon Trollope's Palliser novels and ultimately enjoy my The Duke's Children LE, that remarkable Folio exclusive first edition, as yet a distant star on the horizon behind my reading mountain.

>249 cronshaw:

Good luck! I'm almost there: half way throughThe Prime Minister and already salivating in anticipation of getting my hands on the LE at last.

>250 boldface: Thank you, I envy your proximity!

Started reading Oliver Rackham's Woodlands today.

1984: Recent events ('alternative facts' and the resurgence of Amazon sales of the book) got me to renew my now ancient acquaintance with this novel. And I was not disappointed. Orwell's detailed and coherent description of his dystopia remains entirely convincing and his analysis of its rationale mind-twistingly scary. It reminded me of Kafka although the comparison is probably more than a little invidious. A grim, compelling read and, for me, still up there as an important book and a well desreved modern classsic. If there is anyone out there who has not read it (hard to believe for FS people) then do so now for Big Brother Is Watching You.

Just finished a reread of Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen (burgundy FS edition).

Starting Interview with a Vampire, by Anne Rice. I've seen the movie, but not read the book, so rather excited! :)

I'm on a bit of a winning streak lately, at least for books of fiction. After coming here recently to recommend highly Eka Kumiawan's "Man Tiger", I can now do the same for Max Porter's "Grief is the Thing with Feathers". It's a very short book - I read it slowly, and it took an hour and a half from start to finish - and I thought it was tremendous.

Currently reading:

- Weigel's Letters to a Young Catholic
- Greenblatt's Hamlet in Purgatory
- Waugh's Brideshead Revisited
- Finishing O'Connor's Habit of Being and Dickens' Curiosity Shop

Not sure if the subject matters are a coincidence or not yet, given that Greenblatt's arguing for a novel reading of Hamlet in light of how the English reformers adapted (okay, eviscerated) Catholic ideas about purgatory and hell.

EDIT: Can't forget the Odes of Horace!

>256 scholasticus:

Some outstanding stuff there Greg.

Just finished rereading Left Hand of Darkness (non folio edition)

Currently reading:
The Sun Also Rises (non folio)
Hitchcock by Trudeau (non folio)
Stoner (John Williams) (non folio)

Currently halfway through Roberto Bolaños's 2666. He's been translated into English by Natasha Wimmer. An intricate and provocative look into our modern world.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Every once in a while I forget how great a writer Gaiman is.

Reading lots of good stuff at the moment but had a notion to pick up some Scott and starts reading Guy Mannering yesterday.

FS The Pink Fairy Book. I'm trying to read two stories a night. I just love the smell and feel of the paper.

Finished another Roger Scruton work, this time The Soul of the World: thought provoking. This needs a few reads though to really come to grips with the abstract principles that are in dynamic here. That's philosophy for you.
Also hammered out the wonderful An Essay on man by Alexander Pope
Started on Churchill by Lord Jenkins which I'm already spellbound by.
And for the last few days I've been doing the early spadework on my new edition of the Summa Theologica by St Thomas Aquinas.

I, Robot: As a 'classic work of science fiction' I approached this book with some eagerness (not having much SF grounding) and, shame on me, quickly tired of it. If you like robots and issues arising from Azimov's three laws then this book is for you. Certainly, if you read the preface first then you won't wait to get started - I've rarely seen a more effusive come-on. But the model of presenting one puzzle/solution after another, thereby demonstrating the author's brilliance, leaves me cold, as also does the often unintelligible pseudo-scientific jargon which I take to be a regular, if not required, feature of the genre. I like the idea of SF so I won't give up and shall continue to buy whatever FS puts out in the hope of developing a truly 'positronic' literary appreciation of it. The Foundation trilogy is on my bookshelf and when I can summon up the stamina I'll give it a try.

>265 scratchpad:
The Foundation Trilogy is far better than I Robot - read it!

>265 scratchpad:

Neither of these fit as "classic" sci-fi, but I would very mush recommend some of the novels of Margaret Atwood and Jonathan Lethem. They don't always do sci-fi, but when they do, they tend to keep the concepts and avoid the techno babble.

>265 scratchpad:
I came to I, Robot through a short course on Robotics – so I guess I fall under your category of those who ‘like’ robots. Still, the book was certainly not what I was expecting, and I struggled with the same issues as you did… although I did find it worthwhile.

“the model of presenting one puzzle/solution after another, thereby demonstrating the author's brilliance” could apply equally to Agatha Christie’s short stories… you either get into the stories or you don’t.

As for the jargon – words like ‘computer’ or ‘robot’ were once considered as jargon. Technology throws up new phenomena which are given names, for convenience if nothing else (sometimes friendly, like ‘Apple,’ but generally not). Here Asimov uses these terms to say “Look, there are some things which you do not understand, which are too difficult to explain, but you still have to deal with the situation.” I think that is effective as much of the technology world is like that.

>266 wcarter: and >269 EclecticIndulgence: Your encouragement has moved The Foundation Trilogy a place or two up my TBR list.
>267 Jason461: The Maiden's Tale is on my buy list for next month. Does this one fit the bill?
>268 StevieBby: Yes, agreed about short story puzzle/solution books. I seem to have an aversion to them all except for Doyle's Sherlock holmes but I read that many years ago. Perhaps it wouldn't work for me now either.
Re jargon: I couldn't help feeling that he was using invented terms for ideas that were also pure invention with no relation to anything else known at the time. This, to me, was fantasy and strained my suspension of disbelief to breaking point. I acknowledge, however, that this could be a misconception on my part due to ignorance of the state of the science either then or now.

>270 scratchpad: "Perhaps it wouldn't work for me now either."

I've been struggling with The Shining for a long time - I find it tedious and badly written, minus the thrill I once got from watching horror movies or Dr. Who.

Finished Interview with a Vampire (loved it!)

Now reading the Grasmere Journals.

Finally started reading Mungo Park's Travels in the Interior of Africa (FS; 1984); his record of one of the earliest British forays into West Africa (If I remember correctly what I read in the introduction, Park was the third one to go at the behest of the African Association - the first poisoned himself in an attempt at curing a disease caught en route; the second met his fate at the hands of some locals with a less than enlightened attitude towards visiting Europeans.)

Regardless of the bleak prospects, Park went - and created a quite impressive narrative of his travels.

I have only made it perhaps a quarter into the book, but his style strikes me as a lot less patronizing than you'd normally find in an exploration report from this time (Late 1700s) - while he certainly longs for the comforts of civilization, he reports on the local customs more with puzzlement and curiosity than arrogance and scorn.

This is going to be fun. Luckily, I am the happy owner of a set of excellent mapping of (part of) the area he traversed - so I am having fun trying to figure out what are the present-day names of some of the places he passed through.

>273 odderi:
Odd, I fondly remember reading Mungo Park many years ago when it was first released by the FS, and it is one of my favourite exploration tale - enjoy! Highly recommended for others to purchase at a very reasonable price on the secondary market.

>273 odderi: I enjoyed Mungo Park, and also T.C. Boyle's Water Music which intertwines Park's story with that of a fictional character. Now I can't remember which one I read first...

I've been reading: new Bulgakov translations, Black Snow & Young Doctor's Notebook; and Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness & Three Tales of the Sea.

The LEC Conrad is a superbly designed book, thank you to NYCFaddict for his bespoke LEC transatlantic service! Now, because of the larger LEC size, I much prefer my bigger Folios - how I wish every Folio book was the same size as Herzog.

>274 wcarter:, >275 overthemoon:

Oh, I am really enjoying it, Park is most readable. One cannot help but notice, however, what a great strides the FS has made by way of typography in later years. The raw text is both entertaining and educational, but I could've typeset it better on my Mac in no time at all. Oh well, what a difference a few decades make...

I just refreshed my memory by looking at my bookshelf - I read Water Music first. I did comment that the FS maps were disappointing because a lot of places were missing. Will have to look at my real bookshelf to consider the typography.

Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernaros, huuuuuge Limited Editions Club version (1986).
And still plugging away at The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, FS edition.

"The Red House Mystery" by A.A. Milne. An entertaining detective novel from those golden years of detective novels. Introduction mentions that this book , as well as others, were written at the same time, in the 20's and early 30's, as were introduced a variety of "board "games. Both the games and mysteries were seen as diversions or pastimes or entertainments for enjoyment. Solving a puzzle was the aim, whether for a board game or a mystery. Lots of fun!

>279 chrisrsprague: Funny that you read the Diary of a Country Priest while I was reading Woodforde's Diary of a Country Parson... I still have a few pages to read, but I cannot wait longer to tell the group how I immensely loved this book! Of course I'm a diary man, but—frankly—I just wondered when I started to read it how I could be interested in a parson's life. And besides, I'm not religious at all. But I slowly sipped it week after week (I believe that reading it in one or two days could make one's sick, especially with the descriptions of menus when Parson Woodforde treats his colleagues and their relatives).

It's a fantastic book to read by the fireplace as I did these last weeks: the style and the words are so simple (much simpler than in Pepys's diary), and nothing happens, except the quietness of the country life. Very relaxing, truly! I've not tried to join its reading with port wine, which he did very frequently and in large proportions especially when he suffered from the gout. (Funny remedy.)

In short: highly recommendable. The drawings in the FS volume add to the pleasure, the marbled paper sides as well. I rated the Diary with 4.5 stars (a high score for me). Pity that Woodforde is absolutely unknown in France (no entry in Grand Dictionnaire Encyclopédique Larousse, for instance).

>281 Pepys: "Pity that Woodforde is absolutely unknown in France"

I'm so glad you enjoyed Parson Woodforde. He's one of my favourites, too. Did you know there is a Parson Woodforde Society? I'm not a member yet, but I've been thinking about it. They have published several volumes of the unabridged diary.

http://www.parsonwoodforde.org.uk/index.htm

As for fame abroad, I'm sure there must be a few French diarists who are unknown in the UK (or America).

>282 boldface: Yes, I've already visited their website. But 17 volumes are somewhat too impressive, and I couldn't decide for a single one...

>283 Pepys:

Yes, I see what you mean. Maybe 17 volumes where "nothing happens, except the quietness of country life" might prove soporific rather than just relaxing, especially with the accompanying port wine!

But can you recommend any French diarists, preferably those published in single volumes!?

>284 boldface: But can you recommend any French diarists, preferably those published in single volumes!?

Ah! Difficult question, Jonathan! In French, we do not even have a word for 'diarist' ('Rédacteur de journal intime'). The neologism 'diariste' is not universally accepted. It seems that diaries are much more common in Anglo-Saxon countries than in Latin countries. I believe religion is behind this, a true diary being a way to confess oneself.

A very strange diarist is Restif de La Bretonne, a contemporary of James Woodforde. But the part of the diary that was discovered in the 19th c. only concerns 1780-1787. Restif was somewhat original: he liked to take walks at night in Paris and to engrave dates in stones, coming back years later to check if they still were there. Mes inscripcions corresponds to his diary for 1780-1787. This is what he calls 'Volume VII', so there must be at least 6 volumes lacking. The original manuscript was found in a prison's archives, and is almost unlegible.
https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Mes_Inscripcions/Texte_entier
Honestly, I'm afraid it's very hard to read. It was recently republished in a Hachette/BnF single volume at around 25€, in French, and I believe there is no English translation... However, this is probably the most original of all French diaries.

Other French diaries were written with the intention to be published. Most are literary, as the Journal des Goncourt, difficult to read. I once had in mind to read the Mémoires du duc de Saint-Simon (not exactly a diary), who was a courtier in Louis XIV time, but it amounts to some 25 volumes... Too much.

>285 Pepys:

I never thought about a possible religious dimension to patterns of diary keeping across Europe, or that there isn't even an accepted French word for a diarist. Fascinating!

I shall certainly look into your suggestions. Thanks for that, François.

>284 boldface:
Not quite a diary, but "Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb" is the autobiography of François-René de Chateaubriand between 1811 and about 1840. He was a famous French diplomat who documented his life for 30 years. This is a current FS publication.
http://www.foliosociety.com/book/MBT/memoirs-from-beyond-the-tomb

>287 wcarter:

Thanks for pointing that one out, Warwick, and neatly bringing us back to the Folio Society!

Not for long! FSD thread is not an FSD thread without going off-topic )

>285 Pepys: >286 boldface:
Incidentally, there is not a word for diarist in Russian either (there is, of course, a word for diary - дневник). Just like in French, if you were forced to do a direct translation, you'd have to say something like "person who writes diary". I think this is because in the past the act of writing diaries was a personal, private affair, not something that could identify a person - it could not be a profession or a distinct thing that a person is known for. In contrast, memoirs could be made public or even written specifically for public consumption, so there is a word for memoirist (мемуарист - pronounced very similarly to English).

Now that the act of dairy-writing online - blogging - is public and can be something a person is known for, or even a profession, we have a word for a blogger.

I might be completely wrong, but these are my thoughts, and I think they might apply to French as well.

>289 elladan0891: Interesting. There seems to be much similarity between Russian and French, indeed. "Diarist" is also sometimes translated as "mémorialiste", but there is of course a notable difference between a diary and memoirs. "Blog" and "blogger" are translated into French as "blogue" and "blogueur". But is it really what one could call a translation?

>287 wcarter: Not quite a diary, but "Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb" is the autobiography of François-René de Chateaubriand You're perfectly right, Warwick. This is a very good recommendation. Not a diary, as you say, but a nice piece of work. (The full work exceeds 2000 pages, I think.) If the current FS selection had not been written in English (;-), I would have bought it. (I cannot resolve to read Chateaubriand in English.)

I've not read his Mémoires d'outre-tombe myself , but I know they are a bedtable book for Jean d'Ormesson, Académie française. Incidentally, d'Ormesson has a 17th c. ancestor, Olivier Le Fèvre d'Ormesson, who was Intendant of the Paris Generality in Louis XIV time: he opposed the King and was destituted. He describes this in a diary which covers almost exactly the same period as Pepys's. (Taking this into account, I asked d'Ormesson if he would like to write a preface to the translation of a Pepys biography I did several years ago, but unfortunately he declined...)

>284 boldface: In short for Jonathan: try the FS selection of Chateaubriand suggested by Warwick. You should love it, provided the translation is good.

And, to come back to The Diary of a Country Parson, I forgot to say that I've been lately in touch with a descendant of William Woodforde, a nephew of James Woodforde's. He told me that diary keeping was a kind of tradition in their family—almost one in each generation, so that they have a complete description of England throughout centuries. And as one of his most-remote ancestors was knighted at Agincourt...

Diary of a Country Priest seems to be more of a philosophical novel, where a priest's diary is the chosen vehicle for the philosophical narratives to take place. And it's only loosely written in diary format. There are no dates, a single chapter's narrative may cover the events of several days, even jump back and forth in time slightly, etc. But still it's written in the first person, as if to himself, though it does contain detailed accounts of the priests's dialogue with others.

So far it's been a very slow, deliberate, and contemplative read for me. I can see that this novel won't be for everybody, but I'm rather enjoying it.

I tried to read The Silmarillion. I figured it would be just my style. But i just couldn't wade though it. Something more important always interupted the reading... like organizing my sock drawer.
Good luck on the read.

>292 chrisrsprague: Yes, as you say, the Diary of a Country Priest is a novel, a fake diary.

Speaking of diaries and novels, I've just finished reading Mac y su contratiempo by Enrique Vila-Matas. The author is one of the leading Spanish writers who has been translated into English. Perhaps his best known book in English is Dublinesque, a work in which he compares James Joyce and Samuel Beckett.
The work that I have finished, published this month, is a novel, but written in diary form. It deals with a would-be writer who sets to repeat/rewrite/improve an old collection of short tales around the life of a ventriloquist. The collection had been published some years ago, to modest success by, as it happens, a neighbour of the diarist. There were ten short tales in the original book each prefaced by an epigraph quoting a famous author, and each tale was written in the style of the author quoted. Our diarist sets out to describe/analyse the stories as he goes about his repeat task, incorporating all that happens around him.
If you think that this is pretty involved, it is. Yet the writing is full of humour with plenty of literary references and sharp commentaries on writers, our society and its values. I enjoyed the reading very much; perhaps it will be translated into English at some point.

Edited to correct some errors.

>294 Pepys: ". . . the Diary of a Country Priest is a novel, a fake diary."

Yes, like The Diary of Elizabeth Pepys by the Australian feminist writer, Dale Spender. Nowhere in the book is it even hinted that it is a spoof. There is a 26-page historical introduction which sets out the historical background of Elizabeth and her times. Blurb and acknowledgements are written as though this is a scholarly work. There are footnotes, a Glossary of seventeenth-century words and terms, and an Index with cross-references. Most of the 'Diary' lies conveniently before the period of Samuel's more famous example, covering the years 1655 to 1661. The only clues to its fictional origin are a rather stilted and inflexible seventeenth-century idiom and one or two anachronisms of vocabulary and word-form, e.g., quizzed/quizzical (OED - from late 18th century) and 'beauty sleep' (OED - from 1857).

Spender uses the genre to illustrate the lives and lifestyles of women in seventeenth century England and, incidentally, to poke fun at the (admittedly) very naughty Samuel. It's actually great fun and rather well done.

>296 boldface: Had heard of it, but never thought it was so well done. Will try to find it. Thanks.

Edited: $0.78 on Amazon. Acceptable.

>287 wcarter:

I just finished the FS edition of Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb and it is an entertaining read--particularly the bits about Napoleon.

Finished the Grasmere Journals (loved) and now reading The Pianist.

Once There Was a War, John Steinbeck: A strangely compelling set of dispatches from England, N. Africa and Italy during 1943. Quiet and perhaps understated they present a somewhat distanced collection of stories and observations of men at war almost as if he wasn't there at all (I have little or no recall of the use of the first person in any of the narratives). This may have been the regular jounalistic approach but it could also have been because of the reporting restrictions and censorship that he is at pains to elaborate in his introduction. As a result I felt that some of the essential flavour of the times has been thinned-out and the actual experiences and behaviours of the troops rendered acceptable for the folks back home. Nevertheless, given the stresses under which he was working, not least the tyranny of producing regular copy, these pieces of journalism are insightful, entertaining and at the time, if not now, necessary. If you are interested in ground-level but not flashy descriptions of ordinary soldiers at war (but not in combat except for one or two instances and then not first-hand) then this book is for you.

I had not read Steinbeck before and was so taken by his introduction, which I assume is written in his more usual relaxed style, that I will certainly read more.

Persuasion. A reread for me. I have 4 copies here. 3 are by FS (the present collection, the old Burgundy one, the unfinished one) and OUP. I read the first chapter from the newest collection (gold binding), but disappointed that the print is so light and rather small. May look at one of my other copies and read from that instead. A pity. This was a Christmas present. Methinks they concentrated too much on the outside and illustration competitions and not enough on the actual print, which, of course, is the most important part if you want to READ the book. Sigh....

The Meaning of Hitler, Sebastian Haffner: A satisfyingly short but illuminating exploration of Hitler's character, his "peculiarities and obsessions", that determined his conduct and thus the fate of Germany, up to his death in 1945. An unsparing verdict (elaborated by the light of modern scholarship but none the less relevant for that) which portrays it's subject as totally imprisoned in his psyche so as to produce a fatalistic determinism that circumstances permitted to be played out with such devastating and history-changing effect. Fascinating.

I have to admit (blush) that I am reading a Dan Brown novel - The Lost Symbol. It kind of, sort of, just happened; all of a sudden it was there, and I just picked it up, and next thing I knew, I was 100 pages in and my wife started asking pointed questions as to the whereabouts of the book she'd borrowed at our local library. Tough luck, wifey, I've still got another three hundred and fifty pages to go.

I'll grant Brown that he's the master of the fast-paced vast secret, loony rituals and giant plot-holes genre, though.

By means of atonement, I am also re-reading Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamasov at the moment.

Next on the TBR list? I think I am in a mood for re-reading Tim Slessor's excellent memoir of the Oxbridge early fifties overland expedition from the UK to the Far East, First Overland - a most decidedly British book in all its understated, self-depreciating humour and impressive steadfast resolution to keep going no matter what obstacles manifest themselves along the way. Highly recommended for anyone with the slightest bit of interest in adventure.

>304 odderi: You can resist everything except temptation!

>305 scratchpad: Precisely.

Thank you for reminding me - I've been thinking of obtaining a copy of The Wit of Oscar Wilde. :-)

>306 odderi: You can resist it!

>304 odderi:
Is your wife's library Dan Brown in Norwegian or original Danbrownish?

Somewhat off-topic, but this is one of the more humorous Dan Brown comments I've encountered, from a review of The Canterbury Tales on Goodreads:

"When confronted with the painful choice of whether or not to read Chaucer in the original Middle English, I agonised for precisely four seconds and decided to read Nevill Coghill’s modern translation in lovely Penguin paperback. In the same way I wouldn’t learn German to read Goethe, or unlearn English to read Dan Brown, I refuse to learn archaic forms of English for pointless swotty scholar-points..."

Enchanted April, by Elizabeth Von Arnim. FS edition. A favourite pre-spring read for me!

Enchanted April, by Elizabeth Von Arnim. FS edition. A favourite pre-spring read for me!

>308 elladan0891: - Frankly, I don't know yet. It resembles English, but there's something which is a bit off...

>309 chrisrsprague: Nailed it.

>312 odderi: I was kinda expecting it to be in Norwegian, considering your, ahem, enthusiasm ) Dan Brown seems to be one of those authors whose prose rather improves after translation )

A while back, at the peak of the Da Vinci Code craze, I decided to check what the fuss was about and pulled up sample pages on amazon. I set my expectations quite low and wasn't expecting a revelation of any kind, just thought it might still be a fun light read. However, when I was somewhere towards the end of the second page I stumbled upon ridiculously pretentious and totally unnecessary "senechaux" instead of "seneschals" and closed the browser in disgust.

I recently found a little piece about Brown in the Telegraph, and after all these years since I've read those 2 pages of The Code it all came back. I even went back to amazon and re-read those 2 pages again, up until the sudden appearance of the French plural "senechaux". Don't know about the rest of The Code, but considering the first 2 pages the article is absolutely spot-on, and I suspect the author of the article didn't get much farther than me )
Check it out, while all references there are to the first pages of The Da Vinci Code, I doubt his style changed much, so you might get a chuckle or two as well:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/dont-make-fun-of-renowned-dan-brown/

P.S. Enjoy all 350 remaining pages of your guilty pleasure! Just don't let your kids get near it )

>309 chrisrsprague: love the quote, thanks!

>313 elladan0891: I have now finished The Lost Symbol, and I am somewhat relieved to be moving on to something quite different - Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red. (Not comparable entities, besides both being books.)

I feel rather like I've been reading the condensed script for a few seasons of a thriller TV series of dubious quality - say, 24 - the 'plot' (I use this word rather loosely!) jumps from cliffhanger to cliffhanger, and after a while you get almost numb - the whole book (and, I suspect, as are his other titles) jumps from crisis to crisis, never once does the pace slow down somewhat.

Again and again, something or the other is revealed to the protagonists, the better part of a page is spent describing how they are wowed, awed, shocked &c - and then, only a couple of pages later are we as readers let in on the secret. (Not that we hadn't guessed, mind!). This happens time and time again and soon grows old.

Plot holes you could drive a bus through. A CIA almost omnipotent in its surveillance powers somehow fails to locate a couple of people carrying cell phones, for instance. They still manage to call the same people on those cell phones, however - so obviously, it is known to them that their refugees are carrying them. (In case this is not common knowledge outside RF engineering circles - you can get a rough location fix on a cell phone simply by querying the wireless network for the base station the cell phone is currently connected to plus some auxiliary data - say, signal strength levels from neighbouring base stations. You can then go to that area and get a very precise fix by direction finding.)

(Not to mention that they are apparently well equipped with manpower, equipment and contacts to create all sorts of havoc domestically, which I thought their charter forbid them to do.)

Oh, and don't even get me started on the convoluted, verbose language. Please. One could be forgiven for thinking Brown is paid by lines submitted.

Now, on to something better. "I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well..."

I recently finished the Bibliotheca bible (happily guided in the endeavour a biblical scholar and a Lutheran priestess, who were extremely helpful in highlighting historical and theological minefields I might have skipped through in my naievity) and then followed it up with Geza Vermes' Authentic Gospel of Jesus, which was an extremely detailed look at the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke.

After my extended stay with key religious texts, I decided to stick with similar material: I'm now on Catch-22.

>316 gmacaree: love your final paragraph! :)

The Best of the Marx Brothers; FS, 2007: As a fan of the Marx brothers I found this book extremely disappointing. About one third of the book is devoted to film and radio scripts and TV exchanges. Although funny at first these necessarily suffered from the absence of performance value-added and so became less funny as more were read. Another third was taken from an autobiography of Harpo evidently ghost written and in a very straightforward and therefore uninteresting literary style that weirdly seemed to match or perhaps create a largely unfunny story. Part of the remaining third was taken up by a selection of Groucho's letters which, although not devoid of flashes of wit, did little to either illuminate his person or his life. I can't think why they were included at all. Some biographical sketches were, for me, the most informative and, more importantly, the funniest bit of the book but they were all too brief. There are other books out there about this legendary troup of lunatics but this is one that may safely be ignored - a shame as this is a FS original.

All Quiet on The Western Front
London Fields

Concurrently.

>319 Daithioc: AQ on the WF - terrific book, well written, important and memorable.

Scotch by Robert Bruce Lockhart

I just finished Frankenstein (unfortunately not a fs edition) and am now onto the Outsider (fortunately the fs edition).

Just finished My Cousin Rachel. Am tempted to seek out Folio Du Maurier set now.

Am currently alternating between The Last Chronicle of Barsetshire (Folio) and King Solomon's Ring (Reprint Society) and loving both. I've enjoyed all the novels of the Barsetshire series, but The Last Chronicle is shaping up to be my favourite. Trollope steadily weaves an intricate plot, drawing together threads from all the previous Barsetshire novels, and makes you feel fully invested in the characters. Wonderful stuff.

>323 withawhy99: It's most certainly worth seeking out, likewise the Short Stories volume.

I'm just starting Dictator, the final vol in Robert Harris' Cicero series (in pb unfortunately).

I've just read today Sir Walter Scott's description of the union of the English and Scottish crowns in 1603 in his History of Scotland. At the end he "looks forward" a century to the union of parliaments and makes it clear, even though he's undeniably a proud and patriotic Scot, that he believes that we're stronger together! Fascinating stuff! Where would he stand today after another two hundred years of reflection? (This is a rhetorical question. I have no desire or intention to spark a protracted and/or bitter political argument from either side!)

I've also embarked on The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney volume I. Fanny is fifteen and I have to say, allowing for the historical gulf of 250 years, she sounds very much like any spirited fifteen-year-old with literary pretensions today, with her exuberant ebullience, propensity for experimenting with hyperbolic language, and descriptions of family and friends which are both witty and "wicked". Curiously, I've also learnt that her grandfather was Scottish and that the family name was originally MacBurney. I'm really excited that there are 24 more volumes of journals to go, including Fanny's stifling experiences as Second Mistress of the Bedchamber to George III's Queen Charlotte and, less appealing, a particularly graphic but historically important description of her mastectomy operation without anaesthetic in 1811. Remarkably, she survived for another twenty-nine years.

For light relief, I'm reading The Bright Pavilions by Hugh Walpole, one of his Herries Family novels - a romantic story set within the context of the religious troubles and Border tensions (including the plight of Mary Queen of Scots imprisoned in England) during the reign of Elizabeth I. I'm embarking on the Herries chronicle in preparation for a holiday in the Lake District in May, where I'll be staying within a stone's throw of Walpole's home. It was here, in his study above the garage overlooking Derwentwater, that he wrote the greater part of these novels.

Three books, the latter two (quite by chance in my choosing of them) also having a lesser or greater Scottish dimension. Great history, great reading.

>326 boldface:

And may your holiday be as blessed by the weather as were my three days last week, just up the road by Bassenthwaite: dry, and many hours of sunshine. I have seldom known my native Cumberland so lovely at this time of year; it makes me restive in my southern exile. When you have exhausted the Herries chronicle, Jonathan, there is, if you can locate any of the books (a family dispute prevented re-publication, I understand), another Cumbrian family chronicle worth reading: that of the Fleming family, by Graham Sutton.

>327 affle:

Thanks for the recommendation, Alan. I'll check it out in due course. I was introduced to Herries by my grandfather in the 1960s. His forebears hailed from Ulpha. I re-read them periodically and, apart from the holiday, I have another incentive this time round as I've just bought a beautiful set of the large-paper first editions of the original four novels, half bound in red morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.

>328 boldface:

My Bright Pavilions is a first edition; but those true chronicle books provoke envy. One strand of my ancestry is from the Duddon Valley, too - Tysons, very numerous there.

I finished The Forgotten Soldier, by Guy Sajer, and have moved on to The Doomed City, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.

>331 coynedj:
Interesting choices, what do you make of them?

Just finished reading One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - definitely recommended.

>332 Santas_Slave: - The choices were almost random, from my long list of books I have on hold at the library. Thankfully, holds can be suspended indefinitely, otherwise I'd never get through them all!

The Forgotten Soldier was quite a story. Sajer seems to have lived through a lot of devastation (and kept a diary, one must assume) which was exactly what the title of his book says - forgotten, at least in some parts of the world. His isn't a recounting of command decisions and strategic movements, but the story of a common soldier who did what he was told. It certainly gave a taste for how pointlessly destructive war is. I would recommend it for anyone interested in this war, or war in general.

I haven't read much of The Doomed City yet - I'm about 130 pages in. I'm finding it to be fascinating, and continually wonder what on earth could come next. There is quite a lot that is unexplained, and I hope it finishes well. With some fiction, I take the approach of not trying to figure it all out as I go along and instead just enjoy the wild ride, and this became such a book very early in the proceedings. I have only begun reading much science fiction in the past few years, and this is my first foray into the Strugatskys work. Have you read any of their books?

I've read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich twice now. It's a powerful work, and I would also recommend The Gulag Archipelago (FS, unfortunately, only published an abridged version). The full work is quite a slog but I never thought of giving up on it.

I'm now on Anton Chekov's The Shooting Party. My first Chekov. Impressed so far.

>333 coynedj:
Oddly enough I read the Gulag Archipelago first, all the stories are so hard hitting and eye opening. One Day in the Life is more a typical narrative, so that rather than documenting the absurdity it lets you live amongst it and feel the deprivation, gruelling work and futility.

The Forgotten Soldier looks interesting. I was a bit disappointed by The Painted Bird which I thought was shocking to the point it became unrealistic (and lost its impact); when there are so many real horrific experiences to draw from, I feel you learn more from real events. I'll add this to my tbr.

Recently been reading Bulgakov's other works and they cross over into scifi. I think good scifi can use it as a tool to explore ideas that cannot otherwise be explored; but, there is also a lot of bad scifi out there. With the similar Russian, political and ideological themes the Doomed City looks very interesting. If you enjoy it by the end I'll add that one to the list too.

Currently:
Ben Hur - 1960 Limited Editions Club version
A Confederacy of Dunces - Audible, for my commute

First time in well over a year when I'm not reading anything from FS. That won't last very long though.

War Horse by M. Morpurgo: The trials and triumphs of a horse at war was an enjoyable and satisfying read. A simple tale refreshingly simply told that manages to touch the emotions while remaining strictly unsentimental. The trick of allowing the horse to tell the story while not losing sight of the fact that it is a horse and not human is achieved by reducing the reverse anthropomorphism to a minimum so that in most scenarios the horse provides straight reportage devoid of emotional human content. This only fails badly where the word 'love' is used when, in my view, it more accurately denotes attraction and lack of fear which are presumably more horsey realistic. This may be a quibble but I found it irritating and somehow detracted from the consistency of the story-telling.

FS has delivered a first class product here - a smartly attractive cloth-bound volume of compact proportions (it is a short book), effective illustrations and nice-feel Abbey Wove paper. I like everything about it including its lightweight slip that might prove off-putting to some but shouldn't.

>337 scratchpad:
Another perhaps inevitable drawback of having the horse narrate is that it is fluent in 3 languages. Even as a child I think that that would have bothered me.

>331 coynedj:

Sajer's autobiography is magnificent.

>336 chrisrsprague: Listened to A Confederacy of Dunces on Audible a few years back and loved every minute of it. now there'a a book FS should consider.

I know that I'm an outlier, but I almost didn't finish A Confederacy of Dunces. I didn't like that book at all - the characters, and particularly the main character, annoyed me to distraction.

>341 coynedj: I agree with you, hated it from beginning to end. It was recommended by a usually reliable American friend, who said it was hilarious.

Churchill - Roy Jenkins.

Brilliant.