Books

:kickass:

Finished The Idiot a couple of days ago and then went on to Gogol's Taras Bulba which was both grand and extremely entertaining. Now I've started Dead Souls by the same author and this one is even wittier -- I never thought russian authors could be this funny :D

Did you like the Idiot? I love Crime and Punishment and Brothers Karamazov.
 
Did you like the Idiot? I love Crime and Punishment and Brothers Karamazov.

Yes I liked it a lot, but I find it so hard to write anything worthwhile about a book like that: It's so big and contains so much, so many minutely drawn characters, heaps of intrigue, complicated relations, philosophy etc -- it's pretty overwhelming, just like life itself I guess -- and perhaps that's why it's so good.

Anyway, I liked it more than Devils (or whatever it's called in english) which still was good, but I found that it centered a bit too much on ideas and the presentation and discussion of these through the different characters, which therefore turned out flatter than what is usually the case with Dostojevskij.

I plan on reading Brothers Karamazov pretty soon, as well as re-reading Crime and Punishment, which I read some years back when I was a bit too young to really get it all. I remember liking it however, especially the first one hundred pages or so
 
Yes I liked it a lot, but I find it so hard to write anything worthwhile about a book like that: It's so big and contains so much, so many minutely drawn characters, heaps of intrigue, complicated relations, philosophy etc -- it's pretty overwhelming, just like life itself I guess -- and perhaps that's why it's so good.

Anyway, I liked it more than Devils (or whatever it's called in english) which still was good, but I found that it centered a bit too much on ideas and the presentation and discussion of these through the different characters, which therefore turned out flatter than what is usually the case with Dostojevskij.

I plan on reading Brothers Karamazov pretty soon, as well as re-reading Crime and Punishment, which I read some years back when I was a bit too young to really get it all. I remember liking it however, especially the first one hundred pages or so

Cheers! Crime and Punishment's first 100 pages is when he kills the old bint, but the next 300-400 pages is why the novel rules!
 
My favourite Dostojevskij novel has always been "The House of the Dead", where he narrates an inmates experiences in a Siberian prison. A really powerful and honest autobiographical book.
 
Dostoevsky is pretty much my favorite writer. Currently reading Demons.

The Brothers Karamazov is my favorite so far. I have but a few left to read.

Any Dostoevsky, or a lot of Russian translations for that matter, is imperative that you seek out the Pevear/Volkonsky translations.
 
Any Dostoevsky, or a lot of Russian translations for that matter, is imperative that you seek out the Pevear/Volkonsky translations.

Hm, I wonder how good the swedish ones I've been reading are... even though it feels kind of silly to read them in english, it doesn't really matter since it's all translated from one language to another anyway. Hm hm, you've given me an idea, I might actually give it a try
 
Jesus Fucking Keerist On A STICK!

Salman Rushdie owns you, me, and everyone else.
I know. :loco:

Re-read The Alphabet of Manliness and have been perusing many Life in Hell books lately. Also more Lovecraft and I'm going to get back into Gravity's Rainbow after taking a well-deserved break.

I have a lot of books on the docket right now (the usual, Vonnegut, Rushdie, Kerouac, Hesse, Nabokov, and Eco), but have been busy doing other things* lately.

*nothing
 
Last night I read the first collection of The Darkness by Garth Ennis because I believe there is some form of movie/videogame/pornographictoy coming out based on that soonish, so I wanted to be ahead of the game.

It was fucking stupid.
 
Yeah, not great work by the Ennis. But given the source material he had to work with... he was arguably the best of the writers who did that series. It's just a lame series.
 
lolx (x?)

I'm going to read some more Alan Moore next methinks, I have Watchmen and Saga of the Swamp Thing in my possession so it will likely be one of those.

Gravity's Rainbow stares at me from across the room not unlike Finnegans Wake, which is firmly planted on a middle shelf between my Salman Rushie and Jack Kerouac collections. Also, just in case things get saucy, Finnegans Wake and Ulysses are separated by an old decrepit copy of The Origin of Species. The printing year is unknown, but it looks slightly younger than my 80+ year old copy of Gargantua and Pantagruel I picked up on the same day about a year ago.

Think we'll make it?
 
I'm investing myself into reading Vonnegut and Borges in the coming month, as well as digging around random comicdom.

Saga is pretty good, but definitely read "Love and Death" as well. Those two compiliations, in my humble opinion, are among the best pure writing in a graphic medium that can be found. You can pretty much see the genesis for all the more serious and intense comic writing that followed, be it Gaiman, Warren Ellis, Frank Miller, etc.
 
Cool.

Yeah it's pretty amazing how you ask any of the best comic writers who their biggest influence/inspiration/god is and the answer is inevitably: "Alan Moore. Period."
 
I just finished my Third book by Lovecraft. This one was The Dreams in the Witch House and other weird stories. Penguin Modern Classic.


My favourites:
The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath
The Dreams in the Witch House
Through the Gates of the Silver Key
Shadows Out of Time

Shadows Out of Time was fucking awesome! One of my favourites by far.
 
orwell - homage to catalonia is quite interesting, as much for the historical background (right-wing commies?) as the narrative...the spanish civil war was kerazy...