Who's reading what?

[Travis]

I am an epically slow reader. And though I have little doubt that I could have several books on the go at any given time, I can't help but feel that in doing so I would be getting less out of each book than I would if I were reading them one at a time.

Thoughts?

[k-j]

I typically read two or three at a time, not more. One I read in the evenings, one in the daytime, and if both are novels then maybe also a work of non-fiction.

But recently things have been a bit crazy and I think I've eight on the go right now!

It depends on the book as well. Some you want to rip right through, some you want frequent breaks.

[Travis]

While an experiment like your Ulysses/Odyssey reading is interesting, I must confess to being a shittier consumer than you. When I read I desire submersion. So to jump to another book would defeat this.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T on 8 books though. That's mad.

[k-j]

Almost done with my Ulysses / Odyssey combo. That will leave me with just a book of essays (toilet), Churchill (for insomnia), and Rasselas (work) on the go.

I've recently been reading the Collected of Gavin Ewart. Ewart was a genius and I'll post one or two of his poems soon for your admiration. This is a library book, I must buy a copy.

I'm off to Alaska next week and will be taking with me vol. V of Proust (The Captive, and The Fugitive), canonical 1000-page pomo novel The Recognitions, or Beckett's Triolgy (an overdue reread).

[brianedwards]

Not familiar with Ewart k-j, so will appreciate you posting a few.
Proust is another writer I must get around to grappling with again. I've dipped into Remembrance . . . several times but never given it the attention it apparently deserves. The Recognitions and Beckett's trilogy on the other hand are huge favourites. Both highly rewarding works and will be well suited to the Alaskan scenery I am sure.

You have inspired me to re-read Ulysses by the way, so gimme a month or so and I'll reply to that thread you started. . .

B.

~

[paisley]

I must declare it! I have fallen completely in love with Thomas Hardy.
I'm presently in the middle of Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

"the silence being broken only by the clucking of the milk in the tall cans behind them."

Milk clucking, love it.

Every sentence is poetry. The reading is very slow as the phrases are savoured before moving on to the next.
I am sure everyone has already read it and knows this, to me, it is like discovering something old that shines like new.
How exciting his writing is.

[k-j]

I must declare it! I have fallen completely in love with Thomas Hardy.
I'm presently in the middle of Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

"the silence being broken only by the clucking of the milk in the tall cans behind them."

Milk clucking, love it.

Every sentence is poetry. The reading is very slow as the phrases are savoured before moving on to the next.
I am sure everyone has already read it and knows this, to me, it is like discovering something old that shines like new.
How exciting his writing is.

What a brilliant bit of writing you've picked out! I've read Jude and one other I forget the name of in which the heroine was called Bathsheba Everdene. Both fairly enjoyable as long as you don't get too wrapped up in the hopelessness of it all. He was a very good writer; he wrote a lot of great poems too, along with a metric ass-load of rubbish ones.

p.s. the other one is of course Far From the Madding Crowd, which I read yonks ago.

Milk clucking, indeed!

[k-j]

Currently reading:

The Fugitive, Proust. Almost finished. Just want to get it over with now, but can't summon up the guts for the Big Push. Bring on WWI and the final book of this idiotic masterpiece.
Reel, George Szirtes. About 1/2 way. Enjoyed it at first but getting repetitive.
The Safety Net, Heinrich Boll. Late novel by Boll has that irritating tic of introducing a flood of characters without any context or background - and not in an entertaining way e.g. Pynchon.
The Oxford Book of Essays. Reading this very occasionally on the bog.
The Gathering Storm, Churchill. About 2/5 of the way through. Haven't looked at this for about six weeks. Churchill is a terrible self-applauding pedant who rarely shows us his human side, maybe he didn't have one.
Life of Johnson, Boswell. About 2/5 of the way through this, expect to finish sometime in 2018. Highly entertaining.
The Kingdom by the Sea: a Journey Around Great Britain, Paul Theroux. Dreary account of Theroux's idiotic trip around the coast of Britain. How he hoped to say anything about Britain without leaving the coast I have no idea. The usual bitching and moping without the exotic hijinks. Mrs KJ returned it to the library while I was away, thinking I'd finished it; I'm about 3/4 done so have no choice but to borrow it again and finish. Perhaps what this book shows us is that Theroux was not really a very good travel writer at all? I loved The Great Railway Bazaar when I was about 19 but since then I've kept on trying him and he has kept on trying me. Time to call it a day. Has anyone read any of his fiction?
In Milton Lumky Territory, Philip K. Dick. Recently started, very promising so far. Early realist Dick novel about three minor-league crazies trying to sell typewriters.
The Wheels of Chance: A Bicycling Idyll, H.G. Wells. Reading in ebook during idle hours at work. Basically crap - reminds me of Three Men in a Boat - but not as tiresome because of Wells's innate craziness and you can see the genesis of my hero, Mr Polly.

[paisley]

k-j,
Thank you for the details of your recent reading list. I appreciate it and am impressed with so much going on at once.
As well as Tess, I am half way through Philip Roth's Portnoy- enjoyable and fast paced.
The French Lieutenant's Woman- John Fowles- Not too far as I got side tracked by Tess.

I have a copy of My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk that taunts me as I walk past my bookshelf but I have a lengthy list of older books to read before I allow myself that one. Anyone else read the Red?

A summer of reading, sounds dreamy. Thanks again for your list, inspiring.

[David]

I didn't finish My Name Is Red, paisley. I think I just got bored of it.

Portnoy's Complaint! Wow. I read that years ago, also The Magus by John Fowles. That was completely mad, so far as I can remember.

[k-j]

I read Portnoy at uni, but I hardly remember anything about it. Apart from the liver-wanking obviously.

[David]

I've just finished The Catcher in the Rye again, having read it once before and hated it. I tried again, and it seemed much less painful. Even quite amusing at times. Interesting to see how the young Robert Zimmerman seems to have acquired his whole personality from Holden Caulfield. Or was Salinger just channelling the Zeitgeist?

I also read Breakfast at Tiffany's recently - loved it, far sadder and realer than the film - and I've just started on a compendium of Raymond Chandler's detective novels. The Big Sleep at the moment. Terrific.

[Nash]

I read Catcher in the Rye when I was in my late teens and thought it was ok, I suppose it's the ideal age to read it. I tried reading it again just recently and only managed a few pages. I think that Salinger portrayed a whiny, annoying young man far too well for it to be enjoyable. I think that it was written a good ten years or so before Dylan first became famous so it's probably just coincidence. Whiny, annoying young men have probably existed through all of history and probably always will, I know that I was one myself once.

[brianedwards]

Is Catcher in The Rye one of those books that should be read only in youth? I still have a soft spot for it, but nothing like the love of it I had as a teenager. Who was it who wrote a while ago that re-reading Ulysses they found they sympathize more with Bloom than Stephen as they get older? It's an interesting phenomena I think.
Regarding Salinger, I am a huge fan of his short stories. No-one does dialogue like he did.

Currently on the go I have Szymborska's Collected Poems and a collection by little known Japan-based American poet Jane-Joritz Nakagawa called incidental music which is quite challenging. Just finished Amis' Night Train. Why can I just not get into him?

B.

[k-j]

Is Catcher in The Rye one of those books that should be read only in youth? I still have a soft spot it, but nothing like the love of it I had as a teenager. Who was it who wrote a while ago that re-reading Ulysses they found they sympathize more with Bloom than Stephen as they get older? It's an interesting phenomena I think.
Regarding Salinger, I am a huge fan of his short stories. No-one does dialogue like he did.

It was me. I read Catcher for the first time two or three years ago, i.e. long after I 'd finished adolescing, and thought it superb. I loved Holden, found him cute and endearing and ingenuous. And I agree about Salinger's short stories, they're just about perfect.

Currently on the go I have Szymborska's Collected Poems and a collection by little known Japan-based American poet Jane-Joritz Nakagawa called incidental music which is quite challenging. Just finished Amis' Night Train. Why can I just not get into him?

Dunno. I've always liked his non-fiction (although the recent stuff is rather tawdry and rabble-rousing), hated the book of his short stories I read last year (Heavy Water), haven't tried his novel.s

[paisley]

It is very interesting to hear what people are reading and a little about what they thought about it. Thank for sharing.

[David]

I read Catcher for the first time two or three years ago, i.e. long after I 'd finished adolescing, and thought it superb. I loved Holden, found him cute and endearing and ingenuous.

I must admit, I found him much less tiresome than I did the first time around. Apart, that is, from that incredibly grating habit of referring to old Ackley and old Jane. And all the "I do. I really do." business.

[Bombadil]

A Garden of Earthly Delights by Joyce Carol Oates.

[k-j]

"Aberration of Starlight" by Gilbert Sorrentino
Short stories of Somerset Maugham vol. 4
Burton's Arabian Nights

And this fantastic, compendious book of modern Greek poetry which mrs kj gave me for Xmas. Some real gems in there, and for the first time I appreciate Cavafy - always bored me in the past. Funny how abruptly you realise your tastes have changed.

Also been reading through Gaiman's Sandman series for the first time in a few years.

[David]

I keep thinking I should try Joyce Carol Oates. She's really prolific, isn't she?

I like bilingual anthologies, and that one looks really good.

I've just finished Wolf Hall. Very good. A historical novel - in fact, possibly, an ahistorical novel, or at least an alternative history - but a fine one.

[Bombadil]

David,

JCO is indeed prolific. Something like 15 short story collections and 90 novels. The Wonderland Quartet, of which Garden of Earthly Delights is I believe the first, is as good a place as any to wade into the Oatesiness.

Cheers,

K.

[David]

Keith, thanks for that recommendation. I still have an Amazon gift voucher left from Christmas. I'll just get my waders on, and will report back.

Cheers

David

P.S. I think we were actually somewhere near you on our holiday this year. We saw a roadsign for Salinas, at least. I had it in my head that that was roughly you. Is that right?

[Bombadil]

You were three hours away...should've looked me up. Were you visiting San Francisco?

[David]

You were three hours away...should've looked me up. Were you visiting San Francisco?

We were, having splashed out for a big family holiday before our daughter went to university, thereby impoverishing us for years, probably. We drove from Santa Monica, via Santa Barbara, Cambria and Santa Cruz - and Yosemite, absurdly, although of course it was worth the detour - to San Francisco. Great trip, and we loved San Francisco. A good place to finish a road trip.

[Bombadil]

Heh. Yosemite put you much, much closer to me.

I live an hour from the gate.

Next time, mate.

Where's your daughter attending?