mxleader on 11/6/2010 at 06:41
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Reading for the second time. The irony and jokes make more sense now that I am older this time around.
Sulphur on 11/6/2010 at 07:02
And coincidentally enough, I'm reading Closing Time, the sequel. It's... Catch-22 wound down and contemporary, in a nutshell. Occasional flashes of wit, lots of reminiscing, and some unadulterated moaning about things. It's less unhinged and not very much fun. But as an inspection of life at the close of its run, it's got that typical Heller bravura about it.
Thirith on 11/6/2010 at 11:06
I'm currently reading Murakami's Norwegian Wood. It's the first Murakami I'd ever read, and while I didn't warm to it all that much originally, it still made me go and read lots of other novels he'd written. I thought I should re-read it and see how I feel now... and it still leaves me curiously cold. Give me The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles any day, though.
Demetros on 11/6/2010 at 21:29
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray. Apparently it was considered bleak and dark at the time it was published (1847-1848), and I suppose it's to be expected since Romanticism was a really big thing back then, but to modern standards it's not as black as it used to be. Not like it's a bad thing – I thought it was pretty interesting to see that something like this would've been considered depressing back then. Now Oscar Wilde, I think his works are depressing. But then his works are always very humourous, so I guess it's easier to swallow for people...
Schechter on 11/6/2010 at 22:45
I'm going between reading a collection of Russian Gypsy folk tales and Jean-Jacques Rousseau's 'Basic Political Writings'.
Aja on 11/6/2010 at 22:49
still
reading
ulysses
forever. but man, "verbally inventive" doesn't begin to describe it
Sulphur on 11/6/2010 at 22:58
Jeebus. It's like the time I tried reading The Iliad back in Uni. A page a month was about all I could do.
suliman on 12/6/2010 at 00:44
Last and first men, by Olaf Stapledon. I usually have no problems with SF books aging badly, but this one is brutal.
Demetros on 12/6/2010 at 04:39
Huh? Did someone mention Ulysses?
-recalls the The Odyssey bitterly-
I had no trouble reading it. But what really pissed me off was how big of a conceited jackass Odysseus was. Also he got all of his men killed.
Yeah, yeah, I know he told his men not to hunt the stupid livestock. But he's the leader, isn't he? And a war hero too? Was it so much to keep his men, who were not under the influence of lotus juice at the time, under control?
Aja on 12/6/2010 at 05:06
Quote Posted by Sulphur
Jeebus. It's like the time I tried reading The Iliad back in Uni. A page a month was about all I could do.
Ulysses is actually really good, during the parts where I kinda sorta understand what's happening. And the parts where I don't, well, I just think of those parts as poetry. I'd have finished long ago if I hadn't taken a several-month break.
I'm just waiting for the inevitable 100 page debate about Parnell and the state of Irish politics (fingers crossed that there isn't one!).
