Picked up any good reads at the bookstore?

[Deleted]

Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières. I enjoyed this in spite of myself.

[lala]

LINE 38: Unless perchance a sombre thunderhead breaks away from the main body to career all over the gulf till it escapes into the offing beyond Azuera, where it bursts suddenly into flame and crashes like a sinister pirate-ship of the air, hove-to above the horizon, engaging the sea.

This line is delightful. I wouldn't dare spoil it by trying to load it with any special meaning.

[mistressdao]

just downloaded The Girl with the dragon tattoo ( audio book)

[lala]

Just for you, Ming, I've written this into my Great But Unpublished Novel:

Sunday afternoon, the rain comes down too heavily to go out. I try to read the book I borrowed from the school library, but it’s impossible. The book’s called Heart of Darkness and it’s written in this really old school sort of language, and the person telling the story goes on and on for ages about stuff which I can’t understand. I start reading a paragraph, then, when it’s time to turn the page, I haven’t got the faintest idea what I’ve just been reading, so I have to start again. The summary on the back said it was a classic, which is one of the reasons I checked it out. The other reason is it was short. But if I’ve learned one thing from Heart of Darkness, it’s that a short book isn’t always a quick one to read.

So I spend most of Sunday afternoon listening to two people talking about something that I’m pretty sure is important, only I can’t figure out what it is they’re talking about, far less why it’s important. I want to give up on it, but keep forcing myself to read and re-read it, hoping it will make sense in the end.

The good news is, you've been immortalised in fiction. Or at least, your bafflement at Conrad has been. the bad news is, you're a girl.

[lala]

LINE 39: At night the body of clouds advancing higher up the sky smothers the whole quiet gulf below with an impenetrable darkness, in which the sound of the falling showers can be heard beginning and ceasing abruptly -- now here, now there.

The symbolic linking of light/quiet/order and darkness/noise/chaos continues. Whatever faults Conrad may have had, going easy on the symbolism wasn't one of them. Later on in the book, Great And terrible things will be conducted at night, and it is at night that men will finally see through the greatest of illusions that fool them - their own idea of themselves.

I'm not making this up, you know. Not all of it, anyway.

[Minge är en jävla besserwisser]

The good news is, you've been immortalised in fiction. Or at least, your bafflement at Conrad has been. the bad news is, you're a girl.


Somehow, I feel deeply honoured.

[Psalms]

At the moment, I'm in the middle of reading one of the Classics - The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James. It was written at the close of the Nineteenth century, but with a style of prose current to the present day. I began the book last December in preparation for a class in American literature, but subsequently dropped it in order to take a British Lit class instead. That class was mainly poetry; we had to learn frontwards & backwards, 67 different poems by seventeen different authors, ranging from Wordsworth up to the present day modern.

[lala]

LINE 39: Indeed, these cloudy nights are proverbial with the seamen along the whole west coast of a great continent.

A relatively unimportant line, which serves little function other than to emphasize what was said in the previous line. Joe Conrad never wrote a sentence he didn't think worth writing at least twice more.

[yord]

at the moment Im reading this thread and without moving my lips. "I haven’t got the faintest idea what I’ve just been reading, so I have to start again." Can you feel my dissapointment.

[Nebula]

Just read 'empire of Silver' by Conn Iggulden. The 4th book in the series about Genghis Khan.
Fantastic.

"Truly my brother, we are wolves in a world of sheep".

Innit.

[Repat Van]

I just finished 'Under the Dome' (Stephen King) which was ace. About to commence 'Double Fault' Lionel Shriver and I hope it's good.

[mids]

Just finishing a book called The Interrogator about a naval intelligence and U-boats during the war. It's all very dry stuff with little action for a war book but it's quite interesting all the same. Ian Fleming is a supporting role character in it.

[lala]

Line 41: The few stars left below the seaward frown of the vault shine feebly as into the mouth of a black cavern.

A fairly unimportant line, with Conrad emphasizing the ominous threat already iterated in the preceding lines. A distinct contrast is set up between day - when storm clouds charge about the gulf making war on calm - and the night, when the stars can only shine weakly from afar. Goodness, as so often seems to be the case, seems far off and ineffectual.

Note the sly reference to the gulf as a 'vault,' suggesting a treasure house. But the treasure contained in therein is protected by forces stronger than any human agency. And perhaps I am straining too far, but I sense a touch of Hades in the mention of the 'black cavern.' Souls could enter Hades, of course, but none could leave.

[justmyopinion]

anything by Jo Nesbo

[Repat Van]

I also just finished Story of O.

Which was interesting to say the least...

[greenergrass]

I am on my second Jo Nesbo and am really enjoying it.

Read Under the dome by Stephen King and was disappointed with the ending. Actually very disappointed.

A good read - Peter Stothard, On the Spartacus Road.

[Repat Van]

Oh I loved Under The Dome, in its entirety. Although sad the bad guy had such an easy way out.

[justmyopinion]

Most Stephen king stories have weak endings

[clarity]

Just finished reading Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. Not normally the kind of book I would read but really enjoyed it as it tells the life of 2 girls who escaped China ( Japanese attack and Chiang K Shek) and as immigrants made a new life in California. I am now reading The Remains of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Mistress, I read all 3 of the Girl trilogy this past summer and did enjoy them despite having a hard time sorting out the many characters Swedish names! Too bad he died so young as would love to have seen what he would have written next.

[greenergrass]

I agree. Its almost like he wants to get the book over and done with so he can start on the next.

The baddie got off lightly. It would have been better if he had survived as well.......

Anyway Jo Nesbo is very good.

If you like a gentle read with no violence but good writing then I would suggest Nicola Upson. She writes with great detail but not a fast pace.