More precisely, I should have said American conservatism.

skrevet af makifat kl. 10:37 am (EST) den Aug 23, 2008

Bravo! on the B&N thread. I have always maintained that conservatism would be nothing without fear and its handmaiden, resentment.

skrevet af makifat kl. 10:29 am (EST) den Aug 23, 2008

I'm currently enjoying Robert Irwin's NIGHT & HORSES & THE DESERT, an anthology of Arabic literature. Irwin, as I'm sure you know, is the author of the excellent novel THE ARABIAN NIGHTMARE.

The interesting thing about the anthology is that the real meat of it is Irwin's commentary. He's a very astute guide to this world, and every night I read something that makes me laugh out loud. This is to say, there is just enough humor without being precious or goofy. The breadth of Irwin's knowledge is amazing. I'm reading it as a sort of crash course in Arabic literature. It is highly recommended.

I have a review of Little, Big, but only as part of an 3 novel anthology put out by QPBC. I'm surprised no one has flagged it, as it has little to do with the book itself.

Have a nice weekend. I envy you your ocean breezes.

skrevet af makifat kl. 2:30 pm (EST) den Aug 8, 2008

Hey there, Corbies! Your photo looks like something my 4 year old might have made (I mean that as a compliment). He's funny and dark, but then the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

I see you've acquired Little,Big. If you read it anytime soon, I'd be interested in your opinion.

Anyway, cheers!

P.S. Thanks also for the PSA links. As a confirmed Luddite struggling (mostly unsuccessfully) to stay relevant, they may come in handy.

skrevet af makifat kl. 2:55 pm (EST) den Aug 7, 2008

I found a book! It's called "The Tender Bar" it's a memoir. I'm also reading ODE magazine every month. I've been sharing my poetry w/a poet/author that I discover thru ODE.

How are you?

skrevet af clm256poetry kl. 12:33 pm (EST) den May 6, 2008

Universal horror classics - they are great fun. In fairness, the worst excesses of the sequels date from after Universal ceased to be run as a family concern. the new (corporate) owners didn`t actually want to know about the Frankenstein/Dracula/werewolf films. I forget what changed their minds, but somehow they ended up making sequel after sequel, eventually going more into humour and children`s films.

E C Bentley - somewhat belatedly, I came across some clarification of Bentley`s motives in writing the Trent books in a book I`m reading at present. I`ve added it to the relevant thread in `Anglophiles`.

Hope you are well, and finally finding some time to read !

Best,

Nick

skrevet af nickhoonaloon kl. 11:42 am (EST) den Apr 19, 2008

Pleased to find your interesting notes on Edgar Wallace. I have a very old edition of one of his novels, which I was attracted to mainly due to the fantastic art deco cover (I need to upload it!). I don't know much about crime fiction, but it sounds as if he might be worth a look.

Cheers,
Maki

skrevet af makifat kl. 3:01 am (EST) den Apr 19, 2008

Belated thanks for your message of 27/2 (low budget movies).

I myself would be in favour of a film combining the two genres - maybe Siamese cats with hypnotic powers battle it out with giant robots for world domination.

Actually, I`m not a big film buff at all, but I am fond of Boris Karloff movies - Im sure he`d have been very much in sympathy with your point of view.

skrevet af nickhoonaloon kl. 7:43 am (EST) den Mar 19, 2008

Sean-I will get jinx's pic up as soon as I get one that doesn't look like a big black blob-he's an all black pomeranian and unless he smiles I just can't get a good pic!! I'll have to get one my sister-in-law took its a good one! Anyway I have to ask about The Decameron. Why are you finding it hard to get through-is it hard to read like Chauser? or do you just find it boring? I think my wish list is so long it will be years before I get to it but I love reading fiction about that time period- I should try to read something from that time period!

Take care!
Cathy

skrevet af catrn kl. 2:51 am (EST) den Mar 10, 2008

Sean the message below from Jinxwish is actually from me-Catrn-sorry for the mix-up!

skrevet af catrn kl. 10:53 am (EST) den Mar 4, 2008

Sorry for the delay in returning your post! I've been away from my computer for a few days-though I havn't read one page since! :( You mentioned your interest in "Half A Yellow Sun". I've only read about 100 pages but I'm really impressed so far. It's not a difficult read though as I go futher into the book I think the subjet matter will make it a lot harder. You should definately read it if you like factually correct historical fiction-which is my favorite type of book! I have started a wish list under Jinxwish! right now my dog has more books in his library than I do-LOL! I'm posting wishes only as I see someone talk about them on LT at this time-soon I'll start posting from the notebook I keep! You'll see a familiar work-I've decided the Decameron should be high on my list to read-so thanks for the idea!

skrevet af jinxwish kl. 10:49 am (EST) den Mar 4, 2008

Hello again,

Glad you appreciated my posting re : the TV series UFO and in particular the Siamese cat episode.

I will try to uncover a few more pearls of British broadcasting as we go along.

Cheers,

Nick

skrevet af nickhoonaloon kl. 2:26 pm (EST) den Feb 27, 2008

Thanks for the welcome note you left! I'm glad to find I'm not alone on losing reading time to this site!(LOL) I am in awe of your current and past reading lists! Seems you do like challenging reads! I keep promising myself to develop a more literary reading list but i keep putting it off! I do TRY to read a couple of the classics a year-for now that will have to do! Thanks for the suggestion of setting up a separate"wishlist" account-I think I will do that. Another LT'er recommended using my dog's name to avoid becoming "wishlist7002" as a name, so I think user jinx will be comeing an LT'er soon! Well nice to meet you! I'm off to getting a couple of pages read before the rest of the house is up and running around!

skrevet af catrn kl. 7:35 am (EST) den Feb 27, 2008

Thanks for the note. Glad you're enjoying M/D so far: I'd love to reread it, but my "to be read" list is already quite long! I still haven't found the courage to pick up "Against the Day" again.

Cheers!

skrevet af makifat kl. 6:33 pm (EST) den Jan 11, 2008

Hi Sean,

I've looked at a few issues of both magazines, and both are good. I don't regularly read them though, since there are so many books I want to read before anything else. They'd probably have good interviews, maybe new translations of sutras, or book reviews. But I suppose it depends on what you're looking for? If you're interested in an overview of Buddhism or a particular school or types of practice, then books might be a better way to go. Hope that helps some!

Best regards,
Amanda

skrevet af amillay kl. 1:23 am (EST) den Dec 14, 2007

You`ve got me wondering what my `literary blind spot` is now. I expect I have a few.

Myself, I love a good short story. Mind you, just lately, i`m usually too busy/tired to attempt any particularly challenging reading - lack of time by itself works against me on that.

Thanks also for your kind comments re ; my library. One thing you might be interested in - I`m currently re - reading my collection of Sexton Blake Library titles and listing reviewing them as I go along. As you are a bit of an Anglophile you might find one or two of them interesting.

Be good,

Nick

skrevet af nickhoonaloon kl. 6:27 am (EST) den Dec 8, 2007

Appropos of our conversation some weeks ago, thought you might like to know there are actually three E C Bentley `Trent` books - Last Case, Own Case and a book of short stories, Trent Intervenes.

I`ve posted a message in Anglophiles for general consumption, but thought I`d let you know direct in case you missed it.

Happy reading,

Nick

skrevet af nickhoonaloon kl. 11:12 am (EST) den Dec 3, 2007

Nice of you to drop in and leave a message. You have a small but quite interesting library, and your choice of current reading is well, quite amazing. I'd say mostly the reading of a student or a scholar.

I like the picture of the "two corbies". Is it Japanese?

Living in China is not too bad. Puts some limitations on book availability, though.

Cheers!

skrevet af edwinbcn kl. 6:41 am (EST) den Nov 30, 2007

A kissed mouth doesn't lose its freshness: like a new moon it turns up new again

ah, what a great quote! now i need to add The Decameron to my TBR-

ps: how's the 'smoking less' thing working out for you?

skrevet af aznstarlette kl. 8:46 pm (EST) den Nov 26, 2007

That's quite an interesting pursuit. If you ever write anything on it, I'd love to read it. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. ...

skrevet af amillay kl. 5:40 pm (EST) den Nov 24, 2007

Hello again. "Yenne Velt: The Great Works of Jewish Fantasy and Occult" has a couple of stories (by Rabbi Nakhman and Moyshe Kulvak)related to the Lamed-vovniks. You may have already seen these. I believe Borges also includes them in his book of imaginary creatures.

Thanks also for pointing me to Dylanwolf.

skrevet af makifat kl. 4:02 pm (EST) den Nov 22, 2007

Mason and Dixon is an EXCELLENT choice. Funny and beautifully human.

Ciao again.

skrevet af makifat kl. 10:36 pm (EST) den Nov 14, 2007

Thanks for your comments. I hope you (eventually) enjoy both Potocki and Laxness. I know all about false starts. I got through the first half of Witkiewicz's "Insatiability" a few months ago, but have yet to finish it. Also, I had highly anticipated enjoying Pynchon's "Against the Day", but put it down after 100+ pages. I found parts of it enjoyable, but some of the story lines were just plain annoying. Up until recently, I refused to lay a book aside once I started it. A foolish consistency that I've since abandoned.

If you enjoy Potocki and other such rambling gothic tomes, I would recommend an old favorite: Charles Maturin's wierd and wonderful "Melmoth the Wanderer".

Cheers to you too!

skrevet af makifat kl. 8:01 pm (EST) den Nov 14, 2007

I should know better than to recommend books since I'm in the same situation. I have so many that I haven't read completely, and most I could read again, but still keep coming across others that I want to buy. I am quite curious as to why you are trying to find out "what it is like to live with the belief in an entire pantheon of gods"?

Cheers,
Amanda

skrevet af amillay kl. 1:04 pm (EST) den Nov 14, 2007

When you start buying books again, I'd highly recommend "On Being A Pagan" by Alain de Benoist. It's more about the worldview shift from paganism to Christianity.

I'm envious that you're in San Francisco--that's probably where I'll end up moving eventually.

skrevet af amillay kl. 5:27 pm (EST) den Nov 12, 2007

Thanks! I am tempted to get a scanner just to match up the covers I have with the site :) I have many books marked as wish list - some are in storage and some are on the to-buy list. I wonder sometime how I will ever read them all...

skrevet af RedQueen kl. 9:16 pm (EST) den Nov 9, 2007

Thanks. I noticed your copy of "The Barbarian Conversion," which looks quite interesting; unfortunately, I'm having to "buy less books" at the moment!

skrevet af amillay kl. 6:35 pm (EST) den Nov 8, 2007

Hello - re the [[Ken Follett]] sequel, I don't know much about it other than what I have read in obvious places, such as on the Amazon website - it's set in the 1320s, so about 150 years after the end of [Pillars of the Earth] and involves the descendants of some of the characters in Pillars.

skrevet af john257hopper kl. 8:29 am (EST) den Aug 17, 2007

Good news – you’ve been selected as a winner of the tagging contest and are soon to be the proud owner of man, myth and legend David Weinberger’s book!

Email me (cliff@librarything.com) your name and mailing address so we can get it to you. Don’t hesitate to share your thoughts on the book!

Thanks,
Cliff (Tim’s intern)

skrevet af dinner_bell kl. 2:02 pm (EST) den Aug 1, 2007

I used to spend three or four nights a week in City Lights reading the stock. Which is to say I was a huge fan.

The tip-off on neighborhood was the art project with book arrangement. I briefly spent some time living on Albion.

As much fun as it was when I was twenty-two, I can't say that I'm sorry to have left the city, though. Past a certain point, the suburbs are actually pretty nice.

If you happen to make it over to CL some night, tell the peeps that Jesse says "hi". Though they probably thought of me as the nutty guy that would always sit in the store, I still have fond memories.

skrevet af Jesse_wiedinmyer kl. 5:24 pm (EST) den Jul 27, 2007

Which part of the city are you in? Just left after spending about 10 years in North Beach, myself. I'm assuming you're down towards the mission...

skrevet af Jesse_wiedinmyer kl. 4:15 pm (EST) den Jul 26, 2007

I'll be sure to look them up, they sound like great places.

I think the book interest level of a given geographical location tends to vary depending on who you're spending your time with. I've lived here for a couple of years and it's pretty slim in general, but every now and then I come across someone who puts my piddling library to shame. On the flip side of that, I went to college at the University of Oregon in Eugene, which is a pretty literate city. But I would meet people who only read whatever was trendy at the moment rather than for any real love of reading, which is depressing in its own special way. Two sides of the same coin, neither really much better than the other and both prone to their own forms of snobbishness (anti-intellectual or intellectual, I can't tell which grates me more)(not to say I'm exempt from my own bouts of free-range snobbery).

I recommend reading Barth or Barthelme when you get a chance. "The Sot-Weed Factor" is my favorite so far for the former, while Barthelme's "Sixty Stories" is one of my favorite short story collections.

Cheers.

skrevet af coffeezombie kl. 7:01 pm (EST) den Jul 18, 2007

Love your take on being a book lover in a place that is sometimes hostile to intellectual expansion. I live in North Dakota and I get about what you would expect. It's not too bad so long as you never talk to anyone, but the most common response to the statement "I'm reading this book" is "What?"

But enough of this gay banter. Always happy to see someone who list Nikolai Gogal as a favorite author. Happy cataloging to you.

skrevet af coffeezombie kl. 10:39 am (EST) den Jul 18, 2007

Thanks for all the kind words.

It's a traditional taxonomy, popularized in the wake of the "New Wave" of the 1960s:
"SF" meaning "speculative fiction" , to act as the higher-level division to include ALL of the 'speculative' genres:

"SF"
|
science fiction / fantasy / magical realism / slipstream / etc.

so for the edge-case stuff, one needn't agonize too much about "Is this particular story 'science fiction' or 'fantasy'?" or whatever, but you can just toss it into the "SF" bucket.

It sidesteps arguments, esp. time-wasting arguments ("Is science fiction a sub-set of fantasy, or vice versa?")

- cheers.

- Bob

skrevet af AsYouKnow_Bob kl. 6:36 pm (EST) den Jul 16, 2007

Hi Sean, I saw INHERIT THE WIND the other night. Christopher Plummer was fantastic. The rest of the cast was only so-so, but he made it worth it all. Just read IN THE COUNTRY OF MEN but i was disappointed. david

skrevet af SigmundFraud kl. 11:14 am (EST) den Apr 15, 2007

Thanks for your message. It's good to have you on the Radio 3 Group. I hope that you will contribute from time to time. Happy listening!

skrevet af antimuzak kl. 2:50 am (EST) den Feb 1, 2007

Hi Sean,

I just wanted to share with you that Anna Netrebko in I PURITANI was the best singing i have heard since Joan Sutherland, perhaps 30 years ago. She was magical, spectacular. I say that having heard many, many sopranos over the last 40 some years.

best,
david

skrevet af SigmundFraud kl. 11:39 pm (EST) den Jan 15, 2007

Hi Sean,
I think the idea of tackling the 12 novels in "A Dance to the Music of Time" seems a tad daunting. I did find out that Anthony Powell's name is supposed to rhyme with "coal" and not "trowel". So something gained there then.
Alan Bennett does wonderful talking-head monologues for ordinary middle class North England characters from the fifties and sixties talking about sponge cakes and antimacassars. I haven't started reading "Untold Stories" yet as I'm currently tackling Mario Vargas Llosa's memoirs entitled "A Fish in Water". I've not had too much free-time to get well stuck into it yet. I've not come across "The War With The Newts", it sounds fascinating. Sometimes offbeat stuff works well, for instance "The Third Policeman" by Flann O'Brien, which, I believe, got a burst of new interest after being mentioned on the TV serial "Lost".
I read somewhere that you had been ill? I hope you are better now.
I had a trip to London over Christmas and after seeing a brilliant matinee performance of "Much Ado About Nothing", I saw a play called "Frost/Nixon" about the interviews David Frost did with Nixon after his resignation. I understand it is transfering from the West End to America. I'd be interested to know how it is received by American audiences. Keep an eye open for it.
Cheers Kevin.

skrevet af dylanwolf kl. 2:22 pm (EST) den Jan 14, 2007

Hi Sean,
Palimpsest(uous) is a wonderful word indeed. Glad you agree. I recently finished "London: City of Disappearances" (edited by Iain Sinclair), a delicious & fascinating read if you enjoy retracing steps across London...

Cheers,
julie

skrevet af palimpsestuous kl. 6:50 pm (EST) den Jan 12, 2007

hi sean, i have been tempted many times by the Good Soldier Svejk but it is so long i am always intimated. you hopefully will tell me if it is worth the read. i am now reading-for the first time-the mayor of casterbridge and i love it. i recently finished the beet queen, the other side of the bridge, and daughter of fortune and loved all three. like you i have piles of books to be read next to my bed. but i also read 3 or 4 newspapers a day and that takes a great deal of time.

going tonight to see I Puritani with anna netrebko at the Met. I like her and i like the opera.

david

skrevet af SigmundFraud kl. 5:53 pm (EST) den Jan 11, 2007

Thanks for the note, Sean! My user name is drawn from the backstory of Shakespeare's "Tempest," in which Prospero rescues Ariel from a tree where the witch Sycorax has imprisoned him. And yours?

As for my Australia challenge, this is the first year I have embarked on anything like this. I chose Australia because I had the most unread books on my shelf from that nation (I may have had more from Canada, but I have read more Canadian literature, so Australia seemed like more of a venture into the unknown). I am not sure what will come in 2008 - perhaps Japan, Israel or India. There are some nations I would like to explore, but the availability of their literature in translation is limited. I predict that at some point in the future I will have to widen my geographic net slightly (i.e. Arabic literature, Eastern European literature, Portuguese literature encompassing Brazil and Portugal). In the meantime, I find it easiest to find literatures from English-speaking and "Commonwealth" countries, in part because the numerous prizes that cover these regions ensure that their longlists are published in America. Otherwise, I check Wikipedia for lists of authors to explore (in the categories section - "Categories: Australian novelists") and LT tags for the country. You could also post a request for recommendations in LT groups like "What are you reading now?" and "Book Talk." Hmm. That is a good idea, come to think of it. Maybe I will go off and see what people recommend for Australia!

What Scandinavian authors did you end up reading?

skrevet af sycoraxpine kl. 12:53 am (EST) den Jan 11, 2007

hi sean,

yes the stage version of THE HISTORY BOYS was awesome. i don't intend to c the movie. where do u live> what r u reading now? i started THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY like it so far.
Sig

skrevet af SigmundFraud kl. 6:10 pm (EST) den Jan 4, 2007

Hello Sean,
How's "The Good Soldier" going? I haven't read a European author for a time now. I ought to think about finding one out. I lost my copy of Bruno Schulz's "The Street of Crocodiles" when I decimated my library a number of years ago and I have been meaning to get another copy so I can reread what is a very idiosyncratic book. Kafka has always been one of authors I admire most and "The Trial" seems to me to be a book everybody should have read once (and probably while they are young!). As for Iris Murdoch I can't tell whether I've intrigued you or put you off! Saul Bellow I haven't read for quite a time and my paperback copies of Herzog, The Dangling Man, Mr Sammler's Planet etc. have all got annoyingly small print. "The Curious Incident of the Dog" does seem quite popular but I wasn't too impressed. It's an easy read because the narrator suffers from Asperger's Syndrome; consequently the language is simple and lacking in metaphors or irony. "Atonement" is a good book but is split in half and if I'd not read any McEwan I wouldn't start with it. Try out "A Child in Time" or "Enduring Love" first (not "Saturday" it's a stinker). I'm not a big fan of memoirs although I've just bought "Untold Stories" by Alan Bennett (who is probably unheard of in the States). I'm currently reading "the Human Stain" by Philip Roth and noting comparisons with David Mamet's play "Oleanna"?
Cheers Kevin.

skrevet af dylanwolf kl. 4:02 pm (EST) den Dec 8, 2006

I'm doing a little maintenance on listings for George Eliot. You and a handful of LTers have Eliot's "Middlemarch" entered in LT with George P. Elliott as the author. Thought you'd want to know.

regards,
O.

NRN (no reply necessary)

skrevet af Osbaldistone kl. 7:45 pm (EST) den Nov 15, 2006

Hello Sean,
Thanks for the reply. I'll look forward to reading "Flaubert's Parrot"; I much enjoyed "A History of the World", especially the riff on Gericault's "Raft of The Medusa" which was featured in some other book or TV programme I've seen recently but I can't remember what. A bad memory is one of the perils of turning fifty I suppose.

I've been pretty busy settling in at a new primary school lately so I haven't had much spare time for browsing the internet or hunkering (one of those brilliant American words we don't have over here in Blighty) down with a book. I'm still reading "On Beauty" by a relatively new English author called Zadie Smith. It's modelled on EM Forster's "Howard's End" and so features two at odds families and it's set on the campus of an American college. Most enjoyable.

I have indeed seen "Ripping Yarns" and remember Michael Palin's joyously funny north country folktales. Great stuff. Just to drive home the futility of football supporting, Wolves lost again today at Hull, my old university city.

Iris Murdoch writes habitually about intellectuals living a closeted life away from the real world. They seem to have some undisclosed source of funding for their sedentary lifestyles and are constantly agonising over art and philosophy. Her books are quite claustrophobic, with slow plots featuring artistic geniuses recovering from mental breakdowns in sanatoriums and the like. When I'm in the mood they make good chunky, immersible reads but I don't think I could manage two on the trot. They tend to be a little more depressing than uplifting but I do find I get sucked in by them. I have been meaning to read "The Sea, The Sea" but haven't got round to it yet although I have read "The Black Prince" and "Message to the Planet".

What American authors should I be picking up on? I know the heavyweights like Roth, Mailer, Bellow, Morrison, Vidal and so on. But what about newcomers? Who is building a literary reputation in the States at the moment? Or have you got any favourites that are likely to be less well-known in Britain?

Cheers, Kevin.

skrevet af dylanwolf kl. 2:59 pm (EST) den Nov 11, 2006

Sean,
Thank you for your comment. It's good to have made contact with someone through Library Thing, especially across the pond. I was out in my local town of Stourbridge this morning and trawled the scattering of charity shops that haunt the high streets in England now that out-of-town shopping centres with free-parking have enticed away all the major chain stores. There I can find second-hand copies of paperbacks and hardbacks to boost my library without causing major damage to my bank balance. Typical prices would range from £1 to £2:50 (between $1 and $4). For instance I got nine books today including Julian Barnes' Flaubert's Parrot, John Banville's Book of Evidence, Zadie Smith's White Teeth and Mikhail Bulgakov's Master and Margarita as well as Gore Vidal, Sebastian Faulks, Pat Barker and Margaret Drabble for under £10! Some of them don't even have chewing gum or dog hairs stuck between the pages! Our ubiquitous chain bookstore in England is Waterstones. OK, but often uninspiring if you're looking for something out of the ordinary (like an assistant who actually reads books).
Cheers Kevin (dylanwolf - bit of a Bob Dylan fan see and also of my local perenially underachieving football (soccer) team whose nickname is the Wolves.)

skrevet af dylanwolf kl. 8:41 am (EST) den Oct 27, 2006

So how did someone from San Francisco stumble across the old English folk poem Twa Corbies? I quote the first verse here:

As I was walking all alane
I heard twa corbies making a mane:
The tane unto the t'other did say,
"Where sall we gang and dine to-day?"

Could it be from the 1970 Steeleye Span album, "Hark! The Village Wait"?

Have you got any Anglo connections? I stumbled across your username looking at the owners of Ibsen playscripts.

skrevet af dylanwolf kl. 3:04 pm (EST) den Oct 20, 2006

Fantasy? Literary references? You might want to check out "Silverlock", by John Myers Myers.

skrevet af mathilde1450 kl. 11:01 am (EST) den Sep 22, 2006