It is so hard to get a post in on this forum, OMG.
The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins.
A real page-turner and supposedly foundational to the mystery novel genre. I enjoyed it and loved a couple of the characters. There is the typical sappiness that is seemingly inherent to all 19th Century novels in which a romantic story unfolds (often involving an angelically beautiful, annoyingly innocent and not terribly bright young woman who's in the habit of fainting), but, perhaps due to the author being male, the sappiness is contained. Two characters not involved in the romance were brilliantly written, the spinster Marian and the charismatic villain, Count Fosco. I feel like they really exist somewhere.
Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
Typical Dickensian wit and suspense, although it seems a bit more basic in comparison to Great Expectations and Bleak House, where his wit seems to have matured like fine wine. His descriptions of the poverty and squalor in Victorian-eran London however are as graphic and detailed as ever. I think Marx said Dicken's portrayals of society were a greater indictment of capitalism than any socialist theorist had ever written, or something like that. The book seems like a historical document in that sense.
1984, George Orwell
I figured why not, now that fascism is back in vogue. The movie of this book was shit and the book itself was hard to get into way back when, but I'm actually finding it really interesting this time around (still half-way through). In fact, there are things that have come true which still didn't exist at the turn ofthe century, like the versificator (a form of AI that writes songs for the proles) or the speakwrite, which is a speech-to-text device. I believe this was far from being Orwell's favorite book, but I find his reflections very poignant right now.
I also can't help wondering whether Orwell knew what was really going on in the Soviet Union, because so much of what he describes is textbook Stalinism (especially the false confessions and subsequent execution of the Old Guard of Bolsheviks). I can't remember when the world really began to find out about all this. I know Trotsky was writing about it until 1940 when he was killed, but did Orwell know? The Ministry of Truth is basically devoted to constantly altering historical records and documents of all kinds. It's exactly what happened under Stalinism - the past changing all the time. Names of revolutionaries in Lenin's writings were replaced to include pro-Stalinist Bolsheviks, rendering any publication by Lenin during Stalinism pretty much untrustworthy. There is also the erasure of Trotsky from famous photographs. I wonder how many people outside the USSR really knew this was happening at the time.
I brought back a lot of books from Ireland in English so I don't have to pay these ridiculous Amazon shipping fees. I'm pretty much set for this year.
What are you reading?
Re: What are you reading?
So I joined the local bookclub and to up my intake and variety of the printed word.
West into the Night by Beryl Markham (1942) and Out of Africa by Isak Dinasen (1937)
Vignettes from British Colonial Kenya around 1930. Beryl Markham was a strong, independent woman, who earned her fame as a bush pilot in Africa and for flying the Atlantic solo from Europe to North America first (the winds are west to east, so this is more difficult that Lindberg's first in 1927). The really interesting thing about this book, to me, was it's adjacency to the better known Out of Africa by Karen Blixen/Isak Dinasen (pen name) (1937) - another very strong woman. It was so adjacent, I decided to finally read Out of Africa at the same time.
Both books are fascinating glimpses of life at the time, Out of Africa, IMO, is the stronger and better written if you are going to read one. Anyway, both women NEVER mention their husbands, not once. But Beryl Markham goes on for quite awhile about Elephant hunting (fascinating stuff I never appreciated before) with Baron Blixen, the ex husband of Karen Blixen. Also, both mention the life and death of Dennis Fitch-Hatten (Karen Blixen's boyfriend) in some detail.
But the beautiful parts are really not about men at all but about the life and peoples in another world and another time.
West into the Night by Beryl Markham (1942) and Out of Africa by Isak Dinasen (1937)
Vignettes from British Colonial Kenya around 1930. Beryl Markham was a strong, independent woman, who earned her fame as a bush pilot in Africa and for flying the Atlantic solo from Europe to North America first (the winds are west to east, so this is more difficult that Lindberg's first in 1927). The really interesting thing about this book, to me, was it's adjacency to the better known Out of Africa by Karen Blixen/Isak Dinasen (pen name) (1937) - another very strong woman. It was so adjacent, I decided to finally read Out of Africa at the same time.
Both books are fascinating glimpses of life at the time, Out of Africa, IMO, is the stronger and better written if you are going to read one. Anyway, both women NEVER mention their husbands, not once. But Beryl Markham goes on for quite awhile about Elephant hunting (fascinating stuff I never appreciated before) with Baron Blixen, the ex husband of Karen Blixen. Also, both mention the life and death of Dennis Fitch-Hatten (Karen Blixen's boyfriend) in some detail.
But the beautiful parts are really not about men at all but about the life and peoples in another world and another time.
Re: What are you reading?
The Metamorphosis, Kafka
More canonical literature. Liked this one. I saw a Zizek interview where he insists Kafka meant it as a comedy, but that the West reads it as a tragedy.
Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
I seriously considered putting it down, the stream of consciousness is incredibly hard to focus on. It got a little easier after a bit, so I guess I'll finish it because it's a short novel. I never read Woolf so may as well know what the hype is about. Well, I read one short story.
I find my tolerance for modernist experimentation is almost zero by now. In the worst case, it's pedantic and tryhard. In the best case, just kind of self-centered. I'm not a reader that hates a challenge, it just has to be worth it.
I wouldn't join one myself, I was in a perpetual book club while in politics. xD Would be nice to discuss books with others, but I've lost the taste for assigned reading.
More canonical literature. Liked this one. I saw a Zizek interview where he insists Kafka meant it as a comedy, but that the West reads it as a tragedy.
Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
I seriously considered putting it down, the stream of consciousness is incredibly hard to focus on. It got a little easier after a bit, so I guess I'll finish it because it's a short novel. I never read Woolf so may as well know what the hype is about. Well, I read one short story.
I find my tolerance for modernist experimentation is almost zero by now. In the worst case, it's pedantic and tryhard. In the best case, just kind of self-centered. I'm not a reader that hates a challenge, it just has to be worth it.
Will keep these in mind! But is this what the book club is reading? You seem to have found quite a good one, book club reading lists always seem awful to me.
I wouldn't join one myself, I was in a perpetual book club while in politics. xD Would be nice to discuss books with others, but I've lost the taste for assigned reading.