Read any decent books recently?

[varsovian]

My current offering is "1599 A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare" by
James Shapiro.

I needed W.S. to be put in some sort of coffee-table historical context as
the "timeless quality" aspect of his work doesn't quite do it for me. He was
very much a man of his time, and his plays make more sense once you get into
Elizabethan current affairs and preoccupations.
I haven't finished it yet, but I have read 200 of 370 pages.

Whatever you do, don't buy "The Sea" by John Banville. A prize-winning book -
and the decision had nothing whatsoever to do with one of the judges being
linked to John Banville. This book was truly the worst one I have ever read.
The only reason I finished it was because my wife bought it me and I wanted
to rub her nose in it by finding the next ridiculous sentence!! Poor, long-
suffering wife ...

[tjbazuka]

Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child.
My hero.
Combines the physique of Predator-period Arnold Szwarc's with the analitical
brilliance of Sherlock Holmes.

[ianek70]

I've read a whole bucketful of books lately.

Jonathan Swift's 'Tale of a Tub and Other Satires' is clever and witty, but
it's written in the typical 18th century way with every sentence lasting half
an hour, and it's basically mostly waffle. Written in the days when only
authors could read properly so it didn't really matter if books were about
anything. Borrow it or steal it, then read a few pages and throw it away.
Monica Ali's 'Brick Lane' is worth reading, although not as wonderful as most
reviews would have you believe. Good characterisation, excellent insight into
an immigrant community, lots of cooking, some shagging, no explosions.
Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' is heavy going, but absorbing. I'd never
got into this psychological Russian literature before, but after 'The Penguin
Book of Russian Short Stories' I've started reading the novels.
Zadie Smith's 'The Autograph Man' is good too, quirky, well-written, believably
unlikely.
I read James Kelman's 'How Late It Was, How Late' again. Very difficult, for an
illiterate peasant like myself, Kelman basically writes down every single
thought that goes through a character's head over a few days. And this
character's a foul-mouthed Glaswegian who's gone blind.
Christopher Marlowe's 'Doctor Faustus' is another oldie. I like these books
where half of it is background information about the world the author and his
original audience lived in, footnotes about the story and explanations about
various forgotten politicians satirised or obscene puns on the names of
agricultural implements that don't exist any more.
Roald Dahl's 'The Twits' has been translated into Scots (by Matthew Fitt)
as 'The Eejits'. As an amusing children's book it makes more sense in homely
language, and like everything written in Scots it gives Scottish folk something
to argue about. Personally I'm shocked and offended by the English -ed endings
on certain verbs where every Scots dialect in the entire world uses -t or -it.
"Mrs Eejit micht hae been hackit an she micht hae been a richt auld soor-face,
but she wisnae glaikit."
'100 Years of Solitude' is great, and apparently everyone gets completely lost
at least twice in the middle of it because all the characters have the same
names. It's got the best opening line of any novel ever - "Many years later, as
he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that
distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."
And I'm going to try 'Pan Tadeusz' again.

[varsovian]

Brick Lane ought to be mandatory reading in schools ... but they have publicly
burnt it in some areas because the Bangladeshi author is so obviously racist
against ... errr ... Bangladeshis.

I'll write more on this thread tomorrow if I can remember!

[marcus_anglikiem]

Ianek, if you like Dostoevsky, you might like Gogol - i read "The Complete
Works of Gogol. Vol. I" ed. Leonard J. Kent.

[ianek70]

marcus_anglikiem napisał:

> Ianek, if you like Dostoevsky, you might like Gogol - i read "The Complete
> Works of Gogol. Vol. I" ed. Leonard J. Kent.

Gogol's actually next on my list, 'The Nose' was in that short stories
collection.

[marcus_anglikiem]

i have heard good things about "Viy" - which is in Vol. II of 'the Complete
Tales of..." Ed. Leonard J. Kent - and about "Dead Souls" (which is on my
list). The depressing thing is that I know my list will remain with things to
read at the time of my death.

[kylie1]

"Uncle John's Bathroom Reader" - a sit-down masterpiece! I got the newest one at
abebooks for a buck. Thank God for the three bathrooms in this place! Besides
that, Betty J. Eadie's "Embraced by the Light" for the more spiritually
inclined. Read it in one day. Her second book, "The Ripple Effect", is a nice
read but not as intense as "Embraced". It's a wonderful book for those
interested in near-death experiences and how they affect people's lives.

[varsovian]

NDE's eh?
Is that just a passing fancy or have you gone into it in more depth?
I must admit I was at one stage fascinated by out of body experiences after the
mother of a friend of mine had a delirious episode when ill and saw everything
from a completely different perspective, including things she couldn't have
seen while lying on her bed.
The problem is you can't trust everyone to tell the truth, otherwise you'd
start believing in Martian visits and Buddhist boys fasting for a year.

[kylie1]

I have been interested in OBEs, NDE's and LBL's (out of body experiences and
life between lives)for many many years now. My interest in things spiritual
started some 15 years ago and has only intensified ever since. The New Age
literature started coming out very slowly in the late 70's and beginning of the
80s. I rememeber my very first book by Dr. Raymond R. Moody called "Life After
Life". This book in its entirety is all about people undergoing surgeries and
having extremely intersting OBEs. All of the accounts were similar in the way
people felt about themselves and the "other side" after "dying" before being
ressuciated (spell?)back to life. That's how it all started for me. I can't even
remember how many times I had read that tiny little book. It's a real classic
and what a beautiful NDE case after case account. You make your own judgement
and there is no one trying to push their ideology or religion into your way of
thinking. What you see is what you get. Very often people who have NDEs bring
back information which was not previously known to them and what's making it
even more fascinating is the fact that those facts are 100% verifiable. That's
where the fun starts. That's what really got me hooked on in the first place.

I remember many interesting accounts of a similar kind from Dr. Melvin Morse.
This guy is a renowned pediatric surgeon in here in Seattle. In hundred's of
interviews with children who once had been declared clinically dead, he found
identical descriptions of the out of body travel, the same attitude, the same
feelings ( *one of the kids was lying dead on the table, surgeons working on
him, he sees them use the pedals on his chest, a number of doctors taking turns
while working on him. He was above and by the window watching his own body lying
limp and lifeless. At one point, a ballpen falls out of the doctor's pocket and
rolls towards the window. The boy looks at the pen and notices the two letter
signature engraved on the doctor's pen - the doctor's initials. Days later, when
the doctor comes to visit him, he mentions the pen and the two letters he had
seen written on it. Well, you should see the doctor's face...)

Anyway, the "New Age" is not a religion, nor is it a particular practice such as
Astrology or Tarot. It has gone mainstream: science, literature and media wise.

I have gone deeper than just NDE's . Life past regressions are also extremely
fascinating and their authenticity is also verifiable through history records.
Awesome stuff.

[usenetposts]

I have read the odd bit of pulo of late to make airplane journeys go easier,
and I was quite absorbed by Helen Fielding's "Olivia Joules".

Other than that, I have been rediscovering Tom Sharpe, with "Wilt in
Nowhere", "Riotous Assembly" and "Indecent Exposure". I am on the look out for
more Sharpe books. I had already read "Porterhouse Blue" and "Wilt".

I am also working my way through Alexander McCall Smiths Mma Ramotswe series,
having already laughed until the tears rolled down my aching ribs over the Von
Igelfeld series called "the 2 and a half pillars of wisdom". I consider this
author to be the most talented living writer.

[varsovian]

Kylie - fascinating, though it freaks people out the first time they hear of it.

Back to books ...
David Guterson is entertaining, I enjoyed OUR LADY OF THE FOREST, SNOW FALLING
ON CEDARS and EAST OF THE MOUNTAINS.
He has an attractive style which keeps you wanting to read. Strong storylines
too.

[kylie1]

Perhaps. It never really freaked me out. Ever. After all, it's something we have
always known all along. As John Holland likes to say: "We are not just physical
beings. We are spiritual beings having a human experience".