Book(s) you are currently reading.
- Thread starter LionJim
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I’m reading a textbook: Ancient Greece, a Political, Social, and Cultural History. We’re taking a tour in October.
Fun fact: the motto of the Post Office, Neither rain nor snow, etc, came from the postal service in Persia from the time of Cyrus, around 550 bc.
Fun fact: the motto of the Post Office, Neither rain nor snow, etc, came from the postal service in Persia from the time of Cyrus, around 550 bc.
While the first chapter provides some older context, the focus is on the 18th century and forward. It’s a good and informative book, but is a bit of a slog at times. If you’re looking for Russian history, this isn’t the book for you. Baltic states to the Balkans and west. Also, quite large. A worthy bug squasher if you prefer tangible tomes.
This reminds me of the books of Barbara W Tuchman, a very great popular historian, very highly recommended. The Guns of August (origins of WWI), and Stillwell and the American Experience in China are both very fine.
I’ve read The Guns of August, and the experience is similar. Very good, but they are what I would classify as focused reading, not leisure reading.
Making a concerted effort to start reading some of the classics. About 30% into East of Eden and loving it so far.
Picked up a copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls. Have never ready Hemingway before and excited to jump into that
Picked up a copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls. Have never ready Hemingway before and excited to jump into that
East of Eaden is one of my favorite books. A real villian who is a woman.
Just finished The Gales of November - The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The first sentence: “riverrun, past Eve an Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodious vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs,” and Finnegan’s Wake is 680 pages of this. Better to read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, very fine, the Christmas dinner is one of literature’s great set pieces.
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Finnegans Wake is James Joyce's notoriously difficult, dream-like novel known for its circular structure and unique "dream-language" of puns and portmanteaus, exploring themes of history, myth, and the human psyche through the story of the Earwicker family in Dublin.
My high school English teacher always said that no one understands Joyce, not even Joyce, and that people that say they understand Joyce are just too proud to admit it.
Not going to argue but Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man are both quite accessible.
Joyce was a grade-A dick, thought he was the greatest ever in every little thing.
Remember when she bites the doctor? And the sheriff telling her that when his son visits her whorehouse to refuse service and send him to the town’s other whorehouse.
Those are the only two that I ever attempted (at her recomendacion) and enjoyed them both.
Portrait of an Artist was required reading by Jesuits in High School (as was memorizing the first 18 lines of The Canterbury Tales in Old English)... but it was senior year and I was able to slow roll it until I was accepted to Penn State and my give-a-f*ck meter dropped to zero
I am preparing for my first trip to Italy this summer (Florence/Rome/Vatican) by reading SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome.
I have completed many books/classes on Roman history, but i find thus far this book is extremely well written and organized.
After having recently finished Die With Zero (a great read as well), I cashed in some stock options and bought my wife and I first/business class seats DFW-ROME.
I have completed many books/classes on Roman history, but i find thus far this book is extremely well written and organized.
After having recently finished Die With Zero (a great read as well), I cashed in some stock options and bought my wife and I first/business class seats DFW-ROME.
Y’all surely know that Ulysses takes place over the course of a single day, June 16, 1904. This was the day that Joyce had his first date with Nora Barnacle (they had met six days previously) and she gave him a handjob while standing on a bridge over the Liffey. They get married and in time Joyce gets antsy and hurt and all beta about the possibility that she’d been with some men before she met him, all woe is me, she betrayed me, a little ***** he was, and, y’know, she gave you a handjob on your first date, do the math. Just a great writer who was a truly crappy person.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I wasn't aware medieval horror was a genre until now.
Re-reading Treasure Island. So fun.
I've been a subscriber since 1972. Donated much i\of my collection to PSU libraries. They have a specialized SF room (and had a faculty member, Philip Klass (aka William Tenn) who was a genre writer).
Myth America, a collection of essays written by current historians, edited by Kruse and Zelizer, and White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America, by Anthea Butler. Both are provocative explorations of what lies beneath the surface of standard cultural narratives.
"Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson. The book that kicked off the questioning of DDT and other pesticides in addition to assisting in the creation of the EPA.
