What you are reading

[Stranger]

Damellon and Manna

I haven't logged in for a while and so I see only now that Damellon asked me a question 3 weeks ago and Manna made an observation about "The Stranger" by Camus.

Damellon: yes, I highly recommend Sherry's biography of Graham Greene. The approach he took is to analyse his life against the books he wrote at the time. That way it shows perfectly how the man's life was reflected in his books. And as Greene is my favourite writer and I re-read his books regularly, I refer back to Sherry's biography to compare the book with the life.

Manna: I also read The Stranger a few times; and when I first registered on the Forum under that name I took a cover of one of the book editions as my avatar......

[damellon]

Thank you, Stranger. A long time ago I had a keen interest in Greene's novels. Your recommendation you may spur me on to revisit them.

[Manna]

Hooray! I get to undo my dope slap.

[dar]

I'm reading "Women of the Beat Generation - The Writers, Artists and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution" by Brenda Knight.

I've been on a bit of a beat kick, Ginsberg, Kerouac, Cassady...and then I thought, "Hey, who would these men be without the women?" What was the role of these women in their circle? So, I searched and ordered three books I found by the women in the lives of these poets. Hell, even Ginsberg depended on the support of women.

Seems a howl holds up longer than a roar!

Dar

[Socializard]

oscar wilde's complete short fiction. on the young king right now and its good. my ladyfriend likes him alot. i remember lizzy having a quote by him too. so if you see this...hey hey! i dig it. recently finished 'after dark' by murakami. not his best one but still pretty darn good. if any of you do read anything by murakami check out wind up bird chronicle.

[Kevin]

Socializard:
recently finished 'after dark' by murakami. not his best one but still pretty darn good. if any of you do read anything by murakami check out wind up bird chronicle.
I've read Sputnik Sweetheart, which for reasons outside the book (that being someone else who absolutely loves it) I found to be interesting. I have Kafka on the Shore though I've yet to start it. Really though... a spam sandwich?!
Currently reading: Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey

[Socializard]

aw man...spam sandwiches are good! i also don't mind just spam and rice sometimes. it always has to be fried. always...if i'm going to eat it. i don't know...i grew up on it.

sputnik sweetheart was a good one! not one of his best to me. still worth a read though as its still really good. you're in for a treat, kevin. kafka on the shore is up there with my favorites by murakami right along with norwegian wood and wind up bird chronicle. its very surreal/magic realism-ish like wind up bird. norwegian wood is more down to earth like catcher in the rye but norwegian wood is actually not crappy and boring. his newest one, "after dark" is different from how he usually writes but its still good. if you're a short story reader like myself you may want to check out, "blind willow sleeping woman" or "the elephant vanishes" by murakami. both filled with several good stories. i do think murakami is a much stronger novelist, still.

also...recently a new version of "rashomon" was published by penguin with an introduction by murakami. make sure you get the penguin version if you do check it out b/c it has several extra stories and a whole new translation by jay rubin (the guy who translates murakami's stuff). rashomon is by rynosuke akutagawa. sad story behind that guy. only in the past year or two have i been getting into asian literature and i'm loving it.

[Kevin]

Speaking of translation... the Murakami translator does a good job with his books. I imagine so anyway since I did like the one I've read. I've read two Stanislaw Lem books, in contrast, and either it's the works themselves or it's the translator(s), but whatever the reason, I just wasn't able to really become engaged in either of them. The two I've read are Solaris and Peace on Earth.

[Socializard]

man...i'm late...but i didn't know that rubin wrote his own books. i've never bothered to check! (shame on me.) i'll look into that.

i just finished niels lyhne and it was beautiful. it was written by jens peter jacobsen. i learned his name as rilke mentioned him in his letters to a young poet. great book about spirituality. someone told me that not only rilke...but german authors like hesse and mann cite him as a major influence too. makes sense to me. if anyone is into those authors maybe you'd like jacobsen.

[lazariuk]

.but german authors like hesse and mann cite him as a major influence too. makes sense to me. if anyone is into those authors maybe you'd like jacobsen.

I might look that way. My all time favorite, most enjoyable reading experience, that most captivated my interest for a very long read was Thomas Mann's "Joseph and his Brothers"

And from Herman Hesse I was directed to reading Martin Buber who Hesse spoke of as one of the very few truly wise men to have ever walked the face of this planet.

[Socializard]

oh cool. i may have to check out Martin Buber then...maybe that mann novel too. hesse and mann were two of my more favorites for many years. i used to read some eastern philosophy (noticed you talk about it some in other threads) and those guys fit in nicely.

i haven't read either hesse or mann in years... i'm sure i can still enjoy them. tonio kroger was my fave story by mann...its a short story. either that or death in venice. and with hesse...i loved his fairy tales and narcissus and goldmund was my fave novel by him.

the jacobsen book felt alot like hesse's demian.

[lazariuk]

i haven't read either hesse or mann in years... i'm sure i can still enjoy them. tonio kroger was my fave story by mann...its a short story. either that or death in venice.

Those were what they call sister books with one traveling north - south and the other south north.

Joseph and His Brothers was written 30 years later. It really holds a lot of stuff together. I read it over 35 years ago and I use to tell everyone I met that I was jealous of them because they still had it in front of them to read for the first time but now that I am getting old and my memory is going I just might be the person I was jealous of.

[lizzytysh]

... and, who knows, it may seem like the first time, again.


~ Lizzy

[Socializard]

for it to seem like the first time again would be fitting for a hesse or mann novel hehe.

i've read most of magic mountain. i know that was written late in mann's career. had to put it down b/c of exam week or something a few years ago. i remember liking it alot...but its been so long where i'd have to start from the beginning again. i'm going to check out that joseph book eventually too. thanks for the suggestion. if you've read it over 35 years ago then you're older than i am. maybe i'm one of the younger folks here. i'm 26.

[lazariuk]

for it to seem like the first time again would be fitting for a hesse or mann novel hehe.

Or a Madonna song sung to Steppenwolf