Books

[Emphyrio]

I'd probably get more out of it now alright but it wouldn't be one I'd be rushing back to do a re-read.

[Mower Liberation Front]

That was on for our Leaving Cert., to this day I haven't read it. What little I did read bored me to tears, but that was a long time ago, might be different now.

Had that inflicted on our year too. A total waste of paper, and then our teacher decided to show us the film. Even Ben Kingsley couldn't save it from being just as crap as the book.

[Eoin McLove]

I finished up Silas Marner just now and I really enjoyed it. That's two George Eliot books I've read, both of which have been highly entertaining. I'll have to keep an eye out for more of her work.

Next up I've to finish Moby Dick, which is alright if a bit long winded, and In A Happy Life by Seneca, which is a short little ripper.

Edit. I would have despised Silas Marner when I was in school, so if that's your memory and experience of the book, maybe consider giving it a go again now. It's a mere 220 pages.

[Don Gately]

Seneca fantastic. I'd be very interested in the stoics myself.

[open face surgery]

Crazy how stuff that was written 2000 years ago can be so relevant today,

[Eoin McLove]

Humans is humans 

[open face surgery]

Controversial.

[Caomhaoin]

Reading GJ Meyer's big one on the Tudors. Started off slowly but he's got the gift of the gab that any history writer requires nowadays outside of stuffy academic stuff. Henry VIII, the most famous king of anywhere or of any time, has to be up there with the biggest pricks in the history of the universe. I suppose that's what makes him so fascinating.

The sidelines about the continental reformation remind you that, for all their tidying up of corruption and hocus pocus, the key tenet of Lutherism is that nothing you do can affect your destiny either way, it's a capricious, random gift from God. Might explain the behaviour of anabaptists and Covenanters and all these other screwballs who listened to Calvin and these boys.

Naked Lunch up next, for the comedown

[Born of Fire]

Midway through Alfred Lansings 'Endurance' now. An expedition I'm much more familiar with. A far more dire situation to be in than the Belgica expedition but one in which the men fared better thanks to Shackletons leadership.

This was a great read. Those men were made of incredibly tough stuff, unbelievable that they all made it back alive. I must pick up the biography of Tom Crean down the line.

Cool to see that the wreck of the Endurance has now been discovered 107 years later too.

Moved on now to The Story Of Greece and Rome by Tony Spawforth. Liking it so far, it's a topic that could easily get bogged down in stuffy academic style writing but so far that's not the case.

[Necro Red]

I'm reading Kafka at the moment. A book of short stories with the Metamorphosis included. I have to say I was expecting a lot more really. The Metamorphosis was on my list for quite awhile and all, anyone else read it?

[Eoin McLove]

Same. I read it a few years ago and wasn't arsed with it. I think if I'd read it in my late teens or early twenties I would have got more out of it. It was pure grand.

[Carnage]

I think I have the same book lined up (The Castle and The Trial are other ones in it, 4 or 5 altogether?). Looking forward to it.

[ochoill]

The Trial is my favourite Kafka by miles, absolutely rattling anxiety and oppression in story form.  You can see how elements of it ended up in so much other fiction too.  Metamorphosis is grand, interesting but not a patch on The Trial.  Have yet to actually go back and read The Castle.

[91/30]

My Austrian neighbour gave me a copy of Günter Grass - The Tin Drum , looking forward to getting stuck in to that

[Necro Red]

The Trial is my favourite Kafka by miles, absolutely rattling anxiety and oppression in story form.  You can see how elements of it ended up in so much other fiction too.  Metamorphosis is grand, interesting but not a patch on The Trial.  Have yet to actually go back and read The Castle.

Good stuff, have a copy of The Trial also to read.