That is one I read during COVID now I see references to it everywhere. It is a very confusing book to sort out. It also turns out to be illuminating abt. Russia's attitude toward the west (for today's events). In reading about it I learned that FD was very influenced by Charles Dickens with the crazy crowd scenes. The idea of a "perfect person." I think the best part is that FD has the Idiot tell abt what it is like to be about to be executed (which happened to him). There is a movie in Russian and here is the Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl7Vq6U08Ng
I started the book, felt lost, watched the movie, went back to the book and was able to figure it out. Maybe best scene is early when Prince knocks at the door of a distant relative and tells the doorman the story of an execution. I even added a little bit to the Wikipedia article because I felt it was confusing. But well worth the effort. (also helps to look at how people got to be Princes who weren't like England thinks of them--there were lots of them in Russia).
Ulysses and Remembrance of Things Past are the two novels that I haven't read and - were I never to read them - would definitely feel that I had missed something essential about the culture and time in which I'd lived.
I also regret not yet reading anything by Freud, and not having read more Adler and Jung. We live in a psychological era. In a way these three people assembled its foundations. It seems strange to not know them better.
There's also a non-fiction book that I started a few years ago - read about about a third of - and haven't finished. If I don't finish it I am going to have to spend the rest of my life explaining why, if this book is really so world-shattering, I haven't actually gotten to the end of it? The book is Iain McGilchrist's "The Mastery and His Emissary." It's got be the most epistemologically intriguing and subversive thing I've ever read. I have been unable to divorce the questions it asks about human experience from my own my own manner of thinking about the world since I read it. I mean, since I read the first third of it.
Pollan is such a talented writer. Did you read "The Omnivore's Dilemma"? I couldn't put that down. Was that your gateway to "Cooked," or did you find out about Pollan's writing some other way?
I should read at least one play by Shakespeare before I die. My school ruined him for me. Not sure which I should read, tempted by Hamlet because Nick Cave sang a song about him ; )
Kathleen makes a good recommendation below about seeing the movie version of a play by Shakespeare before reading it. I'm going to add that this is _especially_ true for Hamlet, which I both read and watched as a movie several times over a decade or so during which I puzzled over Hamlet's fame and reputation amongst Shakespeare's tragedies. And then... I saw Kenneth Branagh's movie version.
I really have to admit that until seeing this one rendition the play made very little sense to me, and resonated emotionally not at all. It's definitely one of Shakespeare's hardest plays. But Branagh is also one of England's great living actors and - crucially - he directed this version of Hamlet. The thing you see watching Branagh speak Hamlet's lines is that for an actor with a deep mastery of his craft the writer's lines are vehicles or tools for the expression of something beyond/behind/beneath/inside the words themselves. For a great actor or actress the words aren't the point; they're the vehicle. They're tools. Branagh and his actors and actresses deliver the people Shakespeare created, and not merely the words he wrote plus costumes and sets.
I know some months have passed since you posted your comment, but I wanted to at least make sure you know about this particular film version of the play. If you've read Hamlet by now, or you've watched a film version of it, or both, and you still can't help thinking Ophelia was being a tad dramatic, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern must have wandered in from some other play, Polonius is an idiot who just happens to know a lot of good quotes, and the whole "to be or not to be" soliloquy basically adds up to diving board jitters, then give the Branagh film Hamlet a chance.
I'm the odd one out in this group. Most of my reading is fiction, but it's well-researched fiction. I read John Sanford, Jonathan Kellerman, Greg Iles nowadays. I read early Grisham, but later stuff has mostly disappointed. I read Steve Martini and several others. The hallmark of my own writing is meticulous attention to detail down to the street level, local customs and terminology, police and trial procedures, medical issues and building entire detailed worlds in my head; I read work that has that as well.
You'll note there are no female writers on that list. I used to read Patricia Cornwell, but she dropped by the wayside around 2005 when I found her going further and further afield. Most female writers, other than you and perhaps half a dozen others, are so caught up in providing visual descriptions of carpet, drapes, wall paper, women's apparel, ornate furniture, that one goes on for a dozen pages waiting for something to happen.
True. I followed Clancy for a while, then Dan Brown and other modern science fiction/fact writers. In every case, I found a personal bias for some particular technology or viewpoint that limited the accuracy of the work.
I haven't Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past." Hélas.
Also, I've made it to Chapter 14 of James Joyce's "Ulysses" --twice!-- but haven't finished it. I should. Also, I hear "Middlemarch" is great, so it's on the list, and one I feel likely I'll finish. As for "Finnegan's Wake"? Whew. I tried. I did. But I think I'd rather re-read Tolstoy and Shakespeare and some other classics I was lucky enough to encounter as a young person in the ever-shorter time I have left. I can't believe how much my impression of "Anna Karenina" changed from when I read it as a callow kid and then later as a family man myself.
The English Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell (12 volumes) is likened to Proust and esp. the war chapters maybe better. Agree abt AK..much better on the reread.
I've heard of the Music of Time -- I'll add it to the list, thank you! And it's an odd paradox that you have time to read the greats as a kid, but that you don't have quite the life experience to appreciate the full depths of the work.
I read it at 18 for the romance and last year for the war. It is helpful background for events today. When you think the Russians burned Moscow so Napoleon would have nothing--that's a history we should know. It took me a few months as I had to keep looking at maps.
War and Peace took me three tries. I wish I could remember which version finally made the story accessible but unfortunately I can't. Having said that, if you find yourself getting nowhere then consider shifting to a different translation. Once you get inside the story it's incredible - the humanity of the characters. I was sad when I got to the end of it.
An interesting question. Sort of like a Booket List. It got me to thinking. Other than the 3 actual books on my nightstand and a list of 5 or 6 kindles that I plan to get to I can't think of anything. By next week I will have read 1 and will add 1 or 2 more.
These days most of my reading is on the internet, lots of articles so I don't read as many books as I did in yesteryears. There was a time period of 4 or 5 years when I read 4 to 5 books a week. That was in high school. Then a period of about 25 years of 2 to 3 books a week. Then about 20 years of about a book a week. Lots of books. I'm guesstimating that less than 5% were fiction.
I think the Internet reading is tempting and drags us from books. I have found lots of Substacks with very good documentation. I do get a lot on the Kindle and for get what I got..
I don't blame ANYONE for not reading "Finnegan's Wake." Stick to "The Dubliners." As for me, I have a copy of Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" staring at me from a nearby bookshelf, and I know I am deficient in my Russian classic reading. Someday I will get to it. But when I get done with the biography of "Robert E. Lee" by Allen Guelzo that I'm slowly wandering through right now, I plan to attack Timothy Snyder's "Blood Lands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin" (2010), Andy Weir's "Project Hail Mary" (2021), Michael Schmidt's "Gilgamesh: The Life of a Poem" (2019), Andrea Wulf's "The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World" (2015), and Harold Stephens and Albert Podell's "Who Needs a Road: The Story of the Longest and Last Motor Journey around the World" (1968). Crime and Punishment will have to wait.
I have read Bloodlands and it is chilling...Wulf is on my list---thanks for the others. I did reread C&P and watched a few versions of it on film. It holds up but I think your list precedes it.
So many that I didn’t read when I was young and had tons of time and energy and no internet. And now I very likely won’t. But I still aim to read King Lear and The Tempest.
Started Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" years ago and never finished it. Probably I should, since I feel very much the part of the idiot lately.
"Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed." -Nietzsche
That is one I read during COVID now I see references to it everywhere. It is a very confusing book to sort out. It also turns out to be illuminating abt. Russia's attitude toward the west (for today's events). In reading about it I learned that FD was very influenced by Charles Dickens with the crazy crowd scenes. The idea of a "perfect person." I think the best part is that FD has the Idiot tell abt what it is like to be about to be executed (which happened to him). There is a movie in Russian and here is the Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl7Vq6U08Ng
Ha, dusted off the book just now.
Thanks for the link to the movie, when I get some time I'll try to find the full length version.
I started the book, felt lost, watched the movie, went back to the book and was able to figure it out. Maybe best scene is early when Prince knocks at the door of a distant relative and tells the doorman the story of an execution. I even added a little bit to the Wikipedia article because I felt it was confusing. But well worth the effort. (also helps to look at how people got to be Princes who weren't like England thinks of them--there were lots of them in Russia).
Ulysses and Remembrance of Things Past are the two novels that I haven't read and - were I never to read them - would definitely feel that I had missed something essential about the culture and time in which I'd lived.
I also regret not yet reading anything by Freud, and not having read more Adler and Jung. We live in a psychological era. In a way these three people assembled its foundations. It seems strange to not know them better.
There's also a non-fiction book that I started a few years ago - read about about a third of - and haven't finished. If I don't finish it I am going to have to spend the rest of my life explaining why, if this book is really so world-shattering, I haven't actually gotten to the end of it? The book is Iain McGilchrist's "The Mastery and His Emissary." It's got be the most epistemologically intriguing and subversive thing I've ever read. I have been unable to divorce the questions it asks about human experience from my own my own manner of thinking about the world since I read it. I mean, since I read the first third of it.
Cooked by Michael Pollan - started a while ago, now prob have to start it again
Pollan is such a talented writer. Did you read "The Omnivore's Dilemma"? I couldn't put that down. Was that your gateway to "Cooked," or did you find out about Pollan's writing some other way?
I should read at least one play by Shakespeare before I die. My school ruined him for me. Not sure which I should read, tempted by Hamlet because Nick Cave sang a song about him ; )
Sometimes esp with older lit. like S. I watch the movie first. Thx for tip abt Cage.
Kathleen makes a good recommendation below about seeing the movie version of a play by Shakespeare before reading it. I'm going to add that this is _especially_ true for Hamlet, which I both read and watched as a movie several times over a decade or so during which I puzzled over Hamlet's fame and reputation amongst Shakespeare's tragedies. And then... I saw Kenneth Branagh's movie version.
I really have to admit that until seeing this one rendition the play made very little sense to me, and resonated emotionally not at all. It's definitely one of Shakespeare's hardest plays. But Branagh is also one of England's great living actors and - crucially - he directed this version of Hamlet. The thing you see watching Branagh speak Hamlet's lines is that for an actor with a deep mastery of his craft the writer's lines are vehicles or tools for the expression of something beyond/behind/beneath/inside the words themselves. For a great actor or actress the words aren't the point; they're the vehicle. They're tools. Branagh and his actors and actresses deliver the people Shakespeare created, and not merely the words he wrote plus costumes and sets.
I know some months have passed since you posted your comment, but I wanted to at least make sure you know about this particular film version of the play. If you've read Hamlet by now, or you've watched a film version of it, or both, and you still can't help thinking Ophelia was being a tad dramatic, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern must have wandered in from some other play, Polonius is an idiot who just happens to know a lot of good quotes, and the whole "to be or not to be" soliloquy basically adds up to diving board jitters, then give the Branagh film Hamlet a chance.
Damn, that library is ugly.
I'm the odd one out in this group. Most of my reading is fiction, but it's well-researched fiction. I read John Sanford, Jonathan Kellerman, Greg Iles nowadays. I read early Grisham, but later stuff has mostly disappointed. I read Steve Martini and several others. The hallmark of my own writing is meticulous attention to detail down to the street level, local customs and terminology, police and trial procedures, medical issues and building entire detailed worlds in my head; I read work that has that as well.
You'll note there are no female writers on that list. I used to read Patricia Cornwell, but she dropped by the wayside around 2005 when I found her going further and further afield. Most female writers, other than you and perhaps half a dozen others, are so caught up in providing visual descriptions of carpet, drapes, wall paper, women's apparel, ornate furniture, that one goes on for a dozen pages waiting for something to happen.
What about Tm Clancy..now those are some details...
True. I followed Clancy for a while, then Dan Brown and other modern science fiction/fact writers. In every case, I found a personal bias for some particular technology or viewpoint that limited the accuracy of the work.
Why don't you try Karin Slaughter? She provides visual descriptions of terrorist devices and murder weapons.
I haven't Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past." Hélas.
Also, I've made it to Chapter 14 of James Joyce's "Ulysses" --twice!-- but haven't finished it. I should. Also, I hear "Middlemarch" is great, so it's on the list, and one I feel likely I'll finish. As for "Finnegan's Wake"? Whew. I tried. I did. But I think I'd rather re-read Tolstoy and Shakespeare and some other classics I was lucky enough to encounter as a young person in the ever-shorter time I have left. I can't believe how much my impression of "Anna Karenina" changed from when I read it as a callow kid and then later as a family man myself.
The English Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell (12 volumes) is likened to Proust and esp. the war chapters maybe better. Agree abt AK..much better on the reread.
I've heard of the Music of Time -- I'll add it to the list, thank you! And it's an odd paradox that you have time to read the greats as a kid, but that you don't have quite the life experience to appreciate the full depths of the work.
O, me not Marcel either!
War and Peace. I've read a good bit of other Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, but not that one.
I read it at 18 for the romance and last year for the war. It is helpful background for events today. When you think the Russians burned Moscow so Napoleon would have nothing--that's a history we should know. It took me a few months as I had to keep looking at maps.
War and Peace took me three tries. I wish I could remember which version finally made the story accessible but unfortunately I can't. Having said that, if you find yourself getting nowhere then consider shifting to a different translation. Once you get inside the story it's incredible - the humanity of the characters. I was sad when I got to the end of it.
If you can see the Sergei Bondarchuk film, do!
An interesting question. Sort of like a Booket List. It got me to thinking. Other than the 3 actual books on my nightstand and a list of 5 or 6 kindles that I plan to get to I can't think of anything. By next week I will have read 1 and will add 1 or 2 more.
These days most of my reading is on the internet, lots of articles so I don't read as many books as I did in yesteryears. There was a time period of 4 or 5 years when I read 4 to 5 books a week. That was in high school. Then a period of about 25 years of 2 to 3 books a week. Then about 20 years of about a book a week. Lots of books. I'm guesstimating that less than 5% were fiction.
I think the Internet reading is tempting and drags us from books. I have found lots of Substacks with very good documentation. I do get a lot on the Kindle and for get what I got..
I don't blame ANYONE for not reading "Finnegan's Wake." Stick to "The Dubliners." As for me, I have a copy of Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" staring at me from a nearby bookshelf, and I know I am deficient in my Russian classic reading. Someday I will get to it. But when I get done with the biography of "Robert E. Lee" by Allen Guelzo that I'm slowly wandering through right now, I plan to attack Timothy Snyder's "Blood Lands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin" (2010), Andy Weir's "Project Hail Mary" (2021), Michael Schmidt's "Gilgamesh: The Life of a Poem" (2019), Andrea Wulf's "The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World" (2015), and Harold Stephens and Albert Podell's "Who Needs a Road: The Story of the Longest and Last Motor Journey around the World" (1968). Crime and Punishment will have to wait.
I have read Bloodlands and it is chilling...Wulf is on my list---thanks for the others. I did reread C&P and watched a few versions of it on film. It holds up but I think your list precedes it.
“It is a long and ponderous chain!”
So many that I didn’t read when I was young and had tons of time and energy and no internet. And now I very likely won’t. But I still aim to read King Lear and The Tempest.
O you know, you are right----These were read so long ago and now maturity would make them new. Thank you.