What are you reading at the moment ?

[Miss Melissa]

Here's a link to an excerpt from the book:

www.suemonkkidd.com/html/excerpts.asp

[Barrow-wight aka MELLON]

Special issue of the Rolling Stone magazine out on March 24 ... I had to order it directly from the publisher since local "newsagents" sell RS with c. l-month delay.



I have almost finished reading it ... it contains hell lot of contributions from all who knew / worked with HST.

This special RS issue is a must to order and read !!!

[Miss Melissa]

I am reading Janet Evanovich's series about Stephanie Plum, Bounty Hunter, absolutely enchantingly hilarious.

[Barrow-wight aka MELLON]

I started reading THE CURSE OF LONO by HST ... when it arrived from amazon, I almost collapsed ... the thing is huge, something like A3 format , hard cover, definitely not good for on-bus reading LOL ... you really need a ruckack to carry it along with you. ;D

It has full-size paintings by Steadman and this edition is a treat to possess ... and a good read.

But to read it, you need a solid support, preferably like those they used to have in scriptoria ;D .

[Yevgeny]

phew....quite a time without posting....well, read as much as I have never been reading.....but to mention just a few here goes:

Erich Maria Remarque:

- "Drei Kameraden" – Three Comrades
a masterpiece....500 pages you can read for one day....a story of friendship and love....and death....

- "Arc de Triomphe" – Arch of Triumph
Paris, 1939....German emigree surgeon with no citizenship, no right to work.....and an actress.....amazingly strong story of love and lie and death that makes all the lies so miserable comparing to the feeling.....

- "Zeit zu leben und Zeit zu sterben" – A Time to Love and a Time to Die
I wrote here once about this book...a story of a Nazi soldier coming back home for two weeks in 1945 and finding his house bombed and his parents lost....tries to find them and no luck....meets a girl....they fall in love....he gots disappointed in Nazi way of life....girl suggest not to go back to the front line.....he thinks hard.....comes back.....and being shot by russian partizans....after he released them....

- "Die Nacht von Lissabon" – The Night in Lisbon
A man who lost his beloved in 1939 tells a story to a simple man....and for this stroy he gives his listener two tickets and visas on a ship that goes to America....
Includes a stroy of a man who loved his wife so much that being an emigree he returned back to Germany knowing that it will cost him life to just let his dying wife see him before she dies....he got caught and he bribes his guard to let him stay with his wife her last minutes....she dies....he goes to concentration camp....

Ivan Bunin:

all time favourite....I got tied close to the story called "Shadowed Paths"....his language, his light sentences make you fly....

- "Arsenyev's Life"
It is said that he got his Nobel prize for this book in 1933 - a skillfull description of Russian countryside with it's particular charachters and all this nature.....a poem no less

different lyrics by him....love...nature.....


Bocaccio

- "Decameron"
of course....was breathtaken by the purity of some of the charachters....100 novels....and not a single boring one....some special bonus are the songs at the end of each day....all of them are so full of everything....I especially liked the song after the Fourth day....sad but beautiful....another masterpiece.

Dante Alighieri

- "Divine Comedy"
and another of course....no need to say anything....one only can read it. useless to discuss or describe.

Alexander Pushkin

- "Evgeny Onegin"
Russian gem....the most famous poet/writer here....this novel is written in rhyme....he wrote it for 8 years....very beautiful story....they shot a movie with Liv Tyler few years ago called "Onegin"

Irwine Shaw

- "Young Lions"
WWII tells a story of two people....throughout the war but more of a lifestories....a story of an American guy and a Nazi one. at the end of the book they meet. Tough....but good book

- "Rich Man, Poor Man" and "Beggar, Thief"
two novels....lifestories of a whole family of emigrees that come to the States....some went rich, some became sportsmen, some criminals.....plain life....

Coelho

- "Zahir"
good book but nothing extraordinary, it seemed to me that author has run out of things to write....but I liked the idea of finding this thing....made me stop and think a bit when I was reading it.

Turgenev

- "Dvoryanskoye Gnezdo"
by famous Russian author....translates as the Dwelling of a Nobility or something like that. starts in Russia, near Moscow, then Bulgaria and finishes up in Venice....XIX century....story of devotion and love.

also read numerous books on these palaces and city galleries and churches....nothing to mention because there are a lot of them....
Hope it was interesting to reat this bost....not boring....

[Barrow-wight aka MELLON]

Yevgeny, this is quite some list !!!!!! I havent read that much recently - mostly work-related stuff on e-working, flexible working, work/life balance and stuff. ;D

As for Coelho, I perhaps like the Alchemist and the Warrior of the Light best.

In the near future I shall start (re-) reading lots of stuff on Hiberno-Latin / Celtic Latin literature, including primary sources ... all for the just begun academic research project on Celtic literatures encyclopedia ... As if I had nothing else to do !