Summer Reading

easternugget · Post by **easternugget** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 9:23 pm

My favorite way to read science fiction is to buy those compilations of short stories, especially the old stuff from the 1940's to the 1960's or so. Those books are full of gems. Asimov is should be recommended, in particular the Foundation series (I haven't gotten to read much in the Robot series). Someone else mentioned Robert Zelazny's Amber books. Those are great too. My reading this summer has been non-existant, but I started John Milton's Paradise Lost and have Dune in waiting.

edonnelly · Post by **edonnelly** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 11:50 pm

easternugget wrote:but I started John Milton's Paradise Lost

I would love to hear what you think of it when you finish. I like it, but I find it extremely difficult because he has so many cryptic references. I never knew how much I didn't know until I started trying to understand this thing. (By the way, there's a very nice site at Dartmouth which has the text along with hyperlinked references that appear along the bottom in case anyone is interested:

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/readin ... ndex.shtml)

bellum paxque · Post by **bellum paxque** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 1:09 am

To be sure, Paradise Lost is embedded with hidden meanings, allusions, and parody. Fortunately, though, for people like me, who are not walking compendia of all knowledge, the beauty of the poem alone would ensure its status as a classic. Milton's "organ music," as 19th century critics once called it, gives his verses a long and lovely cadence, grand, even "magniloquent" (whatever that means). The meaning sometimes dawdles a little behind the majesty.

-David

GlottalGreekGeek · Post by **GlottalGreekGeek** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 1:27 am

bellum paxque wrote:"magniloquent" (whatever that means).

I would guess that this means "magnificently eloquent".

I've only read excerpts from Paradise Lost, but they were most musical indeed, and whenever I have the intellectual energy availible, I'd like to read the whole thing.

nostos · Post by **nostos** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 2:16 am

bellum paxque wrote:even "magniloquent" (whatever that means)

It means big but empty language, at least as Iâ€™ve learned it. But anyone who pays any attention can see that you mean the opposite, and it makes perfect sense as the opposite too from its roots

Kopio · Post by **Kopio** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:34 am

GlottalGreekGeek wrote:I realize that I have read a lot of female sci-fi writers. Let's see - C.L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, Andre Norton, Anne McCaffery, Ursula K. LeGuin (duh), Kate Wilhelm, Joanna Russ, Marion Zimmer Bradley, James Tiptree Jr (I second Annis' recommendation), Vonda McIntyre, Octavia Butler, Sherri S. Tepper, Megan Lindholm (not sure I would call her a Science Fiction writer, though she wrote one of the best short stories I've ever read in a sci-fi magazine) Lois McMaster Bujold (duh), part of a Connie Willis book, and I'm sure somebody is slipping my mind. Notice one of the major omissions is C. J. Cherryh, of whom I've only read stuff which she co-authored with other people, and I'm not sure that counts. Mind you, just because I've *read* them does not mean I *recommend*, though this group of writers as a whole has afforded me many hours of reading pleasure

Well....now that I've thought about it, and looked at the list of names you mentioned...I guess I have read a few. McCaffery, Zimmer Bradley and Norton have all graced my shelves at one point or the other, and now I have Cherryh and LeGuin to boot!

BTW....I have really enjoyed LeGuin so far...outstanding suggestion. I like her so much I changed my avatar and sig as a sort of homage. I am interested to see how she writes about sex though, so far it has been done well. It is an inescapable part of our humanity, but I think there is a right and a wrong way to write about it. Zelazny I very good at it, Heinlein is horrid at it. Matter of fact, I put down one of Heinlein's books simply because after a bit I felt like I was reading an "adult novel. It's not that I'm prudish....it's just that I want to read a book about sci-fi.....

I had a friend slip me a romance novel once in the guise of a sci-fi book....it was actually pretty hilarious. I read about 100 pages and thought it was really getting good. Then the hero kissed the heroine, and the kiss lasted for something like 3 pages... It was then I realized I'd been had! There were several large sections of the book that I completely skipped, but the story really was good enough that I wanted to finish it.

Ok....now that I've fully digressed, I 'll quit typing!

Celtica · Post by **Celtica** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 8:16 am

Summer reading

it's deep midwinter here. The ideal time to snuggle up in front of the fire with a few good books

.

I'm currently reading/on my list to read soon:

Vanity Fair.
Histories of Herodotus(started reading awhile back, but haven't finished it yet).
The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Introducing Shakespeare.

And a million other classics/older books that I want to read but haven't had the time yet.

bellum paxque · Post by **bellum paxque** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:05 am

It means big but empty language, at least as Iâ€™ve learned it. But anyone who pays any attention can see that you mean the opposite, and it makes perfect sense as the opposite too from its roots

Yeah, you're right. I guess I put in that parenthesis mainly because some of the times I've seen it used (mainly in Miltonian criticism) have been pretty sloppy. It definitely sounds like an impressive word. Magniloquens might be the root: but I wonder if that's an actual Latin word or rather a word coined by some erudite English scholar?

-David

nostos · Post by **nostos** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 2:45 pm

bellum paxque wrote:Magniloquens might be the root: but I wonder if that's an actual Latin word or rather a word coined by some erudite English scholar?

It's from Latin magniloquus, a, um (though I'm not sure from what era). I don't see why the coinage would be magniloquus rather than magniloquens, which was my first guess too. Those silly Romans.

Anyhow I don't think they're sloppy. They probably just made the same assumption, that the speech was great, larger than normal. And there are several instances (in English) where a word has come to mean the exact opposite of what it originally meant ('egregious' comes to mind, probably for the same reasons as magniloquent: it could be interpreted either way).

cantator · Post by **cantator** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 11:30 am

The latest anthology by Gardner Dozois should be available by now (Year's Best Science Fiction), I highly recommend it. His selections are invariably engaging, and I've discovered many new writers via his collections (including most of the women sf writers referred to in another message here). I haven't bought it yet, but it's high on my list for summer reading.

Meanwhile I continue reading through Dunmore's Selections From Ovid, the second volume of Raby's History Of Secular Latin Poetry In The Middle Ages, Paden's Old Occitan, and a great collection of lectures on poetry given by Basil Bunting.

Those titles should keep me busy until the end of August.

Kopio · Post by **Kopio** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 3:19 am

I just changed my sig to one of the most profound things I have read in a while. Thanks again for the LeGuin recommendation guys!! ALSO....I read a little H.P. Lovecraft last night....the Diary of Alonzo Typer....interesting short story. Lovecraft is creepy!

easternugget · Post by **easternugget** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 8:37 pm

Add in Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard and Saint Augustine Confessions to books I am going to be reading in the near future

Fabiola · Post by **Fabiola** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 3:54 pm

Summer reading for me has been Tolstoy's War and Peace, and rereading Dante's Divine Comedy.

I have Moby D!ck lined up to start as soon as I finish one of the above!