Just curious. Besides your Greek/Latin studies… what are you currently reading?
I’m almost finished with “The Name of the Rose” (Umberto Eco). And I’ve got “The Elegant Universe” (Brian Greene) waiting in the wings… let’s see what this string theory is all about!
I am currently reading GK Chesterton’s Orthodoxy for the second time. I also picked up Wuthering Heights yesterday and read the first couple of chapters, since we were talking about classics before
After that… I plan to re-read The Mayor of Casterbridge, and then more Chesterton (a volume of Father Brown stories).
The last couple of books before that included Cracked (about caring for people with addictions) and a biography of Eminem. Quite a variety
A friend of mine loaned me his two college English Literature textbooks…I have until the first of April to finish them. Both are about five-six inches thick, with that paper that they use in dictionaries. (About the same print size as in dictionaries, too.)
I’m reading Orlando by Virginia Woolf now, and next is Giacomo Joyce, by (obviously) James Joyce. I’ve read that before, from a library, but couldn’t find it in any bookshop. But today, it was lying there, waiting for me, in one of those very cheap bookshop where they sell left-overs from the regular bookshops (De Slegte, for the Dutchies). It made my day .
I’m currently reading Vanity Fair by William Thackeray, and Middlemarch (which was mentioned in the original thread) plus about 10 other books. I’m afraid I don’t have much time to read, and I have a stupid habit of reading quite a few books at the same time… though some I may never finish reading, because I’m bored of them. Middlemarch is one I stopped reading, but now I’ve stared again).
No idea what Vanity Fair is going to be about actually, I’ve only just started reading it (I’ll try and read a chapter every few days), but Thackeray’s bio is very interesting, so I thought I’d read one of his books.
Latly I read interesting series of detectiv books about ancient Roma.
It was: “Roma sub Rosa” written by Steven Saylor. I read 8 books of this author.
I think it is great series. You can almost feel like living in roma, walking thei streets…
I’ve just finished Misteri Kunci Tak Bertuan (The Mystery of the Key with No Owner) by S. Mara Gd. It was OK as a mystery story but I wish she’d resolve the subplot of Dessy and Gozali’s romance once and for all. It’s starting to get tedious.
I’ve just started reading [i/] Interview with the Vampire[/i] by Anne Rice.
Much of it has to do with being in Britain during the decline of Roman influence and order after Constantius failed to grasp the purple. There’s a brief visit to Rome, both at that time and now, or only a bit into the future.
Normally I associate Baxter with so-called hard SF. Nowhere in the book was I presented with 11-dimentional mathematics, nor any utterly incomprehensible alien technology. Baxter, like quite a number of SF authors, has recently become fascinated with evolution.
In any case, I liked it.
Next, Running with Scissors a memoir by Augusten Burroughs (what a great name!).
I have not read a novel since THE ROPEMAKER, by Peter Dickinsion, bless his soul, about 2 years ago. It was one of the only stupidly far fetched fiction books that I liked. No idea wherefore. Probably because I was forced to read it.
The latest book that I have read is the Latin Prose Composition based on Cicero, by Henry Carr Pearson. Well, the first 80 pages which are lessons.
I’ve always been a reader. However, in my second year of college I came into contact with a man who greatly impressed me by his knowledge of everything–it seemed that no matter what the topic, he was able to contribute intelligently to the discussion, simply because he was so well and widely read. That was when I decided that I needed to broaden my horizons and started reading a greater variety of topics and authors. It has been a wonderful journey!
I also love reading! It’s wonderful. Most of my schooling is reading (I know I’ve already mentioned that), which is absolutely delightful.
I picked up Walden Two the other day…I don’t suppose I should have, but I did. (I’m still trying to finish those other books.) I’m about a hundred pages into it…
Mostly I just read school texts these days but I find I need to switch it up once in a while.
I just finished Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden. To sum it up it tells the real story (ahem, not the ficition portrayed in the movie) of Black Hawk Down while questioning American military actions in general. Well written and well researched in my opinion.
Well, I was reading, and paused reading Nabokov’s “Lolita” and Zelazny’s “Amber” series when I started to begin greek again.
Now there’re documents for my job only left for reading.
The latest writer I’ve discovered (and that was sometime in July) was Alessandro Baricco and I’m diving into his vigorous style eversince. One may say that he allows himself too much of poetic licence, but I just enjoy his syntactic experiments and pretty unusual metaphors. If you can find it back there in America or wherever you are, I do recommend something of the following titles: La Sette, Oceano Mare, Castelli di Rabbia, etc. I can’t know for sure what are the titles in English, but I can offer my translation: The Silk, Ocean Sea, The castels of Anger.
I’m currently reading the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card, next in line is a Book on NT. Text Criticism (a hobby of mine) I just picked up the other day…but since that’s Greek stuff, it might not count
Just finished reading Murther and Walking Spirits by Robertson Davies. I think we had a bit of a discussion previously about this wonderful Canadian author.
This is in addition to my usual diet of detective stories (too numerous to mention) and dipping into various Latin textbooks.
“Moby Dick” sounds good - I haven’t read this for years and might give it another run.
PS - I’m being filtered! It’s the book about a whale - a big FISH not…