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For those who can also read

Stewbum

Juniors
Messages
606
Please post what you are reading and more importantly anything poignant you just read.

Most recent completed book: The Bush by Don Watson
Current book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Next book: My Damage: The Story of a Punk Rock Survivor by Keith Morris

"How horrified he would have been seven years before, when he first arrived from abroad, had he been told that there was no need for him to seek or plan anything, that his rut had long been shaped, eternally predetermined, and that wriggle as he might, he would be what all in his position were."

War and Peace

PS - I posted a similar thread over a decade ago so your comedic efforts are likely to be re-runs.
 

Stewbum

Juniors
Messages
606
My Damage arrived in the mail and I could not resist the lure of Keith Morris but still found this gem in War and Peace yesterday.

He read, and read everything that came to hand. On coming home, while his valets were still taking off his things, he picked up a book and began to read. From reading he passed to sleeping, from sleeping to gossip in drawing rooms of the Club, from gossip to carousals and women; from carousals back to gossip, reading, and wine. Drinking became more and more a physical and also a moral necessity. Though the doctors warned him that with his corpulence wine was dangerous for him, he drank a great deal. He was only quite at ease when having poured several glasses of wine mechanically into his large mouth he felt a pleasant warmth in his body, an amiability toward all his fellows, and a readiness to respond superficially to every idea without probing it deeply. Only after emptying a bottle or two did he feel dimly that the terribly tangled skein of life which previously had terrified him was not as dreadful as he had thought. He was always conscious of some aspect of that skein, as with a buzzing in his head after dinner or supper he chatted or listened to conversation or read. But under the influence of wine he said to himself: "It doesn't matter. I'll get it unraveled. I have a solution ready, but have no time now- I'll think it all out later on!" But the later on never came.
 

bileduct

Coach
Messages
17,832
I'm smashing my way through a bunch of classics I bought a while back. Just getting through the complete novels of George Orwell, and then I've got Don Quixote, some Albert Camus and the complete short stories of JG Ballard.
 

Stewbum

Juniors
Messages
606
I'm smashing my way through a bunch of classics I bought a while back. Just getting through the complete novels of George Orwell, and then I've got Don Quixote, some Albert Camus and the complete short stories of JG Ballard.

Nice work. I've only read 1984 by Orwell and have not read Quixote or Ballard. Let me know if I should branch out in that direction. I've read the complete works of Charles Dickens, and delved fairly deeply into some of the more obscure (but still in print) works of Daniel Defoe. I've got some steam up with Tolstoy now though so am considering focussing on the Russians for a while.
 

Rhino_NQ

Immortal
Messages
33,045
current book - true aussie grit, mark webber
previous completed - my fight, your fight ronda rousey
next up - haven't got one yet

ronda hadn't been knocked the f&*k out yet in her book but still an enjoyable read, she is one of her biggest fans though

Enjoying webbers story so far
 
Messages
3,903
I've read the complete works of Charles Dickens,

I have read
A Christmas Carol
David Copperfield
A Tale of Two Cities
Oliver Twist
and Great Expectations.

I have Bleak House on my shelf and The Old Curiosity Shop to read. Which I will probably do over the Christmas holidays.
 

Stewbum

Juniors
Messages
606
I have read
A Christmas Carol
David Copperfield
A Tale of Two Cities
Oliver Twist
and Great Expectations.

I have Bleak House on my shelf and The Old Curiosity Shop to read. Which I will probably do over the Christmas holidays.

That is an impressive array of beautifully arranged words.

Bleak House is the better of the two. And Mr Tulkinghorn is a superb and enduring character. Watch the BBC series immediately thereafter to bring them all to vivid life.

If you liked the character of Sidney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities you must read Our Mutual Friend. Eugene Wrayburn is the ultimate lovable cynic and misanthropist.
 

Stewbum

Juniors
Messages
606
current book - true aussie grit, mark webber
previous completed - my fight, your fight ronda rousey
next up - haven't got one yet

ronda hadn't been knocked the f&*k out yet in her book but still an enjoyable read, she is one of her biggest fans though

Enjoying webbers story so far

Webber's book interests me.

I'm assuming Rousey's cover includes the word 'with' and another name?
 

elyod138

Bench
Messages
3,063
Just re-read the eight Farseer books by Robin Hobb, patiently waiting for the 9th. They're fun.

In the middle of the Hyperion Cantos also, the first two are some of the best fiction I've read.

Started reading It last night.
 

Stewbum

Juniors
Messages
606
Just re-read the eight Farseer books by Robin Hobb, patiently waiting for the 9th. They're fun.

In the middle of the Hyperion Cantos also, the first two are some of the best fiction I've read.

Started reading It last night.

Thanks for the tip.

I did a Stephen King tour in Maine in 2014. Bit lame but brought back many memories of his writing. Needful Things will always be my favourite.
 
Messages
3,903
That is an impressive array of beautifully arranged words.

Bleak House is the better of the two. And Mr Tulkinghorn is a superb and enduring character. Watch the BBC series immediately thereafter to bring them all to vivid life.

If you liked the character of Sidney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities you must read Our Mutual Friend. Eugene Wrayburn is the ultimate lovable cynic and misanthropist.

Thanks for the reply. I will start with Bleak House first and then I might acquire a copy of Our Mutual Friend. The write up intrigues me now.
 

Walt Flanigan

Referee
Messages
20,727
Currently reading The Wise Man’s Fear which is the second book of the Kingkiller Chronicles. I really enjoyed the first book and this one started off really well but a big section of it became a real hard slog and took me a while to get through, seems to be picking up again though.
 

Stewbum

Juniors
Messages
606
Excellent.

Here's a Wrayburn gem for you: (slightly paraphrased)

'The wind sounds up here,' quoth Eugene, stirring the fire, 'as if we were keeping a lighthouse. I wish we were.'

'Don't you think it would bore us?' Lightwood asked.

'Not more than any other place. And there would be no Circuit to go. But that's a selfish consideration, personal to me.'

'But otherwise,' suggested Lightwood, 'there might be a degree of sameness in the life.'

'I have thought of that also,' said Eugene, as if he really had been considering the subject in its various bearings with an eye to the business; 'but it would be a defined and limited monotony. It would not extend beyond two people. Now, it's a question with me, Mortimer, whether a monotony defined with that precision and limited to that extent, might not be more endurable than the unlimited monotony of one's fellow-creatures.'
 

Stewbum

Juniors
Messages
606
I might also add that there appears to be a lot of Dickens himself in this character. His endless night walks and taunting of his nemesis suggest this to me anyway.
 

Mogsheen Jadwat

Juniors
Messages
2,428
Halfway through Ishmael by Daniel Quinn - really good read!

Recently read (recently as in the past few months)

The Jordan Rules - Sam Smith
The Secret Race - Tyler Hamilton/Daniel Coyle
The Shape of Things to Come - HG Wells
Manna - Marshall Brain
 

Rhino_NQ

Immortal
Messages
33,045
Never been much of a fiction reader. Biographies, crime, war etc has been me. Few hundred in the collection as I smashed through them in my fly in fly out days spending countless hours on the plane so if anyone is looking for recommendations
 

bileduct

Coach
Messages
17,832
I've got some steam up with Tolstoy now though so am considering focussing on the Russians for a while.
Yeah, I've also got Dostoyevski's House of the Dead and The Brothers Karamazov sitting on the shelf begging to be read too.

Too many books, too little time.
 

PJ

First Grade
Messages
5,624
Stuart MacBrides two detective series are great. Really interesting characters and situations.
 

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