what are you reading?

[brian d]

continuing through the works of melville, i'm reading his super-long poem clarel. not sure if anyone has read it, it's not the best of poetry but the spirit of it reminds me of blake. i don't know if melville read or liked blake off-hand, but it wouldn't shock me. anyway, might finish this one by the end of may at the rate it's going...

[sally]

i'm reading this, anyone ever heard of him? i hadn't, but written in 1926, it's very irish, ie mad (much addressing of its own text & reader etc, hello walser!) and very amusing, and just weird that i've never seen him mentioned anywhere

[nrh]

have always wanted to read that after stumbling across this typically intriguing entry in the typically eccentric encyclopedia of science fiction
http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/oduffy_eimar

reading roberto bazlen's notes without a text. i always thought bazeln was a made up author in a book that got adapted into a movie directed by amalric and referenced in a vila-matas novel, but it turns out he was a real person after all.

[sally]

that the dalkey version? my o'duffy also is, with their ridiculous matt white covers that get covered in smudges IMMEDIATELY just looking at them. you'd think i read everything down a coal mine

[nrh]

i love dalkey but the cover design does make it look like it should be an academic book about shipping schedules or something (and yes cover is already smudged). also what seem to be a handful of typos so far which is always jarring.

[sally]

just in case there might be assumed any implicit recommendation in my mention of king goshawk above, it was very silly (and also with the typos)

i don't know what i'm going to read next. choosing is the most delicious part

[wba]

After finishing a very fine fantasy novel today (The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro - merely the ending was a bit redundant), I'm gonna read some W. G. Sebald today ("Schwindel. Gefühle" it is called, published in 1990 it contains some short stories and shorter novels, I believe).

[brian d]

just saw that there's now an english translation of jerzy zulawski's the lunar trilogy (i think just the first part is the basis for andrzej zulawski's on the silver globe). not reading it yet, but definitely just ordered a copy

[nrh]

After finishing a very fine fantasy novel today (The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro - merely the ending was a bit redundant)

i read this right at the beginning of last year and thought it was one of ishiguro's best, but as usual his good novels get overlooked and his bad ones (i.e. never let me go) become huge successes, at least in american circles. i got the new one as a present, looking forward to it with some trepidation.

partway through the third book of piglia's emilio renzi diaries, the portion that covers both his experiences during the late '70s argentine dirty war and his own failing health in the 2010s as he is trying to put the notebooks together.

[wba]

just saw that there's now an english translation of jerzy zulawski's the lunar trilogy (i think just the first part is the basis for andrzej zulawski's on the silver globe). not reading it yet, but definitely just ordered a copy

Wow, didn't know those books weren't available in English.
I'v only read the first one [in German], but it's fantastic!

[wba]

After finishing a very fine fantasy novel today (The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro - merely the ending was a bit redundant)

i read this right at the beginning of last year and thought it was one of ishiguro's best, but as usual his good novels get overlooked and his bad ones (i.e. never let me go) become huge successes, at least in american circles. i got the new one as a present, looking forward to it with some trepidation.

My first and last Ishiguro before this onw was THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, some 20 years ago, and while I thought it was great at the beginning and most of it was thrilling, it got a bit tiresome and repetitive with Ishiguro trying to "make some points". Subtlety is not his virtue, and it's for me usually not a problem, but when someone tries to be subtle and constantly fails, it is a bit unnerving. So I wasn't interested that much in reading those other so-called "psychological studies" of his, as I thought a bit it may be a case of "read one, read all". I just picked up THE BURIED GIANT cause it was "fantasy", and there aren't that many good writers dabbling in fantasy nowadays. It was excellent, but some of the "message/ themes" were a bit obvious, but not so as to hurt the novel as a whole. I was only surprised afterwards, that people wrote there was supposed to be a big reveal at the end, when I thought everything was obviously going in a certain direction from very early on and the novel could have ended on a less obvious and somewhat heavy-handed note. But when he isn't trying to make a point his writing and style are a joy to read. Of course these are rather petty complaints on a high level, but that's just how my mind works.

Which novels by Ishiguro would you recommend? I enjoyed both REMAINS and GIANT but as I said haven't picked up anything else by him.

[nrh]

i would say his book the unconsoled, which a lot of people hated at the time but i think is really central to figuring out how he works.

[sally]

i've never read a word of ishiguro (part traditional patriotic assumption that british literature is shit, part experience that contemporary british literature is indeed shit) but i guess i will now avail myself at some possible future opportunity (i cannot currently buy any more books for approx 200 years, i counted my TBR pile and it has triumphantly decreased from 525 books supporting the walls of my house and masquerading as furniture a couple of years ago to currently 567 (i give every single one i read away)

aside from assuaging the horror of above mentioned inexplicable proliferation (someone must have written an essay on how books secretly procreate?) with a non-diminishing dip into my never-ending complete works:montaigne, i have been reading one of my indie publisher subscription novels and it is so dire i shan't mention it but will cancel my subscription

am now starting the golem because it's less than 200 pages & if i hit all those first maybe i will be able to see the back wall of my bedroom again one day

[mesnalty]

I also think The Unconsoled is his best by a fair margin.

[Roscoe]

Check out THE UNCONSOLED, which had me scratching my head until one glorious film-related joke had me dropping the damn book. I also liked NEVER LET ME GO.

I'm currently reading THE GOLDEN BOWL, but feeling my attention flagging. A viewing of MURDER MY SWEET had me dig out my copy of FAREWELL MY LOVELY, which is characteristically clumsily plotted in that Chandler way. He didn't get it right until THE LONG GOODBYE.

[wba]

Thanks all for the tip!! THE UNCONSOLED will now wander straight to the top of my Ishiguro to read-list.

After finishing the 4 (related) stories by Sebald (the fourth was amazing) I'm now back to further discovering Bram Stoker for me with THE WATTER'S MOU' (1895), which is very short (definitely under 100 pages, so probably a novella rather than a novel). But I've also finally received a complete and unabridged version of THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM (1911) and also a book with a dozen of his short stories.

[sally]

am still reading the golem by gustav meyrink. for some reason taking a ridiculously long time because i keep falling instantly asleep every 10 pages but it is.......not what i thought it was going to be. which is good! am absolutely loving it, i was so ready for all the weird 'meaningful'(=nonsense) darkness.


but why do all occultists have to have such hilariously 'i have outstared death' intense portraits?

[guseo]

reading The Confessions out loud with my gf

[der kulterer]

past few days, i spent on my off-town & off-line manor and thus i was able to focus on reading books.

1/ i finished "All Colors of the Sun and the Night" and the book is as great as the film (Be Sure to Behave) — both highly recommended.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/134 ... nce-a-noci

The related text (upon which the film (BE SURE TO BEHAVE) is based) by Lenka Reinerová was published under the title "Alle Farben der Sonne und der Nacht" or "All Colors of the Sun and the Night" or "Todos los colores del sol y de la noche". Written in 1956-57, first issued in 1969 (immediately all the copies destroyed), in 2001 reworked and reissued.

btw. on Monday i picked (in one of the local second-hand book shops) ALL COLORS OF THE SUN AND THE NIGHT (by Lenka Reinerová) and started to read it.
it is the 2001 edition, it is very cool and i hope my reason will not depart me and i will not part with this remarkable (Comrade Kafka meets Comrade Proust) tale.

2/ i substantially proceeded with "Epistemologies of Aesthetics" by Dieter Mersch (still about 1/4 of the book to go).
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/232 ... aesthetics

https://www.diaphanes.com/titel/epistem ... etics-2793
The idea of “art as research” and “research as art” have risen over the past two decades as important critical focuses for the philosophy of media, aesthetics, and art. Of particular interest is how the methodologies of art and science might be merged to create a better conceptual understanding of art-based research.
In Epistemologies of Aesthetics, Dieter Mersch deconstructs and displaces the terminology that typically accompanies the question of the relationship between art and scientific truth. Identifying artistic practices as modes of thought that do not make use of language in a way that can easily be translated into scientific discourse, Mersch advocates for an aesthetic mode of thought beyond the “linguistic turn,” a way of thinking that cannot be substituted by any other disciplinary system.

i bought the book because A/ prior to last Xmass — when local newspapers published (as usual) the recommendations on what books to buy as gifts — local new dean of FAMU Andrea Slováková https://letterboxd.com/director/andrea-slovakova/ was mentioning it; and B/ Miroslav Petříček translated it — i already mentioned Miroslav Petříček https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miroslav_ ... AD%C4%8Dek before, because he was the person i was listening extensively during my uni truancies and he is one of the few locals i am able to take seriously (as an authority) — thus whenever i see he translated/wrote something or is recommending something i don't ignore it.
when i started to read the book i got very intrigued about its subject — the idea of “art as research” and “research as art” — but as i proceeded my enthusiasm somewhat faded away until i got again intrigued by the passage about Nietzsche — in general, i perceive Nietzsche as the overhyped author and i prefer his local version of Ladislav Klíma (not to speak of having aversion to Zarathustra — as i mentioned before). however, in this book, he is painted (within my perception) as heir of early german romantics' proto-deconstructivism and thus someone intriguing (unfortunately, Jena-circle romantics — who were extensively preoccupied with esthetics — are omitted by the book (so far)).
as mentioned above i didn't finish the book yet but i can already say it is worth reading.

3/ the last book i held in my hands in past days (and only started to read it) is called "A man in becoming-mad of the world: The conception of a man by early Deleuze" and was written by young local author Petr Prášek.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/423 ... sa-deleuze
i stumbled upon this book also via Miroslav Petříček who is Petr Prášek's tutor and was speaking favorably about him.
so, i searched if he wrote anything and discovered this book by him about Deleuze — it is his uni thesis that was published in the local edition called "Contemporary Thought" ("Epistemologies of Aesthetics" is also part of it).

https://karolinum.cz/en/editions/mysleni-soucasnosti
Contemporary thought is characterized by an expansion of the scope of traditionally defined disciplines, including philosophy. The aim of this series is to demonstrate this tendency through a selection of authors and books (Czech and foreign) as well as thematic monographs, showing something like philosophy in a dialogue with other areas of knowledge. However, it is clear that the word "present” should emphasize everything that our period understands as contemporary rather than chronology. Miroslav Petříček is the head of the series.

in the past, i started few times to read something by Deleuze but i always gave up after few pages.
so, i hope that via reading GD's monograph i will be finally able to approach/read GD (in the future).
i read only a few pages (of the monograph) so far, but it looks promising and there is a good hope i will finish it (sooner or later).
Petr Prášek was educated not only in the local millieu (under Miroslav Petříček's tutelage) but also got an education in France (tutored by Renaud Barbaras).
i never heard this name before https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaud_Barbaras but i expect if i get intrigued by Petr Prášek i will also try to explore his French tutor.

besides looking into books, i also noticed a blackbird who was looking for earthworms in the proximity of black currants.


i also noticed a slow-worm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_worm and squirrel on my plot (but those were just passing through and were too fast to capture).
moreover, i had a strange encounter with a neighbor's cat.
i was doing something and suddenly i noticed i am being observed from behind the fence.
the cat was sitting completely motionless and was observing me with a fixed gaze (without even blinking eyes).
i tried to mimic her — hoping that this way i will make her feel ashamed of such a shameless act of voyeurism.
but after several minutes of intensely gazing into each other's eyes, i realized i have no chance to win.
i gave up, continued with my business, and tried to ignore the fact i am under the neighbor's cat surveillance.

[sally]

i am reading tim key (sidekick simon from alan partridge)'s lockdown diary/dramatic dialogue/poetry 'he used thought as a wife' and it is so surprisingly, utterly lovely, even with all the coded references to 'Bohnson' on the telly, oh aye. i lived through all the same bullshit government comms too.

it also came through the mail signed with an inscription in illegible handwriting that i just can't read at all, which was nice of tim, i guess.

anyway it's joining the long list of.....tim etchell's endland as recent english writing that i love

[sally]

[nrh]

reading hope mirrlees lud-in-the-mist, one of those books i've heard about for years but didn't really know what to expect from. very sharp, and very odd- fits into that strange 20s/early 30s british modernist tradition of (kind of) satirical novels with fantastic elements that would include lolly willowes by sylvia townsend warner and some of the early works by the powys brothers (especially tf powys unclay and jc powys glastonbury romance).

lud-in-the-mist is certainly one of the those books that has been very hurt by any attempt to slot it into any kind of modern genre framework; that it gets described as a "fantasy novel" is misleading at best. definitely curious about her life and other work...

[wba]

Antanas Škėmas White Shroud (1958), which he wrote during the 50s while living as an exile in the US and which was first published in London (I believe only in 1990 in Lithuania). Wonderful stuff!

[sally]

reading hope mirrlees lud-in-the-mist

omg, brain-scraped! my grandparents had an old (assuming original) hardback edition that i freaked myself out with as a child, and then promptly forgot about until now. don't remember a thing apart from the title, and mood...i wonder if my dad has it lurking around in his books somewhere....

also i've never read any j c powys because he didn't seem to write anything under 600 pages, i am not committing to that when i've had the man without qualities sitting on a bookshelf for almost 30 years (i even upgraded from the separate volumes at one point) and i still haven't read it...

[Roscoe]

Been re-reading JR, and enjoying it mainly.

[Silga]

Antanas Škėmas White Shroud (1958), which he wrote during the 50s while living as an exile in the US and which was first published in London (I believe only in 1990 in Lithuania). Wonderful stuff!

I read it while in school. One of my favorite books from my native language. It is on a book list that everyone has to read in schools here in Lithuania.

Škėma himself referred to this book and his style in general as creative nihilism.

[wba]

Antanas Škėmas White Shroud (1958), which he wrote during the 50s while living as an exile in the US and which was first published in London (I believe only in 1990 in Lithuania). Wonderful stuff!

I read it while in school. One of my favorite books from my native language. It is on a book list that everyone has to read in schools here in Lithuania.

Škėma himself referred to this book and his style in general as creative nihilism.

It's the first Lithuanian book I've ever read (still reading...), but it's really fine, though I guess much of it must have been terribly hard to translate.
Are there any other older/famous Lithuanian books you'd recommend? I'm not sure, if many of those have been translated into a language I understand, though (that would be Slovenian, German, English, so far).

[sally]

i've never read a single lithuanian writer! i'd vaguely put ričardas gavelis sun-tzu... on a future reading list but apart from that it's a huge blind spot (i have 0 latvian authors too! but have read a couple of estonians if we're talking baltics)

interested to see what silga recommends!

[Silga]

First of all, I have to admit that I'm not an avid reader and even more so when it comes to Lithuanian authors. Also, in recent years my reading is mostly limited to non-fiction books.

Nevertheless, I looked online into what books were translated to English or German and here are some that I, at least, know of and are famous enough:

Twodeadmagpies, you're right. Ricardas Gavelis is without a doubt one of the most revered writers. And I see that his books were translated to English. Sun-Tzu's Life in the Holy City of Vilnius (2002) and his most popular book Vilnius Poker (1989), a cult classic of its generation. Gavelis, like Skema, also died in his 50s, leaving behind a lot of unfulfilled ideas and potential. https://tinyurl.com/36a3y5cz

Another novel by Gavelis - Memoirs of a Life Cut Short (1991). https://tinyurl.com/a6ftjtjh

I'll think about more writers and find out what's available.

[MrCarmady]

I'm reading four books at the same time, thought I'd kicked that habit.

Cheever's Collected Stories. I'm only a few stories in, and it's a fat one, but really digging his style, a little naïve perhaps but poignant and evocative nonetheless.
Hrabal's Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age. Read 40 pages in one breath on a train journey, hilarious stuff, will finish it off this week.
Fitzgerald's Offshore. Read The Bookshop recently and really enjoyed it but this may be even better, bleak and amusing in equal measure. Helps that I live really near where it's set and go for runs there often, really brings it to life.
Baker's Young Man with a Horn. Just read the first chapter but seems very promising so far.