[Morgoth]

dietl, on 11 October 2013 - 05:13 PM, said:

Morgoth, on 11 October 2013 - 06:46 AM, said:

Faust part 2 was written substansially later, and has a very different thematic focus from the part 1. Part 1, I'd argue. mainly focus on philosophy, what it means to live a good life, to be human, to be happy, love, the universe and everything. Part 2 on the other hand is mainly a critique of Goethe's contemporary society, with a number of actual figures of his time making an apperance, mostly in a rather unflattering light.

I must say that I liked the first part much more but that's surely only because it's a bit easier to understand. There is so much you can get out of reading this masterpiece and it's really beautifully written.
Morgoth, you read 2 different translations, did you find any discrepancies between these versions? I recon it must be really hard to translate the text.

Yes, there are several. In one translation my signature was much less elegant for instance. I prefer the Penguin version I think, but I have never read the German version and so cannot comment on which is the most loyal to the source material. Penguin I think is the most elegant.

I also prefer part 1. I'd not say I know it by heart, but I have read it enough for it to be not far from the truth. Part two I think I've only read twice. Even though I've read up as much as I can on Goethe's life, I still do not find it more than a little dated. A great story, but not unmoored from time as part 1.

Many may scoff at this, but I find The Sorrows of Young Werther to be another excellent book of his, and you should try it out.

dietl, on 12 October 2013 - 05:52 PM, said:

Finished Die Verwandlung by Kafka yesterday and The Death of Ivan Ilych by Tolstoy today. Both are quite short, which I was looking for. You could find some parallels between the two books because both protagonists lives change dramatically.

Ivan Ilych is mostly about living a good live, death and society and I think it wasn't really written for someone like me Maybe I could appreciate it more when I'm closer to death or something. It suffered a bit from translation, but I can't be sure, I don't speak Russian and I read it in English, which is also not my mother tongue. All in all it's still a very good book.

Die Verwandlung was more to my taste. It deals with the same major themes as the Tolstoy story bit in a quite different way and still leaves a lot of room for interpretation. While reading you get the impression that Kafka really thought hard about how it's like being an insect. I liked it very much and is way better than Kafkas Der Prozess imo, although it's been some years since I read it.

Next is Die Ermordung einer Butterblume (engl.:The murder of a buttercup) by Alfred Döblin and I really look forward to finding out who killed the poor little thing and why. Who knows, maybe it deserved to die a horrible death, maybe it was all an accident, maybe someone threw an apple at it....

I personally found The Death of Ivan Ilych to be my best experience with Tolstoy. It's a beautiful, eye opening story in my opinion, but as with all great literature, tastes vary. Kafka is brilliant too, but to be honest the sheer frustration he makes me feel (in a good way, mostly) makes his stories a little too depressing for my everyday reading.

I've never read The murder of a buttercup. Should I?

[Tiste Simeon]

Solidsnape, on 13 October 2013 - 04:48 AM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 08 October 2013 - 09:26 PM, said:

Minor detour to read V for Vendetta finished, GOTM started!

NICE!!!!
You doing a full re-read?

Yep! May at some point take a pause to read the new Scott Lynch book but I am loving GOTM so much right now I may just plow right through (though it is gonna take forever as I haven't got very far - life is busy!!)

[Traveller]

Just raced through Ex Communication, only to find out that the next in the Ex series isn't out until January. Dammit.

[Ukjent]

Done with Alloy of law and over to the eh.. let's just stop the description with Crack'd Pot Trail.

[dietl]

Morgoth, on 13 October 2013 - 08:24 AM, said:

I've never read The murder of a buttercup. Should I?

Well it's a collection of short stories and a very important work of Expressionism. It's very well written and at times reads like an incomplete puzzle of Munch's The Scream. It's absurd and strange, horrible and funny (if you have my kind of humour). To be honest, I wouldn't recommend it to someone who is in a bad or depressive mood and it's definitely not for everyday reading. But it's not very long. You liked Kafka, so I would give it a go. I suggest reading The murder of a buttercup before the other stories. You can still stop then, they are all stand alone.

[Serenity]

I finished Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky. All I can say is 'wow'. Awesome book.

Made a start on Emperor of Thorns this morning.

[Salt-Man Z]

Finally finished Ricardo Pinto's The Third God. Whew! Took me just over 3 months to do so, and in the meantime I started and finished 6 other books. It was worth it, though. What an appropriately apocalyptic finale. Recommended, but with two caveats: it's not for the squeamish, and parts will definitely drag; but persevere, it'll be worth it.

Now starting in on my full-series Thomas Covenant reread. It's been a dozen years since I read these books.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 14 October 2013 - 08:43 PM

[RACHEL]

http://parahumans.wordpress.com/about/ I am reading this web serial about superheros. I started reading and I can't stop. Sorry if this is posted somewhere else. I searched for it and couldn't find it. Click on the link to find out what it is about and read it for free.

[Mentalist]

Finished "The Dreaming Void", only to discover it's a sequel trilogy to an earlier duology. might need to purchase more of Hamilton's stuff now.

As always, need to think what i'll read next. Think I may go for the second volume of "Les Miserables" for a change of pace.

[Primateus]

So, I read and finished Simon Scarrow's Under the Eagle last night.

I liked it, it was a good, fast and light read. It centers on recruit Cato and Centurion Macro who are stationed in Germania in the 2nd Legion.

Character is focused mainly on Cato, seeing as Macro is already a veteran, though he does goes through some changes during the story. It's nice and even paced, even believable. The action is, I reckon, as authentically written as is possible in a fictional story set in the Roman Empire, so that's a good plus, though there are some things I can't speak to the authenticity of (Like boots, didn't they use sandals instead of boots?)

There's a good and simple premise for the story, it's not something any of us haven't seen before but that doesn't mean it's bad, especially considering the setup in the prologue.

However, while it is a good story it is, unfortunately, also rather predictable, though I think that's a sideeffect of the story itself and not an indictment of Scarrows writing skill. With the story he wanted to tell I think it was rather unavoidable that it would turn out predictable.
That's basically my only gripe about this book, except for a few stupid typos here and there, but no more than other books, so I guess that's something I can live with.

All in all, quite enjoyable, I liked it, and I'll recommend reading it as a break between heavier stories.

Now onto Myke Cole's Control Point.

[Tiste Simeon]

Mentalist, on 15 October 2013 - 05:40 AM, said:

Finished "The Dreaming Void", only to discover it's a sequel trilogy to an earlier duology. might need to purchase more of Hamilton's stuff now.

As always, need to think what i'll read next. Think I may go for the second volume of "Les Miserables" for a change of pace.

The Commonwealth Saga was fairly so-so. It was decent and had some pretty good action sequences but it was nothing particularly special. The worldbuilding is good but the characters are as a general rule quite annoying!

The Nights Dawn Trilogy is much better though I haven't read the Dreaming Void yet...

[stone monkey]

Just finished Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. Interesting, moderately enjoyable; but not as good as it should have been.

[Serenity]

Tiste Simeon, on 15 October 2013 - 06:07 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 15 October 2013 - 05:40 AM, said:

Finished "The Dreaming Void", only to discover it's a sequel trilogy to an earlier duology. might need to purchase more of Hamilton's stuff now.

As always, need to think what i'll read next. Think I may go for the second volume of "Les Miserables" for a change of pace.

The Commonwealth Saga was fairly so-so. It was decent and had some pretty good action sequences but it was nothing particularly special. The worldbuilding is good but the characters are as a general rule quite annoying!

The Nights Dawn Trilogy is much better though

Completely agree. I thought Pandora's Star was pretty good, but Judas Unchained was disappointing. If he'd condensed the whole thing into one volume it would have been much better, imo.


I'm halfway through Emperor of Thorns. Good stuff.

[QuickTidal]

About a third of the way into Michael J. Sullivan's THE CROWN TOWER, and I'm utterly loving it. Very much like the original series in tone and style, but a prequel giving insight into characters like Gwen and co. Not to mention the initial meeting of Hadrian and Royce, and concerning an event that is only hinted at in the main series that I was always fascinated by.

Make no mistake, this is more of the goods, and if you like the Riyria Revelations, you will definitely like the Riyria Chronicles as well.

I'll probably drop right into the second book in the series THE ROSE & CROWN if the rest of the book entertains me like this.

Still love this author.

[Ukjent]

Just waiting for The rose and crown to arrive now, bet it's gonna be as cozy as the other ones.

[Tapper]

Finished The Fall of Hyperion. I wasn't too kean on the whole Severn = Keats angle, it felt especially like a repear-trick after reading the Proust factor in Ilium, but it was a very rewarding read in the end

Spoiler

and I guess it sets up Silenus for the next books, which I may or may not read, as the actual guy that Severn came before.

Started on Luke Scull's The Grim Company for a change of pace read.

[Morgoth]

I've just started Ask the Dust by John Fante, a tale of a destitue writer in LA. It's amazing.

" Sometimes an idea floated harmlessly through the room. It was like a small white bird. It meant no ill-will. It only wanted to help me, dear little bird. But I would strike at it, hammer it out across the keyboard, and it would die at my hands."

[Tiste Simeon]

Finished GOTM! Onto DG!

[Chance]

Finished up She Who Waits by David Polansky and must say easily one of the best reads this year if only because it brings the trilogy to a great ending something few authors ever do. That it is also greatly entertaining noir grim dark with some nice action to it doesn't hurt .

Got to re-read the whole trilogy sometime in the close future.

This post has been edited by Chance: 18 October 2013 - 08:05 PM

[stone monkey]

I should probably do another read of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago at some stage in the nearish future; a book that manages to be completely ridiculous and almost soul-crushingly depressing at the same time.

But in the meantime I have The Republic of Thieves to deal with. And I should get around to Richard House's The Kills, now that I have it lying around.