what are you reading now?

N

Numbers

Well-known member
I have read Lolita already (in Dutch translation). Short stories seem perfect, even if translated, thanks for the great tip!
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Corpsey said:
Presumably that connotation wasn't alive to Nabokov...

Urban dictionary informs me that the epithet comes from prison guards:

'Not On Normal Communal Excercise'
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Nah that's a backronym, like "Port Out, Starboard Home". It's just an ancient word for a nothing, a worthless person.
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
In that case, you could also try 'Dubliners' - Joyce's collection of short stories. In particular 'The Dead'.
 
droid

droid

Well-known member
m99188868 said:
Could I appeal to Dissensus recommend me some fiction that is very engaging, while still having a rich vocabulary? I am looking for something to read in English just before bedtime. Something that will enrichen my vocabulary, but without being too burdening. It might be worn out classics, even the ones you read at school in the UK/US. Even fiction for children might do, if exceptionally well written. The goal is to improve my English writing skills by reading more native stuff untranslated, but it shouldn't feel like a chore. Any advice?
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I was going to recommend book one of the Earthsea trilogy. Beautifully written & poetic without being too verbose - but its fantasy as well.

Have you considered some of the American classics? Hemmingway's 'Old man & the sea' and Steinbeck's 'The Pearl, short, aphoristic and plain in language, but engaging.

My perennial recommendation is Peter Heller's 'the dog stars' which I think fits your bill as well. It's got some stylistically interesting sections which could help with your understanding of the colloquial.
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I've started reading 'The Beast in the Jungle' by Henry James. It's a 70 page novella, published in 1903, when James was 60. It's a 'meta' reading experience, the novella being about an extremely shy protagonist who can never directly reveal his secret fears, the style (presumably the 'standard' James style) being infinitely hesitant, nuanced, self-scrutinising, self-qualifying. In other words, it seems to be a story about James himself, and about why James writes as he writes.

I recognise myself in this style. My own writing, especially on here, is full of these qualifications and evasions. And I'm a shy person, crippled by self-doubt, compelled to notice by the fear of some crouching beast. I'm no Henry James, but I can relate to him.
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I should add that I find this style exasperating, as I would no doubt find my own 'style' on here to be exasperating, but that it certainly packs a high degree of nuance into a short space (paradoxically by greatly extending sentences).
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
I have just started the new Hoffman translation of Berlin Alexanderplatz - i'm really enjoying it - although also makes me yearn for a rerun of the Fassbinder version shown late at night on C4 back in the 80s which Ian Penman used to rave about.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
jenks said:
I have just started the new Hoffman translation of Berlin Alexanderplatz - i'm really enjoying it - although also makes me yearn for a rerun of the Fassbinder version shown late at night on C4 back in the 80s which Ian Penman used to rave about.
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its on youtube. you might have to adjust the settings so the subtitles are in english
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I do find the 19th century a particularly fascinating period - a transition between the Christian/materialist ages, the post-revolutionary disillusion, the contrast between Victorian moralism and the brutal conditions of impoverished people at home and in the colonies... etc.

I blame you for getting me into Yeats tbh

(I mentioned Yeats did you notice?)
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Anyway, although I think I know what you'll say, you're reading Finnegan's Wake - WHY DO YOU WANT TO LIVE IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY? :cool:
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
And if you tell me we're still living in the 20th century, I'll tell you we're still living in the NINETEENTH CENTURY :cool::cool::cool:
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Incidentally, a line can be traced from Henry James as a critic to FR Leavis as critic to YOUR PRECIOUS HUGH KENNER AS CRITIC :cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:
 
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