Yes, hypothetically I acknowledge I am a very poor reader. — T Clark

I’m a poor reader too. I had a period of 25 years where I read a great deal. These days I lack curiosity.

In December I did read Erotic Vagrancy: Everything About Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor by Roger Lewis, described as a epic poem about vulgarity and old school fame culture. I was fascinated by Burton for a while and read everything on him. Lewis' book is an unorthodox, shamelessly personal, highly literate and quite bitchy biographical account of the doomed couple. It's not the book he thinks he wrote. We know this because he keeps telling us about his intentions. He says he doesn't want to judge the dysfunctional duo, but he can't help evaluating choices, actions and behaviors. The book is fun but lacks coherence and is somewhat repetitive. Lewis leaves us with a familiar albeit vividly realized lesson: fame can fuck you up.

These days I lack curiosity. — Tom Storm

What is the cause of your lack of curiosity?
It might be that you have already read a lot of books in that 25-year span, and now it is complex to find out what can be interesting.

One advise -- I tend to schedule what I want to read depending on the origin of the author. A few years ago, I was deeply interested in Japanese literature, but now I am no longer thrilled. Therefore, I was looking for new stimulation since the end of 2023; reading Russian literature and trying Nordic and Eastern European authors as well. After that, it would be interesting to chew Australian writers, etc.

Who knows! Maybe you could end up having curiosity in Hispanic literature: Argentina (Borges, Sábato, Casares...) or Spain (Cervantes, Lorca, Cela...) :wink:

What is the cause of your lack of curiosity? — javi2541997

Probably just getting older I have less motivation to explore the world through books and am more interested in people.

Who knows! Maybe you could end up having curiosity in Hispanic literature — javi2541997

I read Lorca poetry in the 1980's (he was being rediscovered here) - my girlfriend was obsessed with him. Pretty sure we saw his play El maleficio de la mariposa. Wonderful rich stuff. I adored Cervantes - some of the story digressions in the Don are a bit much. The Lost Steps by Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier was really memorable. Not an easy book to find these days. Perhaps this is a gauche comment but Spanish appears to be the most euphonic and beautiful language for literature.

Probably just getting older I have less motivation to explore the world through books and am more interested in people. — Tom Storm

This is very interesting, because I feel otherwise. I want to explore the world through books rather than with people because I am scared of humanity in general. Perhaps my mentality will think in the future.

Perhaps this is a gauche comment but Spanish appears to be the most euphonic and beautiful language for literature. — Tom Storm

Honestly, I think the same. :lol:
Yet only a writer (Mario Vargas Llosa) won the Nobel Prize during the current century. I don't understand the lack of appreciation for Hispanic authors by the Swedish Academy.

I was merrily reading The Power Broker until Moses started getting really nasty. — BC

When we finally finished the book, my daughter and I agreed that we will never mention his name again. An amazing but despicable man. A genius. He could easily have been a Stalin or Hitler in a different circumstances.

It was recommended in a NYT editorial a few days ago. It is weirdly relevant. — BC

What you've written plus this from Kirkus Review's 1977 review, make me even more interested in taking a look at the book.

Coover skids between easy-target satire (Bruce, Sahl, et al. were there first) and melodramatic grandstanding, with no new insights worthy of his remarkable rhetorical talents. A provocative kernel lost in a dazzling, deadening morass: precisely the kind of book more likely to be talked about than read. — From Kirkus Review of The Public Burning

The first time I became aware of Elizabeth Taylor was when, in 1963 I guess, I saw her up on a gigantic billboard in Times Square costumed as Cleopatra. That was before all the electronic imagery you see there now. I liked the old fashioned look better, especially the famous Camel cigarette billboard which used a smoke generator to make smoke come out of mouth of the man in the display, who changed over the years to keep up with the times.

Oh, to be in Times Square in 1963!

Oh, to be in Times Square in 1963! — Tom Storm

My mother grew up in New York City and we used to go there once a year to visit my grandfather. It was magic to me then and it’s magic to me now.

A year or so ago, I discussed "What is Life?: How Chemistry Becomes Biology," by Addy Pross here. I gave the book a generally good recommendation, but criticized it's pop-sciency tone. Here's an article by Pross and others that I liked much better. It's a journal article and much more focused and formal. And much shorter.

A lot of it was over my head, but a lot of it wasn't. Seems very plausible. Here's a link.

Towards an evolutionary theory of the origin of life based on kinetics and thermodynamics

@Count Timothy von Icarus,

If you're up with late Roman Republican period, you won't learn new stuff reading "The Storm before..." Nothing too controversial, just a lean here and there. But, a few "that's like now" moments.
All backed up by references of writers within a century or so of the times. Honors Bachelor standard.

Agree. Sulla, no, not affecting enough long term uplift for "his" (Trump's) people.
Gracchii, maybe, smash a few assumptions/standards. Pave the way for a real "hero"? Who knows? If there is/ever was such in politics?

Cheery smile

Continuing with Russian literature:

The Eternal Husband, Dostoevsky.

I started on Monday a novel by Tolstoy about a drama based on jealousy. Now, I will continue with a complex relationship triangle between a widower, a former lover, and a deceased wife.

Who gives the most, folks? :wink:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. So far: great.

Amerika
by Franz Kafka

One-hundred Years of Solitude was absolutely spellbinding.

We Cannot Escape History: States and Revolutions by Neil Davidson

• Tokyo Express by Seichō Matsumoto
• Point Zero by Seichō Matsumoto

I'm reading "How the Bible Became Holy." As in how did it find itself as a book that dictates our social norms and moral beliefs.

Spoiler alert: It's not because God wrote it.

Myth and Meaning
by Claude Lévi-Strauss

Morning and Evening by Jon Fosse.

Fosse's talented narrative grasps our attention in this short but intense novella. The first four pages are about the birth of a child in a random coastal village, and then the same child becomes an elder remembering the old days fishing with his dad.

Melancholia, nostalgia, memories... all I love in literature.

Melancholia, nostalgia, memories... all I love in literature. — javi2541997

Do you read everything in Spanish or do you sometimes read in English?

I try to make an effort in reading books in both languages, although I mostly read in Spanish.

John Cheever is one of the authors that I only read in English. I don't think I've ever attempted to read one of his translated works. His novels are very well written and easy to follow for a non-native like me. I tend to buy his books from an Irish bookshop called "Kennys," but I remember purchasing one book from a random bookshop located in the USA. It took me about a month to receive it.

In whatever language you read, the breadth and depth of your interest, commitment, and understanding is impressive. You also read really fast.

One-hundred Years of Solitude was absolutely spellbinding. — Pantagruel

Agreed :up:

The Power Elite
by C. Wright Mills

Also by Habermas was daunting and incredibly dense. Best to be acquainted with Jaspers' theory of the axial age prior to tackling it. I'm going to wait a bit before tackling volume two (volume three won't be published until June anyway...).

Diary of a Madman and Other Stories
by Nikolai Gogol

Nichomachean Ethics.

Anyone got pointers or a particularly interesting reader?

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol.

We are reading the same author at the same time. It is interesting how fate works. Isn't it? :smile:

Dead Souls was the first thing I read by him several years ago. I'm sifting my shelves for unread books and found two collections of his short stories. I just read Amerika and Madman really reminded me of Kafka.

Enjoy!

Nichomachean Ethics.

Anyone got pointers or a particularly interesting reader? — AmadeusD

Richard Bodeüs who taught me courses on Aristotle and Plato at The University of Montreal wrote very illuminating notes in his translation, but the notes and the translation are in French!

Aestheticism and the Philosophy of Death: Walter Pater and Post-Hegelianism by Giles Whitely (Author)

I’m a-readin’ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by that Mark Twain feller right now, an’ while it’s a mighty fine story, it’s got me jawin’ like a country boy somethin’ fierce. But I ain’t fixin’ to go usin’ that n-word though, no sir.