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ixcrisxi - that's a great list! Jude the Obscure is probably my favorite by Hardy. Right up there with Return of the Native for me
I have Charming Billy, but haven't gotten to it yet. You'll have to post a review in the "what are you reading? topic!
Looks like I'm going to have to add A Tree Grows In Brooklyn to my reading list!
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' - Isaac Asimov
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"
Between interning on the Hill and working as a retail b*tch this summer (and ahem, surfing the Fort), I don't have much time for reading, so I've set my sights low. Just two books for this armchair traveler with incurable wanderlust:
1) Bangkok 8 - wildly popular potboiler by John Burdett set in the titular city
2) Sun After Dark: Flights into the Foreign - a collections of travel essays by the incomparable Pico Iyer
I've always wondered why anything by James Joyce (but especially Ulysses and Finnegans Wake) is treated by the public as akin to medicine - as in, it may be bad-tasting but you must try it because it's good for you. Reading Ulysses has little chance of being a pleasurable experience (nor, for most, an enlightening one), and yet, it is always a point of pride to say that one has read it.Ulysses by James Joyce. This has been sitting in my book caboose (yay Levenger!) for months and I still haven't gotten up the nerve to really buckle down and go for it. I guess I'm a bit intimidated.
WOW! Impressive summer reading going on here, that's great. You guys have given me some ideals, especially geek the girl - by the way I just started I know this much is true too!
From reading this thread I think I'm going to check out Running with Scissors and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn...thanks guys.
In addition I want to read:
* 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (re-read)
* Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
* Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
* Lord of the Rings series OR Star Wars series -- still haven't made up my mind.
I'm not sure if I'd have time for anything else
Anyone ever read City of Saints and Madmen? I bought it a year ago on reccomendations and decided this will be the summer to read it. I got into it so far, then found it really icky, and hope it's not the trend! The rest of the summer is devoted to textbooks and books to teach my future highschool class.
Sounds like everyone will have a wonderful and literary summer.
I just found out yesterday that there will be a long road trip in my future, so thought I'd start putting some serious thought into what I might peruse as the country flies by. So far I've got:
Ethics by Spinoza - I have a reading group for this one, thank goodness!
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
A slew of Planetary comics.
Madame Bovary by Flaubert
Other reading ideas I'm considering:
Re-reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - what can I say, I'm a joiner!+
Re-reading The Portrait of Dorian Gray
I've also got some military history that has been sitting around for awhile (mostly WWII).
Critical - I love Hardy & Austen too! I really liked Tess - I'm sure you'll find it a good read. I read Jude but found it so soul-crushingly depressing. Not one for the re-reading pile.
Salome - Clockwork Orange is really good. It is a little difficult to get into at first because of the language issues. But it is worth the effort.
Feifer - Vanity Fair is one of my favourite books. Have fun with it and let me know what you think.
I don't have a specific reading list for summer. But I do know of a few books that are coming out soon which I want to read. They are:
- The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde (Love his Thursday Next series. Here's a description of this book from Amazon:
It’s Easter in Reading—a bad time for eggs—and no one can remember the last sunny day. Ovoid D-class nursery celebrity Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III, minor baronet, ex-convict, and former millionaire philanthropist, is found shattered to death beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. All the evidence points to his ex-wife, who has conveniently shot herself.
But Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his assistant Mary Mary remain unconvinced, a sentiment not shared with their superiors at the Reading Police Department, who are still smarting over their failure to convict the Three Pigs of murdering Mr. Wolff. Before long Jack and Mary find themselves grappling with a sinister plot involving cross-border money laundering, bullion smuggling, problems with beanstalks, titans seeking asylum, and the cut and thrust world of international chiropody.
And on top of all that, the JellyMan is coming to town . . .)
- Eleven on Top by Janet Evanovich (the latest in the Stephanie Plum books. Good light reading. The first books in the series were better, so I'm hoping she's back on form with book 11).
- Harry Potter 5 - Of course!
I didn't enjoy Jude the Obscure either, CCL. No one in Hardy's books goes skipping though a field of daisies, but I'd say your description of this one - "soul-crushingly depressing" - is about right.Originally Posted by CCL
OOOOO! I had no idea Jasper Fforde had a new one coming out! I LOVE the Thursday Next series (as any self-respecting lit geek should!- The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde (Love his Thursday Next series.)!
I love the Evanovich series. I am getting a little sick of the whole "Which man will she choose" crap though. Enough already! I'll probably wait for my friend to buy this so I can borrow it. I can blow through one of her books in an afternoon, so I'd hate to spend full price on it.- Eleven on Top by Janet Evanovich (the latest in the Stephanie Plum books. Good light reading. The first books in the series were better, so I'm hoping she's back on form with book 11).
OnMyLunchBreak - Madame Bovary is wonderful and one of my favorites!Just thinking about it makes me want to read it again!
MICHEY - Running With Scissors isn't for those who are easily offended (just to let you know), but it is so compelling that I can't stop recommending it to people.
Lord of the Rings is always a worthwhile way to spend your time! I've read the trilogy probably 6 times over the last 20 years or so. I love it more every time I read it. If you haven't read The Hobbit, I'd recommend reading that before you start the trilogy. It's a wonderful book and gives some back story about the Gollum, the Ring, Bilbo, Gandalf and Mirkwood Forest, which is where Legolas in the trilogy is from (his father is the king).
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' - Isaac Asimov
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"
Fforde gave a reading of the last Thursday Next book in my town last summer, and he said then that he had a book about Humpty Dumpty coming out. Obviously, this is it.
I'm looking forward to this, I love Fforde's Next series and want to see what he'd do with a different story. Do you know when this is coming out?
Lucy: Fforde came to my hometown last fall & he spoke of the Humpty Dumpty book then as well. At that time he said the next Thursday Next book would probably come out the following Autumn (2006).
Critical - yes, Hardy is not generally know as a "cheery" writer.But Jude is the only book of his that I just cannot pick up again, hence the "soul-crushing" appellation. Tess, on the other hand, is one of my favourite books. I hope you love it, too.
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