What is everyone reading?

[copticorthodoxboy]

Currently reading

Chiang Kai-Shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost by Jonathon Fenby

Various works for my Chinese 311 class in The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature by Joseph S. M. Lau and Howard Goldblatt

Also, Matthew the Poor's Orthodox Prayer Life: The Interior Way

Shawn

 

[Jibrail Almuhajir]

I'm fixin' to start 'The Path to Salvation' by St. Theophan the Recluse. I hear it's really good but kind of difficult.

I enjoyed 'Life After Death' by Metropolitan of Nafpaktos, Hierotheos Vlakos. It's really good but also scary. He has a whole chapter devoted to the Latins' teaching on Purgatory and the Orthodox refutation of it.

My favorite Orthodox book thus far is 'Mountain of Silence' by Kyriacos Markides. This is the book that helped me become Orthodox.

My all time favorite fictional book is 'Canary Row' by John Steinbeck. He can really tell a story. I love this little book so much that, for me, it transcends mere words.

I enjoyed 'The Brothers Karamazov' by Dostoyevsky, but it is really long.

I also enjoy anything on the Balkans; particularly Croatia, Serbia, Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania. I am at once in love with and scared to death of those folks.

Gabriel

 

[Friul]

I also enjoy anything on the Balkans; particularly Croatia, Serbia, Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania. I am at once in love with and scared to death of those folks.

With good reason.    My fiancee's mother is a Bosnian Serb and I am still scared to death of her. 

 

[Pedro]

Flannery O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge

The Art of Prayer

Unseen Warfare

Michael Shaara's Killer Angels

 

[Jibrail Almuhajir]

With good reason.     My fiancee's mother is a Bosnian Serb and I am still scared to death of her.  

Say no more.  I'm getting used to the fact that everyone from the Balkans has a built-in microphone w/ two buttons; Loud and LOUDER. :'( It used to be that almost everyone of our conversations started out with her saying, "Sweet-heart, you weel know whayn I am yelleeng...."

Gabriel

 

[Donna Rose]

Unseen Warfare

I am reading this as well. I just got through the section on prayer -- I found it most enlightening and practical in many ways, which is something I often need when being instructed on prayer.

Also reading:

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Saint Innocent Apostle to America by Paul D. Garrett
Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien

And in case I haven't mentioned it here yet, I have begun the Great Reread of the Harry Potter series in time for the release of the 5th movie on July 13th and the 7th book on July 21st. So also:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling.

 

[Friul]

Say no more.  I'm getting used to the fact that everyone from the Balkans has a built-in microphone w/ two buttons; Loud and LOUDER. :'( It used to be that almost everyone of our conversations started out with her saying, "Sweet-heart, you weel know whayn I am yelleeng...."

LoL! 

So true.  When people are naturally louder than Italians, I take notice. 

 

[Jibrail Almuhajir]

Italians have to talk loud because they're usually having to talk over their Balkan neighbors I forgot to mention that I'm dating a girl from Romania

Gabriel

 

[TinaG]

Also reading:
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Saint Innocent Apostle to America by Paul D. Garrett
Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien
And in case I haven't mentioned it here yet, I have begun the Great Reread of the Harry Potter series in time for the release of the 5th movie on July 13th and the 7th book on July 21st. So also:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling.

Donna Rose - How is the Children of Hurin going?  It was out of stock at Barnes & Noble for a while and I haven't picked it up yet.  More readable than the Silmarillion?

As for Harry Potter Book 7, I did it.  I booked a fabulous B & B for 2 nights at the gorgeous Rose Hill Manor.  My fantasy escape from whining kids, obligations and never-ending laundry has been set in motion.  Just me reading on a chaise lounge watching the sunset.  Now the only thing I'm wondering, how much of a total geek/loser am I going to look like in the highly romantic dining room surrounded by smoochy couples feeding each other tidbits like courting birds.  While I try and look casual drinking wine by myself, reading a book.  At least it's not a romance novel.    http://www.rose-hill.com/

 

[Ebor]

Donna Rose - How is the Children of Hurin going?  It was out of stock at Barnes & Noble for a while and I haven't picked it up yet.  More readable than the Silmarillion?

Ack! You remind me that I need to try to get a copy of "The Children of Hurin".  I knew I'd forgotten something with class and kids and all.  What parts of the Silmarillion did you find difficult to read?

As for Harry Potter Book 7, I did it.  I booked a fabulous B & B for 2 nights at the gorgeous Rose Hill Manor.  My fantasy escape from whining kids, obligations and never-ending laundry has been set in motion.   Just me reading on a chaise lounge watching the sunset.  Now the only thing I'm wondering, how much of a total geek/loser am I going to look like in the highly romantic dining room surrounded by smoochy couples feeding each other tidbits like courting birds.  While I try and look casual drinking wine by myself, reading a book.  At least it's not a romance novel.    http://www.rose-hill.com/

Cow-a-bunga!!  Congratulations to you on getting this plan to work.    Drinking wine and reading a book sounds like a fine idea to me. 

That reminds me.. I need to make a pre-order at my little local bookstore for Volume 7...

Ebor

 

[TinaG]

 What parts of the Silmarillion did you find difficult to read?

Ebor

Actually the whole thing.  While I've reread the LOTR many many times, I have made several unsuccesful attempts to read The Silmarillion.  I think it's a book that requires a lot of undivided attention in order to slog through the names and history with a cross reference book.  As you might have figured out, there's not a lot of distraction free time in my house.  I think that's why I read & write so much poetry and short stories.  In fact, right now I'm reading a collection of the complete short novels of Chekhov.  (For an agnostic, he has always seemed more religious than he's given credit for.)

Tina

 

[Heorhij]

****now I'm reading a collection of the complete short novels of Chekhov.  (For an agnostic, he has always seemed more religious than he's given credit for.)

(GP) I agree with you, Tina. Chekhov is one of my all-time favorite writers. His plays are also wonderful.

 

[welkodox]

The Huntsman is an interesting story.

 

[Donna Rose]

Donna Rose - How is the Children of Hurin going?  It was out of stock at Barnes & Noble for a while and I haven't picked it up yet.  More readable than the Silmarillion?

As for Harry Potter Book 7, I did it.  I booked a fabulous B & B for 2 nights at the gorgeous Rose Hill Manor.  My fantasy escape from whining kids, obligations and never-ending laundry has been set in motion.  Just me reading on a chaise lounge watching the sunset.  Now the only thing I'm wondering, how much of a total geek/loser am I going to look like in the highly romantic dining room surrounded by smoochy couples feeding each other tidbits like courting birds.  While I try and look casual drinking wine by myself, reading a book.  At least it's not a romance novel.    http://www.rose-hill.com/

The Children of Hurin is going quite well. I'm working my way through it slowly, however it *is* more readable than the Silmarillion, in that it focuses on one single tale with a small handful of main characters, and so is more localized in that respect. I love the Silmarillion, but my favorite parts are the chapters or sections that really come together as tales of their own that could be excerpted from the work as a whole -- and The Children of Hurin is a novel-length version of this. There are definitely many names and history still in the book, however a manageable amount (and there is a relatively short appendix of names and descriptions as well as a fold out map of Beleriand, both of which I use frequently). Anyway, thus far I highly recommend it as a great addition to your Tolkien library.

As for your 2 night B & B Harry Potter 7 getaway...I think I said this when you first told us about this tradition of yours, but WOW I wish I were you and could afford to do that! As it stands, I am actually working all day on Saturday, July 21st :::sigh::: however I'll be on the Bookmobile where I'm allowed to read if I want, and you can guess what it is I'll be reading...

Donna

 

[Serge]

Starting with what I'm reading now and going backwards:

Departures by Harry Turtledove: Good science fiction, alternative history that teaches much real history while it entertains:

    * What if Athens lost to the Persians? (Democracy? What’s that?)
    * What if Muhammad had converted as a young man and ended up a charismatic Orthodox monk composing hymns?
    * Or what if Constantinople and the rest of the eastern Roman Empire fell early on to the Muslims and Bulgaria (and thus the rest of the Slavonic world) ended up Muslim and not Christian?

And more!  ;D

Changing Places by David Lodge. Novel about two literature professors, one English from Birmingham, the other American from San Francisco, in a teacher exchange during the swinging spring of 1969.

The Liar. Stephen 'Jeeves' Fry's first novel, about a roguish public schoolboy and Cambridge student in a spy plot. Very English, camp and gay like its author.

Angela's Ashes. Frank McCourt's Pulitzer-winning first book, an autobiography about growing up in the slums of Limerick, Ireland in the 1930s and 1940s.

The Sum of All Fears, a Tom Clancy number from 1991. Entertaining yarn: Black Sunday with nukes. An advantage of not seeing the movies: my Jack Ryan doesn't look like Harrison Ford or Ben Affleck.

An advantage of taking commuter trains to work instead of driving is I make time to read books again.

 

[Heorhij]

Welkodox - do you mean a short story about the village hunter (Yegor) who meets his wife (Pelageya) with whom he does not live, and she begs him to return? In the Russian original, it's called "Yeger'"... Yes, it's a gem, one of the shortest short novels by Chekhov, tremendously deep in fact, very humble, very humane...

 

[welkodox]

Welkodox - do you mean a short story about the village hunter (Yegor) who meets his wife (Pelageya) with whom he does not live, and she begs him to return? In the Russian original, it's called "Yeger'"... Yes, it's a gem, one of the shortest short novels by Chekhov, tremendously deep in fact, very humble, very humane...

Yes.

 

[Heorhij]

My favorite short novels by Chekhov are "The House with a Mezzanine" (what an indictment of cruelty of human beings involved in "charity" "projects," among other things), "Lady with a Dog," "Ionych," "Van'ka" (or "Van'ka Zhukov" - this one is perhaps not conveyed well in translations, it needs to be read in Russian), "Gooseberries," and a number of others (I'll recall their titles and plots if I just glance at their first paragraph). But I really do admire his plays, "Sea Gull," "Uncle Vanya," and "Cherry Orchard."

 

[recent convert]

Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser and Centuries writings of St Maximos the confessor (Philokalia vol. II).

 

[TinaG]

As for your 2 night B & B Harry Potter 7 getaway...I think I said this when you first told us about this tradition of yours, but WOW I wish I were you and could afford to do that! As it stands, I am actually working all day on Saturday, July 21st :::sigh::: however I'll be on the Bookmobile where I'm allowed to read if I want, and you can guess what it is I'll be reading...

Donna

Working on a Bookmobile sounds like a dream job.  I have very fond memories of Bookmobiles.  If you want to read a totally amazing short story, try searching for The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger.  It was published through Zoetrope's All Story, or read on Symphony Space's Selected Shorts program on NPR.

 

[Schultz]

Actually the whole thing.  While I've reread the LOTR many many times, I have made several unsuccesful attempts to read The Silmarillion.  I think it's a book that requires a lot of undivided attention in order to slog through the names and history with a cross reference book. 

Been a while since I've posted...of course, there's nothing to get me back posting than a conversation about Middle-Earth/Tolkien!

When reading the Silmarillion, it really pays to take into account that it is an entirely different kind of story than LOTR in a number of ways.  LOTR is more of a chronicle while the Silmarillion (and the rest of the Tolkien Middle-Earth corpus in general) are more "legendary" in nature.  The events in LOTR were written in a style that is far more accessible to most readers of novels (particularly novels in the English language) than the Silmarillion, whose style harkens back to the legend tales of, say, the Kalevala. 

It also pays to take into account that LOTR was, for the most part, a product finished and finalized by Tolkien himself, while the Silmarillion was never truly finished.  The good Professor was, it is true, never fully satisfied with the final edits of LOTR, but the Silmarillion was a work in progress up to his death.  His son and editor Christopher will be the first to tell you that the published Silmarillion is his interpretation of where his father was headed based upon the boxes and boxes of manuscripts left behind in the wake of the author's passing.  However, it is almost fitting that there is no real final, set-in-stone draft of the stories of the Silmarillion.  As the legends of our own "real" ancestors were never static, nor are the stories of the ancestors of the Eldar and Edain as told by Tolkien.

I have also found that it really helps to either read the Silmarillion aloud the first time or invest in the excellent unabridged audiobook version and just sit and listen to the stories.

 

[TinaG]

I have also found that it really helps to either read the Silmarillion aloud the first time or invest in the excellent unabridged audiobook version and just sit and listen to the stories.

Good suggestion on listening through the Silmarillion as an audiobook.  I think I get weighed down flipping back and forth with an appendix trying to get names and history down in my head as I go.  If I could just listen to the whole thing at one time it would be easier to go back and read it.  Thanks for the tip Schultz

 

[Friul]

Italians have to talk loud because they're usually having to talk over their Balkan neighbors I forgot to mention that I'm dating a girl from Romania

LoL!  We are just jovial and enthusiastic in the South, that is all.   

Back on topic, I just started Edward Muir's Mad Blood Stirring: Vendetta And Factions In Friuli During The Renaissance.

 

[BJohnD]

BJohnD, good luck in reading Gogol (actually, the correct spelling should be Hohol, soft "breathing" vocal "h," like in English "down the *H*ill," etc., like the sound transliterated by the Greek "gamma" - he was Ukrainian... Aggggggh, Russians perverted both the sound and the spelling of our Ukrainian names!!!! ). I never read him in English, can't even imagine reading him in any language other than Russian, same thing as Tolstoy. Dostoevskiy is a different story, his Russian is so weird that he might actually be received even better in translations.

George

Thanks -- If it's really good, I suppose (as the saying goes) that will mean it's a bad translation. 

 

[DerekMK]

(actually, the correct spelling should be Hohol, soft "breathing" vocal "h," like in English "down the *H*ill," etc., like the sound transliterated by the Greek "gamma" - he was Ukrainian... Aggggggh, Russians perverted both the sound and the spelling of our Ukrainian names!!!! ).

Would somebody like Гоголь, (I'll avoid creating a transliteration altogether!) who was very russified used the Muscovite pronunciation in favor of a lower prestige pronunciation? 

I'm having my own problems with Russians butchering my Polish name on my visa for this summer's travels - is it that hard to realize that io = ё not ио or that zi = ж and not зи !  And when I go through Ukraine who knows what trouble I'll run into speaking Russian and no Ukrainian! 

To keep this on topic, I just finished up Eugene Onegin (James Falen translation) and am working through An Anthology of Russian Literature compiled by Nicholas Rzhevsky.  Both of which are good as far as translations go.   

 

[Heorhij]

Hi Nektarios (sorry, I don't know how to use the Greek alphabet in this forum format!),

"Eugene Onegin" is such a bliss... Again, I, having grown up in the former USSR, read it in its original Russian and cannot even imagine reading it in any translation. "Blazhen, kto s molodu byl molod, blazhen, kto voremya sozrel, kto postepenno zhizni kholod s godami vyterpet' sumel, kto sladkim snam ne predavalsya, kto cherni svetskoj ne chuzhdalsya, kto v dvadtsat' let byl frant il' khvat, a v tridtsat' - vygodno zhenat, kto v pyatdesyat osvobodilsya ot chastnykh i drugikh dolgov, kto slavy, deneg i chinov spokojno v ochered' dobilsya; o kom tverdili tselyj vek: "NN - prekrasnyj chelovek!"" How CAN this even be translated???

 

[welkodox]

There are people who say it cannot be properly.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/12829

 

[Heorhij]

I have a feeling that Lev Tolstoy also simply cannot be translated... I have an English translation of "War and Peace" at home - it's so useless, such a gibberish... sorry.

 

[Pedro]

Departures by Harry Turtledove: Good science fiction, alternative history that teaches much real history while it entertains:

I.  Love.  Turtledove.  Primarily the USA/CSA series, but the fact that he's into Byzantine history, BIG time, is also wonderful for me!  That book sounds incredible!  Will have to see if I can check it out from the library system here...

Good suggestion on listening through the Silmarillion as an audiobook.

Speaking of these--my wife and I have already put ourselves on the library waiting list (and it's a LONG one already) for the audiobook of HP7.  Yes, we're going to wait.  A toddler and a soon-coming newborn (God willing) necessitate it...

I have a feeling that Lev Tolstoy also simply cannot be translated... I have an English translation of "War and Peace" at home - it's so useless, such a gibberish... sorry.

If y'all'll pardon the culture shift here, another person whose work I absolutely cannot stand to read in English is Pablo Neruda.  His poetry, imo, loses ALL passion, ALL beauty when it is taken out of the original Spanish.  When left in and breathed through in the original language, it is breathtaking.

 

[DerekMK]

Blazhen, kto s molodu byl molod, blazhen, kto voremya sozrel, kto postepenno zhizni kholod s godami vyterpet' sumel, kto sladkim snam ne predavalsya, kto cherni svetskoj ne chuzhdalsya, kto v dvadtsat' let byl frant il' khvat, a v tridtsat' - vygodno zhenat, kto v pyatdesyat osvobodilsya ot chastnykh i drugikh dolgov, kto slavy, deneg i chinov spokojno v ochered' dobilsya; o kom tverdili tselyj vek: "NN - prekrasnyj chelovek!

This is what I love about Eastern Europeans, they can all bust out into poetry (and stanza after stanza after stanza) from memory.  Most American school kids probably coudn't even name five poets.

There are people who say it cannot be properly.

If you really want to get a Russian professor going all you have to do ask which translation of Pushkin is the best.  Even better is getting a few together who disagree. 

 

[Heorhij]

Thank you, Nektarios... yes, that's our habit, instilled in childhood... Most people who grew up in the former USSR and in the so-called Eastern Block, when asked about their favorite poetry, indeed can almost always recite stanza after stanza, non-stop, from memory. For many of my friends and myself, it's enough to "trigger" the opening, "Moj dyadya samykh chestnykh pravil, kogda ne v shutku zanemog..." - and we will continue the entire first chapter of Eugene Onegin by heart. I can probably recite about 1/4 of the entire novel (Pushkin insisted that "Onegin" is a NOVEL in verse, not a "poem"), or maybe even 1/3.

To me, Pushkin is a shining example of true humility. In "Onegin" and in many other works, he shows such a wonderful, soft, kind irony of the human nature (albeit sometimes a "peppered" kind of irony, too). Like in these two stanzas that directly follow the one I quoted yesterday,

"No grustno dumat', chto naprasno byla nam molodost' dana; chto izmenyali ej vsechasno; chto izmenila nam ona; chto pylkikh let neostorozhnost' samolyubivuju nichtozhnost' il' oskorblyaet, il' smeshit; chto um, lyubya prostor, tesnit; chto slishkom chasto razgovory my prinyat' rady za dela; chto glupost' vetrena i zla; chto vazhnym lyudyam vazhny vzdory, i chto posredstvennost' odna nam po plechu i ne stranna?

Kogo zh lyubit'? komu zhe verit'? kto ne izmenit nam odin? kto vse dela, vse rechi merit usluzhlivo na nash arshin? kto suety sred' nas ne seet? kto nas zabotlivo leleet? komu porok nash ne beda? kto ne naskuchit nikogda? Prizraka suetnyj iskatel'! trudov naprasno ne gubya, lyubite samogo sebya, dostopochtennyj moj chitatel'! Predmet dostojnyj: nikogo milee, pravo, net ego..."

 

[Ebor]

This is what I love about Eastern Europeans, they can all bust out into poetry (and stanza after stanza after stanza) from memory.  

Stop me before I recite "The Highwayman"  or Robert Frost or Lewis Carroll!  ;D

Ebor

 

[Ebor]

I've been reading "120 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature" - by Nicholas J. Karolides, Margaret Bald and Dawn B. Sova.  It's fascinating finding out why some works have been suppressed, burned, or the authors persecuted.  It has sections on books banned for Political, Religious, Sexual and Social Grounds and includes books from a number of countries. 

My 14 y.o. picked it up after finding out that "Harry Potter" was listed and started going through it. He was astounded and shocked at some of the reasons and cases and books that were suppressed.

Ebor

 

[Heorhij]

Stop me before I recite "The Highwayman"  or Robert Frost or Lewis Carroll!  ;D

Ebor

You know, I could never really "feel" poetry written by English-speaking authors. Not one single Brit "gets" me except Shakespeare. Poe maybe. Emily Dickinson - I "rationally" realize that she is a great master of poetry, but I do not "feel" her the way I feel Pushkin or Shevchenko. Edwin Arlington Robinson. Frost - some. 

 

[Friul]

You know, I could never really "feel" poetry written by English-speaking authors. Not one single Brit "gets" me except Shakespeare. Poe maybe. Emily Dickinson - I "rationally" realize that she is a great master of poetry, but I do not "feel" her the way I feel Pushkin or Shevchenko. Edwin Arlington Robinson. Frost - some. 

My fiancee loved John Keats works, have you looked much into him?  Personally, I find the works of Count Giacomo Leopardi to be absolutely amazing, though some find him too pessemistic for their tastes. 

 

[Heorhij]

My fiancee loved John Keats works, have you looked much into him?  Personally, I find the works of Count Giacomo Leopardi to be absolutely amazing, though some find him too pessemistic for their tastes.   

No, Friul, not much... tried a little (when my daughter studied Keats in high school and then in college), but his poetry did not "get" me in the slightest, sorry, I just yawned... maybe I should try more. As for Leopardi, no, I do not know him at all.

 

[Friul]

As for Leopardi, no, I do not know him at all.

He and Evgeny Baratynsky are often compared to each other for their style of Poetry.

Leopardi's works are obviously all in Italian, but they have some translations out there.  Changing the language you lose a bit (sometimes a lot), but you can get a general feel to his style and outlook.  English  Italian

 

[Heorhij]

Thank you so much for the links, Friul. Oh yes, of course I know Baratynsky. --G.

 

[Ebor]

You know, I could never really "feel" poetry written by English-speaking authors. Not one single Brit "gets" me except Shakespeare. Poe maybe. Emily Dickinson - I "rationally" realize that she is a great master of poetry, but I do not "feel" her the way I feel Pushkin or Shevchenko. Edwin Arlington Robinson. Frost - some. 

That's very interesting that you like Robinson.  I don't think he's as much read as he once was, though "Richard Corey" and "Miniver Cheevy" show up in anthologies sometimes still.  What are your favourites of his works, if one may ask?

Ebor

 

[Ebor]

It's also probably ummm naughty to say, but while Emily Dickinson has some fine images in her poems, it's been stuck in my brain that most of her works can be sung to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas"  ;D  

Ebor