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What are you reading?

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Equinoxe said:

By the way, have any of you noticed that most sci-fi books (almost all) that are directed at more mature audiences have really rancid porn-ish sex scenes? I don't mind sex in my books but most of these are just plain disgusting.
Makes me wonder if all sci-fi authors are lonely guys fantasizing about huge galactic jugs or something. :V
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Not sci-fi, but it's one of the few flaws of Harry Turtledove's writing. His sex-scenes aren't really rancid, but they're often oddly out of place and weirdly written. For me, either you glide through it or get into dirty detail, and Turtledove manages to write them on this weird in-between level. He's gotten better about it, though. Nonetheless, I understand your fears. =P

Back on topic, what am I reading? Medium Raw, by Anthony Bourdain. It's a recent follow-up to Kitchen Confidential. Quite good, but a bit harder for 'civilians' to get into than Kitchen Confidential.
 
I finished Oedipus Rex, and now I should be working on the Blithdale Romance. If only Nathaniel Hawthorn wouldn't ramble so much.
 
Welp, I have Foundation by Asimov and Hitchhiker's Guide lying around partially-read, and today I bought In Pursuit of Elegance by Matthew E. May and Neuromancer by William Gibson. The latter of which I'm really excited about finding, but I should probably finish the other books before I get to that one. Especially since the other one I bought today is my summer reading book.
 
I'm reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte for school. But I'm thinking about rereading Harry Potter for the second time this month... I'm immersing myself until the first part of the last movie comes out. :grin:
 
I'm still reading A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens for English. It's a slow read for me but I'm getting accustomed to the style, and I'm becoming interested in reading more like it. Any recommendations?

Sitting on my shelf still are Wizard's First Rule and The Never War by Terry Goodkind and DJ MacHale respectively; I want to keep reading them but I've been too busy to devote much time to them.

I'm also interested in starting Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr; I read the first few chapters in a bookstore and the world intrigued me.
 
Helen of Troy by Margaret George.

Very good stuff, especially if you're fascinated by Greek mythology like I am. :D
 
I read two books today.

Tithe, by Holly Black
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I have previously read them, but decided to read them again.
 
I got Tongues of Serpents (theee... sixth book in the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik) a few days after it came out, but I only sat down to read more of it today and got through about six chapters or so and I'm about halfway through it now.
 
I got Ulysses, The Origin of Species and The Interpretation of Dreams for fifteen euro and I'm getting the Iliad and the Oddyssey in one volume for a fiver tomorrow.

YAY SALE
 
Ruby said:
Are you sure a five-euro one-volume edition is going to be a respectable translation? I have my doubts.
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Well, it's only five euro because Tall Tales got bought and changed into Ouroboros Books, who apparently don't stock classics, so they're selling off the remaining stock for a fiver each. They're Wordsworth Classics, so whatever translation they use.
 
Wordsworth Classics use translations that are out of copyright, I believe. Their translation of Dante is from 1805. Their translation of Homer appears to be by George Chapman, who died in 1634. It has the distinction of being the translation which Keats wrote a poem about, but as you might guess, it is old, and not exactly scholarly.
 
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I don't know if there's a significant difference in the translations recommended to American students as opposed to elsewhere, but over here everyone pushes the Robert Fitzgerald translation of The Odyssey (and The Illiad, I presume, but I don't have that one and it isn't studied quite as often anyway). I didn't pay for my copy because it was a gift from my old English teacher, but it says it cost $12 USD, and that's not bad at all. It was probably even less than that. Dunno what that comes out to in euros, but I can't imagine it'd be that expensive to get a decent paperback translation.

*ahem* The real reason I've come back to this thread being to say that I'm reading Watchmen. For English lit. I was startled, to say the least, when I saw it on the syllabus, but the teacher (who is generally awesome anyway) was totally serious and apparently we're even going to watch the movie in class afterward. Picked up a copy from the library just this morning, and while graphic novels and superheroes aren't usually my cup of tea I have to say it's pretty interesting so far.
 
Kratos Aurion said:
*ahem* The real reason I've come back to this thread being to say that I'm reading Watchmen. For English lit. I was startled, to say the least, when I saw it on the syllabus, but the teacher (who is generally awesome anyway) was totally serious and apparently we're even going to watch the movie in class afterward. Picked up a copy from the library just this morning, and while graphic novels and superheroes aren't usually my cup of tea I have to say it's pretty interesting so far.
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That's awesome. D: I wonder if I can convince my AP English teacher to let us do that. She brought in a graphic novel version of The Jungle (that we had to read over the summer) yesterday for us to look at, saying she was also a fan of graphic novels, and afterward me and a friend of mine asked her if she'd ever read Watchmen, and she said she had. It's a stretch but this makes me want to try it.

Comic book superhero things aren't usually my thing either, but that's not what Watchmen is really about anyway. I think you'll enjoy it.
 
Ruby said:
Wordsworth Classics use translations that are out of copyright, I believe. Their translation of Dante is from 1805. Their translation of Homer appears to be by George Chapman, who died in 1634. It has the distinction of being the translation which Keats wrote a poem about, but as you might guess, it is old, and not exactly scholarly.
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I assume you advocate the Fagles translation?
 
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