@Kraven Nice! I picked up the Kindle edition yesterday, but I have a few novels ahead of it on my list. Will hopefully get to it some time next month. Would love to hear what you think of it when you're done!
@FuriousMachine I thought I would take you up on your offer and pop in to say hello, also just to let you know I have just finished The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki, which was a thoroughly variegated and enjoyable read, stores-within-stories, in a sort of Spanish Arabian Nights sort of vibe. I would recommend it if you are interested in books like A Thousand and One Arabian Nights ,etc.
@Skarasny Yes, thankyou, I have actually read a lot of Hamsun ,like I was saying before, The Women at the Pump is my favourite, and I have read all the others you mentioned, with the exception of Hunger .Always nice to meet a fellow Hamsun fan!
Today I will start The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, I have the Penguin Deluxe Classics version!
"Preoccupied with a single leaf, you won’t see the tree. Preoccupied with a single tree, you’ll miss the entire forest. Don't be preoccupied with a single spot. See everything in its entirety...effortlessly. That is what it means...to truly "see." "
@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Always glad to hear from you
"Manuscript [...]" sounds very interesting, added it to my list.
I realised recently that I didn't have any Hemingway on my "classics project" list, any you would particularly recommend to start with? "The Old Man and the Sea", "A Farewell to Arms" and "The Sun Also Rises" are the only ones I have heard of (unless I've forgotten some)
@FuriousMachine I've just finished The Sun Also Rises this morning. I would recommend it, but that's the only Hemingway I've read. Planning to read A Farewell to Arms when it comes out as a Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition later this year.
Now onto your dreaded Jon Fosse, Furious. 😉
Started Septology for which he won the Nobel Prize for Literature, if I'm not mistaken.
"Preoccupied with a single leaf, you won’t see the tree. Preoccupied with a single tree, you’ll miss the entire forest. Don't be preoccupied with a single spot. See everything in its entirety...effortlessly. That is what it means...to truly "see." "
I finished 'Fall of Hyperion' and enjoyed it, I look forward to the next 2 books. Some folks say they are better & others not so. I look forward to judging for myself.
Over the weekend I read The Deluxe Saga Book 2. Still one more to go before I can read the stack of comics, that will make up a lot of what will be book 4.
Also read 'Some Japanese Ghost's' by Lafcadio Hearn. One of the releases under the Penguin Archive. I also picked up 'A Dog's Heart' by Mikhail Bulgakov from this collection at Waterstones. £5.99 each and close to a hundred different titles are available.
This morning before I head to work I read the first few chapters of 'Broken Ghosts' by J.D. Oswald. I have previously read his fantasy series 'The Ballad of Sir Benfro' but haven't tried his Inspector McLean stuff yet. I believe there are quite a few books in that one, with more still to come.
@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Oh no, not Fosse! Anyone but him! 😄TBF, he's probably very talented and his works are probably very good, but I simply can't get around the dialect. It would have to be something that generates a burning interest for me to get around, and that simply isn't there with him. Imagine if one dude decided to travel through all parts of the British Isles, mapping all the dialects from even the remotest parts of Scotland and Ireland and then creating a bastardized language based on it and you'd get close. It has its champions, but I am not one of them 😉
@FuriousMachine Can I tempt you with a bit of Hamsun in that case then, Furious? As I said before, The Women at the Pump is a very good book, and I think does for Norway what Dickens' Great Expectations does for England or Mann's The Magic Mountain does for Germany.
But ,as you say, TBF I can't imagine reading an English equivalent of Fosse that does that to the language, and enjoying it, so, yeah, maybe you're right there about avoiding him. But I can't see any real reason not to read Hamsun in the original Norwegian. You can read a synopsis of that book on GoodReads I'm sure, and if you don't like the sound of it, Growth of the Soil , The Wanderer ,Wayfarers or an earlier, quirkier collection Tales of Love and Loss might be more your cup of tea, all are excellent, imo. Strongly recommend.
"Preoccupied with a single leaf, you won’t see the tree. Preoccupied with a single tree, you’ll miss the entire forest. Don't be preoccupied with a single spot. See everything in its entirety...effortlessly. That is what it means...to truly "see." "
@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Looked up The Women at the Pump, but it's not available digitally, so that is a barrier for me (for a variety of reasons I won't rehash now). Most of his other works are, though, so I'll add one of the shorter ones (most likely Pan) to my "classics project" and see what I think.
For me, Hamsun has always been associated with homework and not recreation, so this is like me adding a maths textbook to my reading list 😉 but, hey, who knows, maybe I'll love it? Time will tell.
@MightyDemon82 Nice, added it either way, as it looked interesting.
And yeah, McLean interested me enough to boost my "taster", Broken Ghosts, high up on my reading list. Urban fantasy/supernatural investigator set in my favourite city in the world? Yup, definitely there for that, unless the aforementioned "Broken Ghosts" for some reason turns me off the author (though there is nothing to indicate that that would be the case)
@FuriousMachine That's a shame that you have those negative childhood associations with Hamsun, neither your fault or old Hamsun's, of course. Perhaps your initial impressions of whatever book you choose will be enough to assuage your concerns
"Preoccupied with a single leaf, you won’t see the tree. Preoccupied with a single tree, you’ll miss the entire forest. Don't be preoccupied with a single spot. See everything in its entirety...effortlessly. That is what it means...to truly "see." "
@FuriousMachine Haha! touche' sir! So what's next in the immediate future for your reading list? Haven't seen you post any impressions for a little while.
"Preoccupied with a single leaf, you won’t see the tree. Preoccupied with a single tree, you’ll miss the entire forest. Don't be preoccupied with a single spot. See everything in its entirety...effortlessly. That is what it means...to truly "see." "
@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN I'm currently (and quite literally right now) reading the second novel in N.K. Jemesin's "Broken Earth" trilogy, a dystopian fantasy series I'm enjoying immensely. This book isn't quite as good as the first one, as it feels like it's spinning its wheels a tiny bit, but still very solid and entertaining. It's been a bit slow going recently, as I haven't had as much reading time as I usually do, but that will hopefully pick up soon.
When I'm done with this, which should be today or tomorrow, I'll start in on the first two novellas in the "Murderbot Diaries" series by Martha Wells, before I catch up with the Apple TV+ adaptation, which is getting rave reviews. Then I'll move on to the final instalment of "Broken Earth"
How about you, what's on your immediate reading list?
@FuriousMachine I finished the first third of Jon Fosse's Septology , which is split into three parts, in the edition I have. After I read the remaining 2/3 I'll be moving ono Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past and then the artist, George Grosz's ,An Autobiography ,which happens to be illustrated, coveniently, as well.
"Preoccupied with a single leaf, you won’t see the tree. Preoccupied with a single tree, you’ll miss the entire forest. Don't be preoccupied with a single spot. See everything in its entirety...effortlessly. That is what it means...to truly "see." "
I've finished 'Ella Mino Pea'. This was a brilliant little book. Can be read in a few hours. Had me laughing but also a very good allegory for censorship. Also read volume 14 of 'Fullmetal Alchemist: Fullmetal edition' this afternoon.
Next up 'Snake Head' by Peter May. Looking forward to this one.
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