Tough reads & why they're tough for you?

[yiyiyi]

Friend recommended "Quincunx" to me as one of his favorite books, and it sounds great...but it's 800 pages of tiny print and has a labrynthian plot - feel like I need to wait for a time I have a week off work to even start it!

"An extraordinary modern novel in the Victorian tradition, Charles Palliser has created something extraordinary--a plot within a plot within a plot of family secrets, mysterious clues, low-born birth, high-reaching immorality, and, always, always the fog-enshrouded, enigmatic character of 19th century -- London itself."

[MadJohnShaft]

Cool - that sounds interesting, no Kindle edition though, the fuckers.   I will suffer purchasing it.  People must really hate it - I just bought it used on Amazon for a penny.


I'm on a medieval to victorian literature kick now -  I should be done with the two Sir Richard F Burton travel to mecca books soonish, the I've got Tristram Shandy to plow through and maybe tackle Swann's Way again.  I'm trying to resolve that it's okay just to dip in and out of tough reads, rather than the daunting task of thinking you need to read the whole thing.  The free books app has 1000s of classics so it's a cheap mission too. It's okay to let the language wash over you in a way, instead of deciphering it like there's a test later.  I know I should read The Brothers Karamazov and fucking Kafka before I die, but ... eh....


This came in the post today: Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: The Strife of Love in a Dream  by
Francesco Colonna from 1499

Read it? I can't even read the fucking title!





Also, Danny G really would like to express that he hopes you come back

[yiyiyi]

Francesco Colonna is a linguist's dream (or nightmare, for more grammatical readers); what a great find! 

Medieval literature is a favorite era of mine - so many medieval books started life as ballads that had been handed down through the centuries and were finally committed to paper, and the best of them retain that musicality and free-ranging feel - and most often, a great, riotous sense of humor. You are right about dipping into a tough read and not feeling you need to read from page 1 to the end. With something like medieval lit, many modern readers find it hard to get past old English when they see it in print because they immediately assume that it is formal and scholarly in tone and subject (when it may be all about fart jokes and monster-slaying).

Always wanted to read the Sir Richard Burton Mecca books, and the African ones too, but haven't yet. I need to get on the ball.  When you're done with the Mecca books I'd love to hear what you think.

Now excuse me; I need to go stalk Danny G's fan pages on Facebook.

[MadJohnShaft]

In the Burton he finally got to Mecca at 50% through vol 2 - I've watched that Nat Geo documentary on The Haj which is helpful to decode what is going on.

He just got the haircut and threw the pebbles at the devil rock, and I thought 'ah ha, I remember that from TV'

[RageofKlugman]

Posted by: MadJohnShaft




Insert Quote

Cool - that sounds interesting, no Kindle edition though, the fuckers.   I will suffer purchasing it.  People must really hate it - I just bought it used on Amazon for a penny.


I'm on a medieval to victorian literature kick now -  I should be done with the two Sir Richard F Burton travel to mecca books soonish, the I've got Tristram Shandy to plow through and maybe tackle Swann's Way again.   

I've very nearly finished Tristram Shandy (onto the 8th volume out of 9), and it's been a bit of a slog. It's definitely funny in places, but my overwhelming thought is that it was probably much more amusing in the 1760s than it is now.

[yiyiyi]

I've very nearly finished Tristram Shandy (onto the 8th volume out of 9), and it's been a bit of a slog. It's definitely funny in places, but my overwhelming thought is that it was probably much more amusing in the 1760s than it is now.

Whew! Never finished it, or Rabelais' "Gargantua & Pantagruel" which has been mocking me from the bookshelf for a decade. You guys are better men than I am.   

On a completely different note, my brother gave me Michael Ondaatje's "Divisadero" a couple of weeks ago, and I just can't make headway with it. Have really enjoyed many of his other books, and figured I'd love this one since it is set in Northern California where I live...but I just don't like any of the characters enough to care about them. Too bad; I don't know if I'll ever finish this one.

[RacerX]

Any book that's not printed in large type is a tough read for me these days.

Gotta get some reading glasses.

[MadJohnShaft]

You got that right - I hate wearing glasses and my initial main reason for loving the Kindle/iPad so much is being able to make the font as big as you need to, and the back-lighting on the iPad for reading at night.




Tree of Codes is a tough read but I don't think you're really suppose to read it...






Which reminds me - Vol 5 of A Humument comes out this week....I guess he added this slide show of the 4th edition in celebration

http://humument.com/gallery/slideshow.html

I bought a signed vol 4. cause I am a dork.

[yiyiyi]

http://humument.com/gallery/slideshow.html

That's really stunning; I'd never seen these or heard of them! Damn it, this thread is going to be bad for my wallet.

[MadJohnShaft]

My Quincunx arrived today and looking at it sitting on top of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - it seems like I've finally lost it and someone should call Belview.

I will get through this and read those instead of that Steve Jobs book and that stupid girl with the Dragon tattoo thing.

[The Shocker]

My Quincunx arrived today and looking at it sitting on top of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - it seems like I've finally lost it and someone should call Belview.

I will get through this and read those instead of that Steve Jobs book and that stupid girl with the Dragon tattoo thing.

Shaft you have inspired me to start a new thread, no BS.

[MadJohnShaft]

Those two books are on paper.  The kindle on top might hit the floor so I can't get at them

[Ryno]

Just got ahold of "Riddley Walker".
Only two chapters in. Had to read them twice already. My cuz who passed the book on to me swears it gets easier and the book is really good.  Anyone else?

[frobbert]

Maybe that complete and unabridged version of Moby Dick wasn't such a hot idea. I mean damn...

[GodShifter]

Skip the whaling industry shit in Moby Dick, and it's awesome.

[frobbert]

That is indeed what I meant. The whaling shit is pretty tiresome...

[MadJohnShaft]

There are so many land locked classics.

[I,Galactus]

That is indeed what I meant. The whaling shit is pretty tiresome...

I found it fascinating... Then again I read a lot of technical manuals and am always amazed what lengths people will go to for energy sources, be it solar, nuclear, or clean-burning whale oil.

/nerd 

[AgentofOblivion]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Pygmy by C. Palahniuk.  That broken english shit was hard to get used to, but once you figure out a handful of his phrases that repeat often and the structure he uses it becomes much easier.

For those that struggled with Atlas Shrugged but are interested in her thoughts/philosophy, I recommend reading her non-fiction book The Virtue of Selfishness.  The beauty of Atlas Shrugged is that she demonstrates with a fictional story how liberal economics fail human kind and don't achieve their touted goals and simultaneously show how a selfish, capitalistic ethos can be not only successful, but more moral than its self-sacrifice lauding nemesis.  However, if you're capable and willing to hear the arguments directly instead of having them wrapped in a (very) long story, her non-fiction is the way to go.

The book that has cursed me is Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury.  I've told myself more than once that, "Fuck it, this is the time I'm going to get through this damn book," out of pride more than anything.  But I can't.  I don't care how wonderful of an achievement it is that he wrote the first third from the perspective of mentally retarded person.  It is slow, uninteresting, and not worth it.  When your reader is 60 or more pages in and still has no clue what the hell is going on or what the sentences are even saying, you have failed.  Piss on Faulkner.

[I,Galactus]

The book that has cursed me is Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury.  I've told myself more than once that, "Fuck it, this is the time I'm going to get through this damn book," out of pride more than anything.  But I can't.  I don't care how wonderful of an achievement it is that he wrote the first third from the perspective of mentally retarded person.  It is slow, uninteresting, and not worth it.  When your reader is 60 or more pages in and still has no clue what the hell is going on or what the sentences are even saying, you have failed.  Piss on Faulkner.

Yeah, Faulkner in general for me.  Had to read "As I Lay Dying" in school and fucking hated it.  All the characters were awful people and I didn't care about them or any of their stories.  "I should've beveled the edges becuase a beveled edge is vastly to superior to a square edge becuase blah blah fucking blah."

[khoomeizhi]

That is indeed what I meant. The whaling shit is pretty tiresome...

I found it fascinating... Then again I read a lot of technical manuals and am always amazed what lengths people will go to for energy sources, be it solar, nuclear, or clean-burning whale oil.

/nerd 

as a science nerd, i always think all the moby dick natural history sections are hilarious, because it's clear he's pulling shit out of his ass.

[I,Galactus]

  fooled me I guess.

[Dunedin]

I didn't find it that difficult and absolutely loved it; but lots of people have mentioned Ian M Banks Feersum Endjin as a tough read, mostly because the main characters dialogue is spelt phonetically throughout the book.

Banks' vision of a far future society is as bizarre as a great piece of sci fi should be, and his description of the cybernetic afterlife "the Crypt" is stunning.

[StonedAge]

Currently reading Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Interesting but I am doing an awful lot of re-reading and it is long.

[MadJohnShaft]

I can't get anything started. I'm thinking of trying Middlemarch and hope I can get into on a flight to Vegas on Friday