Over the past two weeks, I've taken quite a liking to the work of Haruki Murakami. I've read: The Strange Library, South of the Border West of the Sun, After Dark, and now I'm working on Kafka on the Shore. If anyone else has read anything by him, I'd love to have someone to chat with. I think he's a terrific writer!
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Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?
- Thread starter Huntn
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No, I haven't - in fact, until you mentioned it, I hadn't even heard of it. In any case, thanks a lot, I'll keep an eye out for it.
As it happens, I spent over two years in the Caucasus region, and know it pretty well.
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Agreed. She is indeed a most interesting lady, who has led a most adventurous life and has written some extraordinarily interesting (and well written) travel books.
If she tried to take her daughter on the trips in today time, she would probably be charged with abuse..lol! I would not mind spending a evening listening to her stories.
That aspect - possible problems about taking her daughter with her these days - hadn't occurred to me. I suspect that it came from an adventurous spirit, a lack of money or other child minding options, and a belief that the best place for her daughter to be was in her company. And, in those circumstances, who is to say that she was wrong?
Now, for what it is worth, while I myself haven't met her personally, I have met - and I do know - people with whom she is very friendly and they report that she is terrific company, and a genuine 'free spirit'.
Her daughter seemed to enjoy the adventures, so I for one think it was great for her. 'Free Spirit' is a understatement!
I just downloaded this book on my iPhone. I've not yet started it but it looks interesting
Life as we knew it.
![LifeasWeKnewit.png]()
A story about an asteroid smashing into the moon that will cause the world to end. There's a companion novel that I'm looking forward to it as well. This story is set in rural America and the next novel: The dead and the gone, which details the same climate devastation but this time in New York.
I was tempted to read the second book first but I'll do it in the right order
Life as we knew it.
A story about an asteroid smashing into the moon that will cause the world to end. There's a companion novel that I'm looking forward to it as well. This story is set in rural America and the next novel: The dead and the gone, which details the same climate devastation but this time in New York.
I was tempted to read the second book first but I'll do it in the right order
I just finished this book and I can't stop thinking about it. Seriously, everyone should read it. It's very brilliant and very emotional.
I'm now starting "The Julian Chapter" which is an exclusive chapter from the novel.
a classic all time favorite of mine...
and a soon to be classic all time fave...
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what i've heard of this novel it brings to mind, for me anyway, the film war games.
An outstanding book, - I cannot praise it highly enough - - one of those rare works of literature that is both a flawless masterpiece - a superlative example of deceptively plain but utterly outstanding English prose writing and a devastating piece of analytical political writing and searing philosophical insight.
One of my all time favourites, and one that I used to instruct my students to read again and again.
I finished Animal Farm yesterday night. Like a lot of you here, I liked it very much. It's fascinating how Orwell managed to deliver a powerful message through a story that is fairly easy to read and filled with allegories that are quite simple to understand. I especially liked how he portrayed the theme of "knowledge is power" and how education can be used as a weapon. It's a good fable that I'm sure also children can enjoy but won't, I think, actually get what it's really about. On the surface it's a book about animals taking over a farm, I think this is an entertaining plot for young readers anyway
I finished Animal Farm yesterday night. Like a lot of you here, I liked it very much. It's fascinating how Orwell managed to deliver a powerful message through a story that is fairly easy to read and filled with allegories that are quite simple to understand. I especially liked how he portrayed the theme of "knowledge is power" and how education can be used as a weapon. It's a good fable that I'm sure also children can enjoy but won't, I think, actually get what it's really about. On the surface it's a book about animals taking over a farm, I think this is an entertaining plot for young readers anyway
To my mind, this work is one of those almost transcendental classics; it is a work of philosophical, political - and prose - perfection. Not a word is out of place, and every word is exquisitely considered and perfectly placed.
Indeed, it is written in such a deceptively plain prose that people think it is 'easy'. This is because the clarity of language supports the searing insight of the moral and political message that the story wishes to convey. Likewise, - on the surface - it reads almost like a fable, one of those fairy tales, or stories, where a core moral lesson came cloaked in a deceptively easy narrative.
However, on a closer reading, you realise that you are reading the work of an absolute master of language, a person who can place a word, or adjective, or nuance so precisely that you wonder how this concept was ever even expressed before Orwell wrote about it.
In fact, it is so good that some of what he wrote in that book came to find a home in everyday speech - because nobody before or since was able to express it better.
It is a masterpiece of twentieth century literature, sheer narrative chutpaz, and political and philosophical insight. It is also about ideals and revolutions betrayed, the abuse of power, the corrosive corruption of unaccountable absolute power and a devastating analysis of both the power and abuse of ideology in relationships of power. And the dynamics of show trials, and the subversion of belief systems are all savagely indicted. A work of unadulterated sheer literary brilliance.
Ah, excellent. I have read that book.
Do, please, let me know what you think of it when you have finished with it.
I will, by all means. I have read some extracts just the other day and decided to read it.
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Yesterday's post - (I was away at meetings all day, and so only saw it when I arrived home late last night) - contained a book called 'The Rise of Islamic State - Isis And The New Sunni Revolution' by Patrick Cockburn, whom I know to be a very fine journalist and an excellent writer and analyst.
Despite the title (on a topic that very badly needs to be thoroughly examined and deeply thought about) this is a nice, unthreatening looking book, not too chunky, and with double spacing (restful for my ageing eyes) on the impressively thick and reassuringly solid paper pages ..
Physically, I like a good, well put together book, one where no expense was spared in producing something that has a nice heft in the hand .
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Excellent. I look forward to a good discussion on the matter.
Despite the title (on a topic that very badly needs to be thoroughly examined and deeply thought about) this is a nice, unthreatening looking book, not too chunky, and with double spacing (restful for my ageing eyes) on the impressively thick and reassuringly solid paper pages ..
Physically, I like a good, well put together book, one where no expense was spared in producing something that has a nice heft in the hand .
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Excellent. I look forward to a good discussion on the matter.
still working on this. i really do like it. only 207 pages in so...
if i didn't know it was written by a japanese author, i would guess it was written by a japanese author.
the narrative seems to wander a bit... like my post does.
spoiler below. i thought we had spoiler tags on here, no?
i figured the cat disappearing would lead us to finding out his wife was cheating...not that they have anything to do with each other.
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Currently reading Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. I've actually never read anything by him before. Although the plot can be hard to follow with his rambling, elliptical explorations of characters, his style is undeniably readable.
Another book arrived in the post on a matter of topical interest.
This one is called 'Temptations of Power: Islamists & Illiberal Democracy In A New Middle East', and it is written by Shadi Hamid.
I'll settle into them both over the next few days.
This one is called 'Temptations of Power: Islamists & Illiberal Democracy In A New Middle East', and it is written by Shadi Hamid.
I'll settle into them both over the next few days.