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Post by sophie on Mar 1, 2021 0:16:50 GMT -5
I did a thesis paper on Middlemarch many centuries ago.. back then I loved it, but I have changed...
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Post by lillielangtry on Mar 1, 2021 10:45:03 GMT -5
I really enjoyed it, but disliked The Mill on the Floss, so am not a wholehearted Eliot fan. As always, I'd say if you're not feeling it, it's OK to put it down!
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Post by tucano on Mar 1, 2021 10:52:34 GMT -5
I remember hating The Mayor of Casterbridge when we had to study it at school, I wonder if I'd like it any better now.
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Post by Liiisa on Mar 1, 2021 12:01:24 GMT -5
I don't understand high schools' obsession with 19th century literature. I really do think that you should start with well-written contemporary works and then let people really keen on Victoriana work their way back.
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Post by lillielangtry on Mar 10, 2021 1:36:04 GMT -5
I took 1Q84 by Haruki Murukami off the free bookshelf down my street, I've read 50 pages and I think I might not carry on.
I have to say it's over 1,000 pages long so that makes me a bit wary of committing to it anyway. I've read a couple of Murukamis in the past (Norwegian Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle) and I really enjoyed them. Since then, however, Ive read various comments about how badly Murukami writes women. That made it a bit hard to ignore the fact that in the first three chapters, the following happens:
- a woman recalls a lesbian experience she had as a teen, much comparing of breasts (this experience may turn out to be central to the plot, but that wasn't apparent in this part) - a man recalls being a very young child and seeing a man who wasn't his father sucking his mother's breasts - the same woman, who has just committed murder, thinks about the size of her own breasts. I'm sure if I'd just killed someone that would be my priority.
I can't read 1,000 pages just looking out for random mentions of breasts, can I?!
So I think I might put it back on the shelf. But I did like those other books of his I read years back, so if anyone has read this and wants to persuade me to give it another chance, feel free!
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Post by Liiisa on Mar 10, 2021 5:33:40 GMT -5
I remember liking "1Q84" - thinking it was maybe a little too long, and yeah, I do have a vague sense of that weird breast stuff, but it was good, and weird, of course. But it's been a while... all I remember is that there's a hole in the woman's (?) yard and this guy keeps climbing down into it? and then a woman from the future or something shows up in his apartment? or maybe that's another book?
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Post by lillielangtry on Mar 10, 2021 5:44:51 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle involves a guy spending quite a lot of time down a hole. But I wouldn't rule out that cropping up in this book too, Murukami has his themes doesn't he? (the Beatles, cats, apparently breasts)
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Post by Liiisa on Mar 10, 2021 7:17:10 GMT -5
Ahh I guess I'm mixing up my weird Murakami novels. Maybe 1Q84 is the one about the strange woman from the future appearing in his apartment... I give up, I don't remember details or even most of the plot of stuff I read (which is why I wasn't an English major).
But yeah the Beatles, but also music in general: I read one where there's lots of jazz, and there's also one (Kafka on the Shore?) where the character listens to Radiohead the whole time. That's a detail I remember because I'm now in a "listening to Radiohead all the time" kind of period in my life too; I should probably reread that one now, I'd probably relate to that character more now than I did when I read it the first time.
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Post by sophie on Mar 10, 2021 10:06:50 GMT -5
I read IQ84 and remember liking it but can’t remember any details at the moment. Reflects on my state of mind I suspect rather than the book.
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Post by Liiisa on Mar 10, 2021 10:17:38 GMT -5
I think that's accurate for me too, sophie. "Uh... weird things in Japan" is the best I can really come up with
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Post by lillielangtry on Mar 14, 2021 4:08:36 GMT -5
I've continued with Murukami (still only about 10% in because it is huge). I am enjoying the story, think the portrayal of women is still pretty bad, but we'll see
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Post by scrubb on Mar 14, 2021 14:45:59 GMT -5
Same as others, I remember liking it but have little recollection of what happened. My only mental picture of it is of characters climbing up onto a bridge.
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Post by Liiisa on Jul 6, 2021 19:10:51 GMT -5
Celeste Headlee, Do Nothing
This is a book telling us how we're all so busy and productive and it's actually not good for us, we need to relax and learn to just do nothing and stop being so driven all the time
She's done research to illustrate things with interesting facts, and she's not wrong, but I got 50 pages into it and was like... I already know all this, why am I wasting my time with this book, which maybe is counter to the spirit of the book? But anyway, I have more interesting things to read, out it goes.
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Post by tzarine on Jul 9, 2021 20:31:56 GMT -5
I read IQ84 and remember liking it but can’t remember any details at the moment. Reflects on my state of mind I suspect rather than the book. i loved iq84 aomame the assassin of rapists was great
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Post by tzarine on Jul 9, 2021 20:33:48 GMT -5
now middlemarch well um so
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Post by mei on Aug 4, 2021 10:45:21 GMT -5
not abandoned completely yet, but definitely put to the side for a long while: The Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.
I love his books, but this one... ugh. I've been trying to read it for weeks, it's a very interesting premise for a story (well, 'interesting' is probably not the right word for a very very near future climate change dystopic story) but it's too political & sciency with too little story and for the moment I need something much more relaxing/entertaining!
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Post by tzarine on Aug 4, 2021 21:54:39 GMT -5
I remember hating The Mayor of Casterbridge when we had to study it at school, I wonder if I'd like it any better now. i liked this when i was in high school & read lots of hardy, but now?
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Post by Liiisa on Aug 5, 2021 15:08:24 GMT -5
mei yes, that book does read rather like a summary of all the climate stuff in my environmental policy degree, but it has a happy ending if you stick with it
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Post by Liiisa on Sept 5, 2021 17:11:40 GMT -5
Clarice Lispector, An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures
The beginning of this book is all unstructured stream of consciousness internal musing by a woman obsessing about what to wear when she gets together with some guy (her professor?), and does she actually want to be in a relationship with him, and etc. I came to the conclusion around page 5 that I didn't care about these people and that reading any further would be a painful experience, so back to the library it goes.
Lispector is a very well-regarded author, so maybe I just picked up the wrong one of her books.
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Post by lillielangtry on Sept 6, 2021 14:25:16 GMT -5
People rave about Lispector, but I read Near to the Wild Heart and I didn't get it either. I'm not really interested in trying any more of hers.
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Post by Liiisa on Sept 6, 2021 15:20:09 GMT -5
People rave about Lispector, but I read Near to the Wild Heart and I didn't get it either. I'm not really interested in trying any more of hers. OK thank you - à chacun son goût I guess
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Post by Liiisa on Oct 30, 2021 8:00:21 GMT -5
My latest abandoned book is Einstein's Monsters by Martin Amis, which is a group of very well-written short stories which are just too depressing for my current mood. It starts with an essay on nuclear war, moves on to violence among the Polish immigrant community in London, and now the third piece appears to be about a disturbed teenager at someone's summer house, and honestly. So I'll pick it back up and finish it sometime, but not today.
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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 1, 2021 10:33:27 GMT -5
I started listening to Midnight's Children (Salman Rushdie) as an audiobook. Possibly audio is not the best medium for such a long novel. I've stopped about halfway through as I found myself choosing to listen to podcasts, music etc rather than the book. And I wasn't 100% keeping up with what was going on. But I didn't hate it or anything, I might go back to it.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 1, 2021 13:33:14 GMT -5
That sounds similar to my experience reading the book, lillie. I found parts of it quite riveting, then got sort of distracted and bored and had to force myself back to the book. Then it would become compelling again. Then tdious again.
I can't say I enjoyed it overall, though it fell on the "worth reading" side for me. Just. I've much preferred the other Rushdie's that I've read, though.
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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 1, 2021 14:12:57 GMT -5
That sounds similar to my experience reading the book, lillie. I found parts of it quite riveting, then got sort of distracted and bored and had to force myself back to the book. Then it would become compelling again. Then tdious again. I can't say I enjoyed it overall, though it fell on the "worth reading" side for me. Just. I've much preferred the other Rushdie's that I've read, though. Ah, would you recommend any in particular?
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Post by scrubb on Nov 1, 2021 14:57:36 GMT -5
I really liked Shalimar the Clown.
Just checked, and that might be the only other one I've read. I think it made me intend to find more by him but I haven't got around to it yet.
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Post by sophie on Nov 1, 2021 20:14:15 GMT -5
I like most of his stuff but loved Haroum and the Sea of Stories which he wrote for his son.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 1, 2021 21:14:29 GMT -5
Midnight's Children!
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Post by scrubb on Nov 1, 2021 21:19:52 GMT -5
Heh. That's the one lillie abandoned...
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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 2, 2021 1:24:38 GMT -5
Yes, but I think listening to it is a very different experience (at least for the first time- a reread, when you already know the characters, is different again because if your attention wanders briefly it doesn't matter)
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