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What are you reading these days?
25 May 2014
4.35pm
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Funny Paper
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I finally finished Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880).  It’s an amazing story spanning many years in the life of a French guy, beginning when he’s 18 and ending many years later, after he’s gone through so much — success in school, work, finding many lady loves along the way (including a rich woman he marries for her social status and money) — but all along the real thing nagging him and driving him is his true love that happened “at first sight”, with a woman married to another man. 

She also loves him, but for various complicated reasons, they can never truly be together, except for one brief period of time of a few days.  Then, interwoven with this poignant love story is a story about how France was going through a tumultuous time in the late 1840s that would lead to their second Revolution , when idealism and socialism were in the air, as well as their opposites, animating people in different ways.  Amid all this, Flaubert implies heavily that romantic love is ultimately more important than politics.

Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...

25 May 2014
4.39pm
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Starr Shine?
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Fanfiction 

https://youtu.be/52nwiTs7bk8

Brainwashed by RadiantCowbells.

If you can't log in and can't use the forum go here and someone will help you out.

25 May 2014
6.42pm
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AppleScruffJunior
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Annadog40 said
Fanfiction 

What kind? It better not be something dirty, we’ve got a ban on dirty things for a while a-hard-days-night-george-10

Me, myself and I are wondering what to read next:

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Death Rites by Hannah Kent

or The Road by Cormac McCarthy

T’is difficult!

 

INTROVERTS UNITE! Separately....in your own homes!

                 ***

Make Love, Not Wardrobes!

                ***

"Stop throwing jelly beans at me"- George Harrison

25 May 2014
6.51pm
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Starr Shine?
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^ Gen fics mostly and a few troll fics

 

You should read Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets cause that’s what Iam reading right now

https://youtu.be/52nwiTs7bk8

Brainwashed by RadiantCowbells.

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25 May 2014
7.00pm
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AppleScruffJunior
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Annadog40 said
^ Gen fics mostly and a few troll fics

 

You should read Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets cause that’s what Iam reading right now

I’m going to reread all 7 books next year as a metaphor for the ending of my childhood a-hard-days-night-george-10

I read The Philosopher’s Stone when I was 7 and I’m certain I’ll be in tears at the last line of The Deathly Hallows at the age of 17.

All was well.

 

INTROVERTS UNITE! Separately....in your own homes!

                 ***

Make Love, Not Wardrobes!

                ***

"Stop throwing jelly beans at me"- George Harrison

25 May 2014
7.41pm
Father McCartney
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AppleScruffJunior said

Annadog40 said
Fanfiction 

Me, myself and I are wondering what to read next:

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Death Rites by Hannah Kent

or The Road by Cormac McCarthy

T’is difficult!

The Road is stunning. Beautiful, bleak and profound at once. Even better on second reading.

The Count of Monte Cristo is the very definition of a page-turner. A huge book, but you’ll rip through it.

25 May 2014
7.55pm
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AppleScruffJunior
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I’m thinking The Count of Monte Cristo as well, then Death Rites and in conclusion The Road. I have so much to read after them I want to read:

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest- Ken Kesey

American Psycho- Bret Easton Ellis

When I was five, I killed myself- Howard Buten

Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America – A Memoir- Elizabeth Wurtzel

Girl, Interrupted- Susanna Kaysen

 

Christ what depressing titles! 

 

INTROVERTS UNITE! Separately....in your own homes!

                 ***

Make Love, Not Wardrobes!

                ***

"Stop throwing jelly beans at me"- George Harrison

25 May 2014
8.31pm
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Starr Shine?
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How about Dante’s Divine Comedy? 

https://youtu.be/52nwiTs7bk8

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25 May 2014
8.34pm
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AppleScruffJunior
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It’s on the list, The Divine Comedy also inspired Robert Frost’s rhyming scheme in his famous poem ‘Acquainted With The Night’. 

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain — and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
A luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

 

I can’t be the only one who loves the phrase “watchman on his beat”.

 

INTROVERTS UNITE! Separately....in your own homes!

                 ***

Make Love, Not Wardrobes!

                ***

"Stop throwing jelly beans at me"- George Harrison

27 May 2014
5.27am
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Jimi Hendrix: Starting at Zero – His Own Story

It’s a collection of interviews, letters, diaries etc that are woven together to make this feel like an autobiography. It really makes you get inside the head of this man.

"White Album - My joint-fave Beatles album along with Revolver. They show the two sides of Beatles. Revolver's very controlled - even though it's also very innovative. The White Album's playful and almost ramshackle. It's like a scrapbook kept by a genius. Fantastic stuff."

6 June 2014
12.47am
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In my English class, we’re preparing for the final exam by practicing reading comprehension questions. Usually the passages that go along with these questions aren’t anything special. Today, however, I encountered a short story that I’d like to share. It’s called “The Hospital Window”; here it is:

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.

 Every afternoon, when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside. The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite details, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine this picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon, the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man could not hear the band, he could see it in his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days, weeks and months passed. One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone. Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window besides the bed.

It faced a blank wall.

The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.

She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.”

—Anonymous

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Starr Shine?, IveJustSeenAFaceo
6 June 2014
5.27pm
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IveJustSeenAFaceo
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I’ve finished A Clash Of Kings and got halfway through A Storm Of Swords since I was last on! I found A Feast For Crows for $3 at a yard sale (along with a real Buffalo Sabres jersey for only $10! Those are like $200 if you buy them from an actual store.).

Just passed the Red Wedding the other night, that was sad. Fantastically written though. These books rule.

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12 June 2014
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Busily Browsing Britannica.

As some of you may know I am an encyclopaedia (or encyclopedia) buff – I have at least 6 sets of them around the house, not counting my facsimile 1st edition of Britannica.  The new 2014 Britannica Book of the Year just arrived so I will be busy browsing for some time – starting with the article on the 50th anniversary of Beatlemania that I mentioned in another post :)

http://www.britannica.com/blog…..atlemania/

==> trcanberra and hongkonglady - Together even when not (married for those not in the know!) <==

12 June 2014
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I have started reading ‘Paul McCartney – Behind the scene’. a-hard-days-night-paul-8

I'm just a nowhere man, sitting in my nowhere land.. 

12 June 2014
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Now on Feast for Crows…

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23 June 2014
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I finally got “The Beatles Anthology” I’ve waited for so long and now I finally got it, yay!

I didn’t expect it to be that big, but I am almost halfway already! It’s really interesting.

25 June 2014
6.54am
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Beatleva said
I finally got “The Beatles Anthology” I’ve waited for so long and now I finally got it, yay!

I didn’t expect it to be that big, but I am almost halfway already! It’s really interesting.

That’s a good one (and it is huge).  I’ve never read through the whole thing chronologically, to be honest.  I usually just flip through it and read bits and pieces.  I’ve attempted to read the whole thing in order before, but I usually don’t get very far.

 

Anyway, at the current moment, I’m reading…

Off The Road: My Years With Cassady, Kerouac, and Ginsberg by Carolyn Cassady

…for research for a paper that I’m writing.

I'm Necko.  I'm like Ringo except I wear necklaces.

I'm also ewe2 on weekends.

Most likely to post things that make you go hmm... 2015, 2016, 2017. 

10 July 2014
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Struggling to get through ‘On The Road’ by Jack Kerouac.

The story itself is alright but of course the library decides to give me an edition of the book where it is entirely in the scroll form Kerouac wrote it in i.e. there is NO paragraphs- just 350 pages of long, long text.

The lack of chapters doesn’t bother me but it is so visually unappealing and difficult to get through, it’s really turning me off. I don’t know if I’ll finish it and if I don’t, I’ll buy a normal edition with bloody paragraphs!

 

Also got some more books off the library (in order I intend to read them in):

Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust- Lyn Smith

The Virgin Suicides- Jeffrey Eugenides 

The Road- Cormac McCarthy

Summer of my German Soldier- Bette Green (don’t know anything about this book, I just picked it up read the back and the first paragraph said “what the hell not” and chucked it into the bag. It does have a cool cover though).

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time- Mark Haddon

 

Also bought some books in good ol’ Germany (all marked with ‘*’ are in German)

The Catcher in the Rye- J.D Salinger (having checked this out about 7 times over the past 4 years, I finally have my own copy)

The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald 

Felidae*-Akif Pirincci 

The Picture of Dorian Grey- Oscar Wilde

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn- Mark Twain

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland- Lewis Carroll (same as Catcher but about 20 times over the last 8 years :P, it sadly got damaged on the flight back so it’s a bit crumpled :( )

Anne Frank Tagebuch* (No prizes for what this is)

Lady Chatterly’s Lover- D.H Lawrence

The Pleasures of the Damned- Charles Bukowski (my favourite poet)

 

As ye can guess I saw classics going for €4 each, my wallet took a hard hit. Should keep me going for 2 months or so a-hard-days-night-george-10

 

INTROVERTS UNITE! Separately....in your own homes!

                 ***

Make Love, Not Wardrobes!

                ***

"Stop throwing jelly beans at me"- George Harrison

10 July 2014
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Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky which I hope to finish reading one day. Idk why do I become a lousy reader when it comes to classics.ahdn_paul_01

10 July 2014
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I’m still reading that Revolver book by Robert Rodriguez. Like 98% of all books i’ve ever read i put it down for 10 minutes and returned 2 months later.

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

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