What Are You Reading? Part Deux

[do1you9love?]

I have accumulated a large stash of books I haven't read so this may apply to me

Are you guilty of tsundoku or bibliomania?

I typically don't buy books. I get a lot from the library and free e-reader sites, and I buy King books, then I immediately sit down and read them. So, while I may have a TBR pile in my head, I don't have the piles laying around. But I know that a lot of folks do and it's not something to be ashamed of. I enjoyed the article. And I especially found this part funny!

 

[fljoe0]

I typically don't buy books. I get a lot from the library and free e-reader sites, and I buy King books, then I immediately sit down and read them. So, while I may have a TBR pile in my head, I don't have the piles laying around. But I know that a lot of folks do and it's not something to be ashamed of. I enjoyed the article. And I especially found this part funny!

I do intend to read every book I buy but there's just too many.

 

[fljoe0]

...they sounded like party games until I read the article....

You drink a shot and yell TSUNDOKU!

 

[do1you9love?]

You drink a shot and yell TSUNDOKU!

I'm in!!

 

[Coolallosaurus]

Not a fan of just Victorian literature but I do like the old classics. I am hoping to be brave enough to tackle Joyce's 'Ulysses' in the next year or two.

Same. I am more of a 20th century Americanist, but one of my advisors works in Victorian studies, so I had an exam list dedicated to mostly Victorian stuff that I had never read. I was surprised by how much I liked the reading.

Yes, definitely tackle Ulysses!!!! It looks totally intimidating, but I found it more approachable when I realized this canonical work of literary modernism was actually just one enormous joke about masturbation, poop, and farts (Joyce was such a weird cat, more proof in his personal letters). The novel is brilliant, but I always find it funny that Joyce wrote a text full of bathroom humor and managed to get a bunch of academics to talk about many of those jokes in *the* most serious way possible. Don Gifford's Ulysses Annotated is really helpful for reference especially to explain all of Joyce's little winks and nods to obscure stuff. I took a seminar where we spent the entire semester reading Ulysses, and Gifford's annotations were invaluable. If possible, try to plan your read around June 16th. Your local area might have some Bloomsday festivities that you can use to either mark the start of your reading or celebrate the end. If you don't have anything nearby, maybe we can set up a thread on SKMB and throw a Bloomsday celebration!

 

[Coolallosaurus]

Its ,I think, a 6-book series. Its wellresearched throughout. She has read alot about Cromagnons and neanderthals and it shows. The first book is very good but it goes downward from there.. The third is OK, The second and the sixth are boring, the fourth and fifth are passable but not more. They are in my field so i enjoyed them but the longer the series goes on the more repetitive it gets. And then, of course, it the boring sexscenes that is there throughout from book two onwards. I liked The Inheritors by William Golding more from that time (Cromagnon/Neanderthal metting).

Thanks for the recommendation! I will have to check out Clan of the Cave Bear and Golding's The Inheritors. I read about the inheritors in a book on theory of mind, but never pursued the novel. It would be nice to match the analysis with the work of fiction.

You've posted about reading pandemic literature. Have you read Priscilla Wald's Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative? It's nonfiction, cultural studies, but provides some interesting insight into the way real outbreaks influence narrative and popular culture.

 

[Doc Creed]

Same. I am more of a 20th century Americanist, but one of my advisors works in Victorian studies, so I had an exam list dedicated to mostly Victorian stuff that I had never read. I was surprised by how much I liked the reading.

Yes, definitely tackle Ulysses!!!! It looks totally intimidating, but I found it more approachable when I realized this canonical work of literary modernism was actually just one enormous joke about masturbation, poop, and farts (Joyce was such a weird cat, more proof in his personal letters). The novel is brilliant, but I always find it funny that Joyce wrote a text full of bathroom humor and managed to get a bunch of academics to talk about many of those jokes in *the* most serious way possible. Don Gifford's Ulysses Annotated is really helpful for reference especially to explain all of Joyce's little winks and nods to obscure stuff. I took a seminar where we spent the entire semester reading Ulysses, and Gifford's annotations were invaluable. If possible, try to plan your read around June 16th. Your local area might have some Bloomsday festivities that you can use to either mark the start of your reading or celebrate the end. If you don't have anything nearby, maybe we can set up a thread on SKMB and throw a Bloomsday celebration!

I have read Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I have Ulysses on my Kindle but haven't been in the mood to begin reading it.

 

[Keith72]

Same. I am more of a 20th century Americanist, but one of my advisors works in Victorian studies, so I had an exam list dedicated to mostly Victorian stuff that I had never read. I was surprised by how much I liked the reading.

Yes, definitely tackle Ulysses!!!! It looks totally intimidating, but I found it more approachable when I realized this canonical work of literary modernism was actually just one enormous joke about masturbation, poop, and farts (Joyce was such a weird cat, more proof in his personal letters). The novel is brilliant, but I always find it funny that Joyce wrote a text full of bathroom humor and managed to get a bunch of academics to talk about many of those jokes in *the* most serious way possible. Don Gifford's Ulysses Annotated is really helpful for reference especially to explain all of Joyce's little winks and nods to obscure stuff. I took a seminar where we spent the entire semester reading Ulysses, and Gifford's annotations were invaluable. If possible, try to plan your read around June 16th. Your local area might have some Bloomsday festivities that you can use to either mark the start of your reading or celebrate the end. If you don't have anything nearby, maybe we can set up a thread on SKMB and throw a Bloomsday celebration!

Trinity college Dublin always have Bloomsday activites, with people living out the day in the clothes and the style of the day. In Henry St, Dublin, There is a statue of James Joyce.

 

[Coolallosaurus]

I have read Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I have Ulysses on my Kindle but haven't been in the mood to begin reading it.

Yeah, it's definitely one of those books you work yourself up into reading, but so worth it! If you can find another person, or group of people to read it with it's actually really fun (plus, it's really nice to have someone else to discuss the absolute brilliance and super weird parts with). You will see some familiar faces from Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in Ulysses, if that's any incentive to dive in. Also, there are cats. Joyce had a thing for cats.

 

[Kurben]

Thanks for the recommendation! I will have to check out Clan of the Cave Bear and Golding's The Inheritors. I read about the inheritors in a book on theory of mind, but never pursued the novel. It would be nice to match the analysis with the work of fiction.

You've posted about reading pandemic literature. Have you read Priscilla Wald's Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative? It's nonfiction, cultural studies, but provides some interesting insight into the way real outbreaks influence narrative and popular culture.

I havent read any nonfiction on the pandemic subject. Quite some fiction though. They can be very different. Some are just random outbursts where the infection spreads, others are intentionally spread in some weird way and by some weird motive. Then there are those that marry the zombiegenre with the pandemic genre, Like World War Z, and manages that. Jonathan Maberry has also done that. On the whole i think i prefer the randow outburst thing before the others. They often have a nature is bigger than any of us theme to them.

 

[doowopgirl]

Yeah, it's definitely one of those books you work yourself up into reading, but so worth it! If you can find another person, or group of people to read it with it's actually really fun (plus, it's really nice to have someone else to discuss the absolute brilliance and super weird parts with). You will see some familiar faces from Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in Ulysses, if that's any incentive to dive in. Also, there are cats. Joyce had a thing for cats.

Dubliners is a good collection of short stories. Ulysses is a hard read until you get in the vibe. But worth the fight.

 

[doowopgirl]

I'm reading the Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Very gothic and atmospheric. Read one of hers called Bellman and Black ages ago. Also a real cracker.

 

[Kurben]

I just finished a reread of Dance Macabre. Now i feel there are some books and movies i ought to read/see. That recommendation list....!!!!!

 

[Neesy]

I'm reading the Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Very gothic and atmospheric. Read one of hers called Bellman and Black ages ago. Also a real cracker.

Welcome back!

 

[doowopgirl]

Welcome back!

Good to be here. We had a great three days in NYC after the Kon and was so wrecked it took days to feel normal.

 

[Doc Creed]

 

[kingricefan]

Am reading Cup Of Gold by John Steinbeck. I like it. It's his first novel so it doesn't quite have that 'Steinbeck' feel to it but it's there beneath the surface if you look for it.

 

[morgan]

Finished reading Josie and Jack. Another great book by Kelly Braffet. She writes such dark stories and it always makes me wonder how she accomplishes that level of melancholy. If I didn't know better, I would believe her to be a damaged person with a tortured soul. Amazing imagination and talent.

Last Seen Leaving is my favorite book of hers so far. Save Yourself was even darker than Josie and Jack.

Started Alert by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge a few months ago, but set it aside. The last collab of theirs I read, I only finished out of curiosity - some parts were so unbelievable that it bordered on comedic. Can't remember the name of it now. I am not around the majority of my books at the moment, so will try Alert one more time. If I'm still feeling this way after a few more chapters, I will re-read Bag of Bones for the fifth time.

 

[GNTLGNT]

...this.....and it's absolutely fascinating......

 

[Dana Jean]

Finished reading Josie and Jack. Another great book by Kelly Braffet. She writes such dark stories and it always makes me wonder how she accomplishes that level of melancholy. If I didn't know better, I would believe her to be a damaged person with a tortured soul. Amazing imagination and talent.

Last Seen Leaving is my favorite book of hers so far. Save Yourself was even darker than Josie and Jack.

Started Alert by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge a few months ago, but set it aside. The last collab of theirs I read, I only finished out of curiosity - some parts were so unbelievable that it bordered on comedic. Can't remember the name of it now. I am not around the majority of my books at the moment, so will try Alert one more time. If I'm still feeling this way after a few more chapters, I will re-read Bag of Bones for the fifth time.

Love Kelly's books. Read them all and looking forward to her new one.