What Are You Reading

[Miss Golightly]

Do you favor Samuel Beckett? In some aspect he recalls Joyce to mind; though the two are, of course, quite different.
(I'll bet Morse liked Beckett....)

I've never actually read any Beckett - the only work of his I am familiar with is Krapp's Last Tape which I had the pleasure of seeing a few years ago with the wonderful John Hurt at The Gate Theatre here in Dublin. I try to read at least one book by an author to see why they are as lauded as they are - I'm sure I'll get around to some Beckett one of these days!

(I'll bet you're right about Morse too!)

 

[LizzieMaine]

Currently revisiting Lawrence Ritter's "The Glory Of Their Times," one of the definitive examples of 20th Century oral history. It's a compendium of interviews Ritter did with turn-of-the-century baseball players in the early 1960s, when they were men in their eighties and nineties, and even if you don't care about baseball, it remains an absolutely fascinating window into the lives of ordinary people in the 1890-1920 era. It was one of the earliest books in the wave of oral histories that became popular in the sixties and seventies, and remains one of the best.

 

[Slate Shannon]

About a third of the way into In Arabian Nights by Tahir Shah, which I am enjoying as much as the first book I read by him, The Caliph's House.

And since it's still the Samhain season, I'm reading Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts From The Darkside by Brad Steiger.

 

[Harp]

over-rated or not, he was certainly a relatively unique voice at the time.

Pretty much everyone I knew in the US had serious issues - fundamental issues of interpretations - with the ideas of The Existentialists and everyone French who came after.... We may have a cross-Atlantic cultural difference going on with regards to Foucault too?

Agree.
Foucault can certainly be credited for bearing the heat of Kant's torch and the weight of Nietzsche's gauntlet, and his The Order of Things stands as a landmark work.
Americans may have issues with Existentialism; however, Existentialists are themselves divided, and seemingly caught between the empirical and transcendental.

 

[LordBest]

Ring for Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse. Brilliant, as usual.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The March of Time, 1935-1951
by Raymond Fielding
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1978)

A unique journalistic and film phenomenon "The March of Time" appeared monthly in the world's movie houses for sixteen years. The only series in American film history to explore vital social issues, these short documentaries flourished at a time when other institutions, including rival newsreels, carefully eschewed controversy*. Nearly 300 episodes rudely reminded audiences of bread lines, unemployment and political demagoguery, attacking such figures as Huey Long, Gerald L.K. Smith, Father Charles Coughlin, Hitler and Mussolini. The use of reconstructed incidents, some featuring impersonators (much of "Inside Nazi Germany" was actually filmed in New Jersey) also provoked controversy. The series crisis-laden gloomy narration by Westbrook Van Voorhis, its staccato editing, its posture of omniscience and fearlessness -- all became trademarks. Enormously influential in its own day (more than twenty million viewers around the world saw each episode), "The March of Time" has also helped shape the course of television documentaries today.

Raymond Fielding takes us behind the scenes of "The March of Time", portraying its evolution against the backdrop of the Depression and war years. Largely through interviews, Fielding brings to life the extraordinary people who produced the series. Sponsored and underwritten by Time, Inc., "The March of Time" enlisted top talent in the Luce organization. Working impossible hours, fiercely loyal to the concept of the series, talented, imaginative, often brazen, the group soon became a legend in its time. Presiding over the crew was Louis de Rochemont -- a first class journalist and born film maker, and a man of volcanic energy and temperament. The book is de Rochemont's story and Time, Inc.'s as well.


*By way of example, in the 1930s many movie producers and newsreels refused to show Hitler's image on the screen for fear that it would inflame audiences.

 

[John Boyer]

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf, for an upcoming classics book club and;

Holocaust: A History of the Jew's of Europe During the Second World War by Martin Gilbert

 

[mflemming]

The Untouchables by Elliot Ness and Oscar Fraley.

I've been watching the early '60's TV series (better than most of what is on now!) and got interested in the real history.

 

[Unlucky Berman]

While looking for a mug, I found this little "swell" place of amusing retro-futuristic stories and ideas:
Trapped in the Tower of the Brain Thieves
It's a kind of an interactive adventure story set in a future which is inspired by the dreams of the people of the Golden Era and what they may have thought a future would look like. Interesting place with nice graphics.

Besides this I read now once more at home the novel Return form the Stars by Stanislav Lem. I like his works and the thematics he was thinking of, they mostly touch some nice philosophical things to think of even after one has finished the books.

 

[Wally_Hood]

Yesterday, finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. A trip to the library this afternoon to check out "Hallows...", and try to get it read before the new movie comes out.

 

[Michael Carter]

'The German Genius' - Peter Watson

An in-depth look at German culture and society and what shaped it from 1750 to present day.

Only about 30 pages in. Seems pretty good for the intro so far.

 

[HungaryTom]

Finished Dimitrij Merezhkovskij Julianus Apostate - first part of his Antichrist trilogy. Historic novel about Julianus, the emperor who followed Constantinus and returned to Hellenism and was thus condemned as Anti-Christ. Interesting insights into the various philosophy schools, christian heresies and much more. Now I moved to the second part of the trilogy; Leonardo da Vinci.

 

[StetsonHomburg]

The Red Baron

A biography on Manfred's wartime career.

 

[pgoat]

Just finishing An American Tragedy....about to start Profiles in Courage (just in time for Election Day).

 

[Kid Mac]

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Tiger! The Tiger Tank: A British View
edited by David Fletcher
(London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1986)

Of all the tanks that fought during the Second World War the best remembered is the German Tiger. The pride of the Panzer forces, the scourge of the Allies, it was already a legend before the British Army met it in action, and that reputation has survived until the present day. Naturally it fascinated British Military Intelligence who were anxious to learn all they could about it and to capture one if possible.

This book explains how that was done. Based almost entirely on original intelligence reports held in the Tank Museum Library at Bovington Camp, it examines the Tiger in detail from the Allied viewpoint. The reports cover everything from the initial rumours to the ultimate capture and evaluation of a working Tiger tank. Supported by copies of many original drawings and dozens of hitherto unpublished photographs it shows the famous fighting machine from an entirely new angle through the words of soldiers and spies, engineers and prisoners of war.

...and an interesting library sale find:

Football Grounds from the Air: Then & Now
by Aerofilms Limited
(Shepperton, Surrey, UK: Dial House [Ian Allan Publishing, Ltd], 1998)

A collection of aerial photos of the famous football (soccer) grounds of England and Wales, along with the surrounding neighborhood, as they look then and now. As someone who's fascinated by architecture in general and British architecture in particular, this book definitely caught my eye yesterday.

 

[Vintage lover]

"The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith and "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine. So far I can see why both are still respected.

 

[VitaminG]

Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard. Later turned into Jackie Brown by Quentin Tarantino

 

[CharlieB]

The Long Gray Line About the West Point class of 1966.

 

[Miss Golightly]

Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters by Marilyn Monroe.