What Are You Reading

WH1 · Mar 25, 2009

Steven Pressfield's, Killing Rommel. A fictional account of a LRDG mission in North Africa in 1942. Thoughtful and well written, easily one of his best. I have never been disappointed by Pressfield's work, particularly Gates of Fire and Legend of Bagger Vance, so much better than the movie, which I enjoyed.

beaucaillou · Mar 25, 2009

Hey Harp, wasn't there a poetry thread around here before? Had quite a nice clip to it, I believe. I saw a Bartender reply to one thread that Poetry wasn't in keeping with a vintage theme, but then I have to wonder about the 'What was the last movie you watched?' thread among many others.

Regardless, here is a piece from a friend that may please some. Published in The New Yorker, August 11, 2008

TROUBLE
by Matthew Dickman

Marilyn Monroe took all her sleeping pills
to bed when she was thirty-six, and Marlon Brando’s daughter
hung in the Tahitian bedroom
of her mother’s house,
while Stanley Adams shot himself in the head. Sometimes
you can look at the clouds or the trees
and they look nothing like clouds or trees or the sky or the ground.
The performance artist Kathy Change
set herself on fire while Bing Crosby’s sons shot themselves
out of the music industry forever.
I sometimes wonder about the inner lives of polar bears. The French
philosopher Gilles Deleuze jumped
from an apartment window into the world
and then out of it. Peg Entwistle, an actress with no lead
roles, leaped off the “H” in the HOLLYWOOD sign
when everything looked black and white
and David O. Selznick was king, circa 1932. Ernest Hemingway
put a shotgun to his head in Ketchum, Idaho
while his granddaughter, a model and actress, climbed the family tree
and overdosed on phenobarbital. My brother opened
thirteen fentanyl patches and stuck them on his body
until it wasn’t his body anymore. I like
the way geese sound above the river. I like
the little soaps you find in hotel bathrooms because they’re beautiful.
Sarah Kane hanged herself, Harold Pinter
brought her roses when she was still alive,
and Louis Lingg, the German anarchist, lit a cap of dynamite
in his own mouth
though it took six hours for him
to die, 1887. Ludwig II of Bavaria drowned
and so did Hart Crane, John Berryman, and Virginia Woolf. If you are
travelling, you should always bring a book to read, especially
on a train. Andrew Martinez, the nude activist, died
in prison, naked, a bag
around his head, while in 1815 the Polish aristocrat and writer
Jan Potocki shot himself with a silver bullet.
Sara Teasdale swallowed a bottle of blues
after drawing a hot bath,
in which dozens of Roman senators opened their veins beneath the water.
Larry Walters became famous
for flying in a Sears patio chair and forty-five helium-filled
weather balloons. He reached an altitude of 16,000 feet
and then he landed. He was a man who flew.
He shot himself in the heart. In the morning I get out of bed, I brush
my teeth, I wash my face, I get dressed in the clothes I like best.
I want to be good to myself.

Michaelshane · Mar 26, 2009

I want to be good to myself too,and I enjoyed that very much.Thanks....

Feraud · Mar 26, 2009

Open Sky: Sonny Rollins and His World of Improvisation .

Marzipan · Mar 26, 2009

Coal: A Human History

and

The Moon is Down - Steinbeck

and

The Norton's Anthology of Children's Literature

Lau Mo · Mar 26, 2009

All I've had time for lately is my phonebook sized textbook, American Architecture.
In fact, I'll be spending tonight staring at my flashcards with pictures of buildings and trying to recall each one's name, architect, location, date and important style elements for my test tomorrow.

irb · Mar 26, 2009

I just finished re-reading The Remains of the Day, and before that Yet Another Book About the Peloponnesian War. I'm unsure of what to read next but this thread appears to be a good list to choose from. *grin*

Spiffy · Mar 27, 2009

Step Right Up-"I'm going to scare the pants off America"-Memoirs of a B Movie Mogul William Castle
-For my undergrad project....it's pretty great, all about the Emerge-O technology used in The House on Haunted Hill and various other scare-marketing gimmicks used in the 50's. Also loads of information about my classical Hollywood husband, Orson Welles.

From Reverence to Rape; The Treatment of Women in the Movies Molly Haskell
-I'm currently devouring all the feminist film theory books in the library....it's such a nice change from the Edison-Studio-New Hollywood-American Indie stuff that's been shoveled down my throat for the last four years....

Harp · Mar 29, 2009

John Boyer's recommended,
Three Outsiders: Pascal, Kierkegaard, Simone Weil.
Kierkegaard was a nemesis back in college, but the other two;
especially Weil are favorites.

just_me · Mar 29, 2009

Death of a Poison Pen by MC Beaton. It's a Hamish Macbeth story.

Lamplight · Mar 29, 2009

Currently reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.

"Skeet" McD · Mar 29, 2009

Perhaps a shameless plug, but....it could be helpful

Lamplight said:
Currently reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.

Dear Lamplight,
I hope you enjoy it! Is this your first reading? It's a great book, and leads directly into ULYSSES: which is an even greater book!

Professionally, my tiny puddle of a pond is.....the music that Joyce wrote into his works...he was a singer himself, and had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the music of his own culture, which he wrote into all his books; the importance of music to the structure of the work grows with each succeeding volume, until by the Wake....well, Joyce's words have BECOME music.

That growing importance of music is well underway in PORTRAIT...and you might find the various materials concerning the songs and Joyce and music on my website valuable. Who knows? you might listen to the clips and order a CD or two, while you were at it.

For what it's worth....here's the URL for the homepage: there's a LOT there:
http://www.james-joyce-music.com/

Enjoy your reading!
"Skeet"

Harp · Mar 29, 2009

Lamplight said:
Currently reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.

Joyce's Dubliners is a collection that those new to his work
can cut their teeth on prior to Portrait and Ulysses.
And his poetry is excellent.
But the most ironic aspect to Joyce is his less-than-full Celtic embrace,
-his agnostic solipsism aside-so Ireland's literary claim on him is tenuous.

"Skeet" McD · Mar 29, 2009

Harp said:
Joyce's Dubliners is a collection that those new to his work
can cut their teeth on prior to Portrait and Ulysses.
And his poetry is excellent.
But the most ironic aspect to Joyce is his less-than-full Celtic embrace,
-his agnostic solipsism aside-so Ireland's literary claim on him is tenuous.

Harp, while what you say regarding Joyce's own viewpoint is true--the irony is that while he spent his life consciously rejecting his native country and his ancestral religion--he spent his artistic career focusing on nothing but those very things. In point of fact, he couldn't escape who he was, no matter how he tried.

And, it seems to me, no matter how one might feel about the statement above, Ireland's literary claim to him is unimpeachable....even if the Irish have mostly wished it were otherwise!

But, whatever one thinks: the works stand on their own.

irb · Mar 30, 2009

[QUOTE="Skeet" McD]Harp, while what you say regarding Joyce's own viewpoint is true--the irony is that while he spent his life consciously rejecting his native country and his ancestral religion--he spent his artistic career focusing on nothing but those very things. In point of fact, he couldn't escape who he was, no matter how he tried. [/QUOTE]

This rather reminds me of an experience a man by the name of Quentin Crisp had in another forum likewise dedicated to those with impeccable tastes. He said, "When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, 'Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?'"

Baron Kurtz · Mar 30, 2009

There is an insanely pretentious section in a book by Anthony Burgess about the language of James Joyce (Joysprick) regarding writing vis a vis lyricism, musicality, the inherent and imposed rhythmic and harmonic qualities of prose. Worth a read.

I just finished reading Calvino's Invisible Cities. As with most of Calvino, i ended it mentally exhausted.

bk

Darhling · Mar 30, 2009

I had Duma Key by Stephen King & The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie with me on my flight home today, started on Salmans book, but since that starts of with a planecrash I quickly switched to the Stephen King novel.. So Duma Key it is!

Diamondback · Mar 30, 2009

Spring issue of Food & Family, Kraft's quarterly cooking magazine. Yeah, it's just one big advertisement, but it's free and occasionally it has something good--and since I'm kinda obsessive-compulsive about recipe collecting...

lol

----------------
Now playing: James Horner - The Laser-Guided Missile
via FoxyTunes

Lamplight · Mar 31, 2009

Skeet, thanks for the link! This is the first time I've read any of Joyce's work, and I'm starting to think I may be in a little over my head. :eusa_doh: However, I really like it so far, even though I'm sure I can't yet fully appreciate it at this point. I will definitely be reading more of his work in the future. I believe my brother has Dubliners and Ulysses, and possibly more.

just_me · Mar 31, 2009

Clapton The Autobiography by guess who. lol lol

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