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Books/Reading - It's been a while

I started reading 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde. I had no idea he was so prolific.
 
^ he only wrote 10 books and 9 plays which is not really that prolific.

are you enjoying 'the picture of dorian gray' - it's a long time since i've read it but it is a classic?

alasdair
 
i'm slowly working on chuck palahniuk's stranger than fiction. it's a collection of (true, mostly) short stories. i don't really have time to get involved in a novel now, so i'm reading a short story or two when i get a chance. short stories are also great for people just starting to get back into reading- short, but complete piece of the author's work. and he's not 'girly' ;)
 
alasdairm said:
^ he only wrote 10 books and 9 plays which is not really that prolific.

are you enjoying 'the picture of dorian gray' - it's a long time since i've read it but it is a classic?

alasdair
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I thought he'd written more then that. My mistake.

And yes I am enjoying it immensely.
 
I loved Enders game, the entire 8 book series. Its not the most complicated reader level, but some of the later books get way more in-depth. Deals with genocide, space, time travel, geniuses, combat, politics, war an entire range of all the things i'm interested in. Id say its Sci-fi/fantasy and its by Orson Scott Card who is a great sci-fi auther imo.
 
just sold all my books. was only about 170. guess i've done a good job of giving away already-read books in life. so glad i only had three text books, because they were worth nothing i got a good chunk selling them during and right after school.

not including photo books and back issues of photography/fashion magazines. i'm not ready to address that issue.

i was anti-ebook for a while, but the built in reference books and ability to take notes in library books is too good.
 
ouch! even The Bloody Chamber? I am reading Lectures on Russian Literature - Vladimir Nabokov, a couple assorted art criticism texts for work, and The Collected Stories of Nikolai Gogol which even with my shitty shitty base level Russian I can tell is a horrible translation and I think I'm going to get a different copy. It's that offensive. Further reading about why this couple's Russian translations are so damning. I've read a little of Nabokov's personal translations for books he taught at Cornell. I weep knowing I won't ever get the chance.
 
not The Bloody Chamber. i’m trying not to keep items for sentimental value, but it wasn’t on any of my bookshelves. so i didn’t have to decide its fate. sold my main bookshelf as well.

i hear a lot about poorly translated russian literature. i used to ignore anything that wasn’t written in english, but that’s too limiting.

i like it when translated works include a note from the translator that specifically comments on the translation. helps establish some trust.
 
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If you're into epic fantasy, the best books I have ever read are a series of 10 books called the "Malazan Book of the Fallen". They're absolutely beautiful, kinda hard to get into it in the first half of the first book because you slowly learn what's going on, his world doesn't really resemble anything else. The writing is gorgeous and through the tale that spans tens of thousands of years, it says so much about human nature, war, sorrow, joy, the whole thing. I can recommend a lot of other epic fantasy that's really good too but some people aren't into the genre. Personally good epic fantasy, to me, is like philosophy on the nature of ethics and being, wrapped up in a great story.
 
Kinda given upon Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere sadly, I may go back to it at some point but it has fallen a bit flat with me, I've never really been into that kinda stuff though & only went to hunt his works out as I wanted to read American Gods but it wasn't there.

Very last book I put down was Charles Bukowski collection called "The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993" as I sat upon my sofa smoking a roll-up first thing this morning before I went out if that counts.
 
I liked Neverwhere, it's hardly at the top of the pile in the genre though. Funny my girlfriend is reading it right now.

I'm re-reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books right now, it had been a long time.
 
Shadowmeister said:
I liked Neverwhere, it's hardly at the top of the pile in the genre though. Funny my girlfriend is reading it right now.

I'm re-reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books right now, it had been a long time.
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You read much of his works Mr Meister?
What do you rate as his best work you have come across? It's very rare I take note of what others class as good books as my taste isn't what most folks are into but over the time I been posting & reading on BL I have noted though me & you are miles apart in some subjects in others we are nearly 100% the same so anything you said was worth a check I am interested in.

I picked out my copy of What I talk About When I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami who is my most loved author outta Japan (a close 2nd is Ryu Murakami, his book Into The Miso Soup has never left my memory, the guys work is so dark & brutal but you end up laughing in parts which you feel guilty for after. The part where the guy kills all the people in the bar in Miso Soup made me laugh & the part where he burns the guys nose off with the lighter has never slipped from my memory)
 
Actually I have only read Neverwhere among his works, so far. Honestly my favorite genre to read is definitely epic fantasy (only the good stuff though). I have so many great books to recommend in that area if anyone is interested. Some people seem to be turned off by the fact that they're not about "real" things but to me the fact that they're in different worlds with different properties makes them more fascinating. And any good epic fantasy contains so much content that is applicable to our lives.
 
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