What book are you reading right now?
Posted by: Chillkram on 23 May 2010
I thought I'd revive this classic old thread as I couldn't find the original.
I am currently reading Suetonius, 'The Twelve Caesars'.
How about you?
I am currently reading Suetonius, 'The Twelve Caesars'.
How about you?
I have been looking forward to this...
quote:Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio lived the darkest and most dangerous life of any of the great painters. The worlds of Milan, Rome and Naples through which Caravaggio moved and which Andrew Graham-Dixon describes brilliantly in this book, are those of cardinals and whores, prayer and violence. On the streets surrounding the churches and palaces, brawls and swordfights were regular occurrences. In one such fight Caravaggio killed Ranuccio Tomassoni, a pimp, and fled to Naples and then Malta, home to the Knights of St John, where he escaped from prison following his conviction for another vicious assault. Shortly afterwards he died while returning to Rome to seek a papal pardon for his crimes. He was thirty-eight years old. In the course of this desperate life Caravaggio created the most dramatic paintings of his age, using ordinary men and women – often prostitutes and the very poor – to model for his depictions of classic religious scenes. Andrew Graham-Dixon’s exceptionally illuminating readings of Caravaggio’spictures, which are the heart of the book, show very clearly how he created their drama, immediacy and humanity, and how completely he departed from the conventions of his time.
Just started this:
Earlier this year my 11 year old daughter "assigned" me homework: to read all seven Harry Potter books. They are fabulous. As soon as I finish one I start the next. Having just started the seventh, last book I'm already lamenting the end of the series. These books are incredibly well-written, and the richness and depth of the world Rowling has created is monumental ... the development over the course of the series is mind-boggling. Very moving.
These books are definitely not just for kids, especially the later in the series one reads ... the complexity of ideas, layers of emotion, humor, thrilling excitement, and heart rending sadness, is stupendous. These books are some of the very best I've ever read.
Santa sent this over from the colonies
Oh dear Eric, don't give up the day job.
Kindle edition, fee of charge.......most agreeable. I do like my Kindle, especially the increase text size option 
Just about to start this stocking filler!
A ripping yarn. Not just an adventure and character-based adventure, but also a take on contemporary Russian culture and fairly recent history.
Highly recomended.
Some writers are wonderful storytellers but write dreadfully; others are bad storytellers but write beautifully; in this book Carey manages to write a truly astounding story with an explosion of language and style and passion that beggars belief!
quote:`Carey is a wily and supremely confident storyteller on a grand scale ... Within the covers is a complex discussion of the philosophy of democracy, and yet Parrot and Olivier is most strikingly beautiful at its most elemental.' --Russell Celyn Jones, The Times
quote:`[An] exhilarating tour de force ... Fizzing with the fictional panache that has twice won him the Booker prize.' --Peter Kemp, Sunday Times
I would even go so far as to add my highest praise possible...he writes like Voltaire!
quote:Originally posted by Mike-B:
Santa sent this over from the colonies
Oh dear Eric, don't give up the day job.
There's a truly horrible bit in this towards the end where he talks about his current wife (forget the name) as being quite an ordinary American girl and 'the best I can expect at this time in my life' or something. I bet that made her feel good!
FWIW I'm re-reading Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin. That's how to write a book.
...continuing my Dickens education with Mr Pip....................................
quote:Originally posted by Huwge:
Huw,
Here is another excellent fiction work about the Vietnam war written by Tim O'Brian who served there:
Trying to read this....again!
But successfully get through -
Karl
But successfully get through -
Karl
quote:Originally posted by Haim Ronen:quote:Originally posted by Huwge:
Huw,
Here is another excellent fiction work about the Vietnam war written by Tim O'Brian who served there:
Thanks Haim, have already read this one and some of his other stuff.
Probably a bit infra gig for around here, but I enjoy his books :-
quote:Originally posted by dav301:
A friend of mine has bought me the audio version of this for Xmas ...read by Johnny Depp
....it's on 20 CD's
...it lasts 23 hours
a lot of late night listening ahead methinks!
Not a book I know, however, it's what I'm reading!