Reading Tab

If anyone hasn't read Joyce yet i'm pretty sure this is a summation of his best work:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/74934...y-love-letters





This is the best thing he ever wrote though - http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/958/

Haven't read Ullysses.

If I have, I have no memory of it. Can't think of anything he wrote.

I don't know whether The Dead is Joyce's best work, but, certainly, it is very good. The movie is good too. I haven't the patience for Finnegans Wake or Ulysses, but Dubliners is very good.

__________________
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

Wasn't really serious, i'm kinda resistant to reading more Joyce since The Dead is the only thing i've actually found good from him. Think the rest of his writing is influential but pretty awful when not being glorified.

Not read Ulysses yet though.

James Joyce? That's stuff for people who want to torture themselves. After bad experiences in high-school I decided that I will never read a non-genre novel that is critically acclaimed.

Been reading my first book in Japanese:



"Magical Girl Nanoha ViviD"

Very nice light reading. Essentially it's a shounen action manga in the tradition of Ashita no Joe and Hagime no Ippo but with little cute girls instead of men. Those cute girls though act in a not very girly way at some points, specially the antagonist (who is a depressed person by the ghosts of her past life and she is never acts cute, well, almost never). The art style is the stereotype of manga elevated to the Nth power.

I choose to read this because Japanese teenager manga has furigana so that I can understand it more easily than in traditional Japanese you read in newspapers. Still, Japanese is way harder to learn than English since it lacks anything similar to my own language. English is almost like a dialect of my mother language compared to Japanese.

What is a "non-genre novel"?

It is a novel that is not science fiction, fantasy, psychological thriller or western. That is a novel that is "pure literature" without genre elements. For instance, Dostoevsky's stuff is non-genre while stuff like Heinlein's Starship Troopers is a genre novel.

Bought these and am looking quite forward to reading them.

Has anyone read Gravity's Rainbow? I was initially going to get Inherent Vice but GR was the only Pynchon at the store and I though I might as well get it just so I can get used to Pynchon's style before rewatching IV.

I've not read any Pynchon, Yam12, but I'm interested to hear what you think of it!

I've recently started the 4th book in the Thursday Next series called Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde. If anyone's not read him, I HIGHLY recommend! Definitely one of my top 10 authors.

My friend also lent me the first book in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Very much looking forward to reading it!

Pnin

I recently read and loved Pale Fire. I'll get on this one soon.




I blasted through this. It's very easy and engaging, though I should say, Mark Frost reeeally stretched the lore of Twin Peaks (even moreso here than Season 3). I love it, but potential readers should know that (like Season 3) the scope of this deviates a lot from the eccentric small town charm in the original series. The stuff in here seems almost more akin to the X-Files. Super excited for The Final Dossier.

__________________

Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier
This wrapped up a lot more than I was expecting in 150 pages. Gives a lot of resolution while also respecting the mystery. It ends on a great mysterious note too. For any fan, this is an essential part of the story.

Doomsday Clock #1 - by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, DC Comics.

I've seen lots of people online complaining or even boycotting this, a sequel to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's landmark Watchmen series, but I'm not one of them. The original Watchmen was done for DC comics as a work for hire, and as such they do own the characters, and have every right to use them. This series, so far, seems respectful of Moore's work, and expands the characters' world beyond the original 12 issues. Set in an alternate 1992 where Robert Redford is an apathetic president of the United States, the world is at constant war, and there's a manhunt for Ozymandias for his role in the destruction of NYC, a homeless African American man has taken up the mantle of Rorschach, and is leading a search for the missing Doctor Manhattan with the help of a pair of criminals called the Mime and the Marionette. The Mime is probably my new favorite comics character. Not gonna lie. Also, a familiar face, one Clark Kent, makes an appearance. But why? It's intriguing, how will the worlds of Watchmen and the more traditional DC heroes collide? The book keeps the same page layouts of the original, the innovative use of color, and the adult subject matter, with amazing artwork by Gary Frank, and I'll be reading every issue.

__________________
"You, me, everyone...we are all made of star stuff." - Neil Degrasse Tyson

https://shawnsmovienight.blogspot.com/

To Love Ru



Reading some teenager manga. The writing is very simple and the pictures help to achieve understanding. Although they speak Japanese teenager slang and not proper Japanese, which is more "formal" sounding. Manga is a great tool for language learning since it uses images to explain the narrative.

It's quite an indictment of a trilogy to read the first two books and not read the third, but that's what just happened to me with the Southern Reach Trilogy.

First third of the first book (Annihilation, for which there is an upcoming film adaptation that already has a trailer) had me completely hooked, but the book itself was more of a tease, leading into a deeply unsatisfying (and heavily padded) second book. Too much of a slog: finished it just to be safe, then looked up the broad strokes of third book on Wikipedia, and I have no regrets based on what I read.

i'm breathing some life back into this thread, go me. anyway, i paid off all my library late fees finally so i've been reading more. here's a couple "book thoughts" from stuff lately-

Honolulu by Alan Brennert


story of a young "picture bride" who journeys to Hawai'i in 1914 in search of a better life.

"Instead of the affluent young husband and chance at an education that she has been promised, she is quickly married off to a poor, embittered laborer who takes his frustrations out on his new wife. Renaming herself Jin, she makes her own way in this strange land, finding both opportunity and prejudice. With the help of three of her fellow picture brides, Jin prospers along with her adopted city, now growing from a small territorial capital into the great multicultural city it is today. But paradise has its dark side, whether it's the daily struggle for survival in Honolulu's tenements, or a crime that will become the most infamous in the islands history..."

this was my first book by this author, and i chose it because i really enjoy historical dramas that are told with accuracy. this book does a really great job of that, plus it's really well-written; obviously Brennert has a lot of fondness for Hawaii, the descriptions of the city at the turn of the 20th century are breathtaking and told with relish.

the story actually begins in Korea and as you follow Jin, the Korean picture bride, through the story you learn a lot about what it was like to live as a Korean woman under not just men, but a land occupied under Japanese rule. Jin is a seamstress with nimble hands it seems. it was kind of refreshing to read a story where 'womens work' is not diminished or deemed uninteresting.



The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher


"The Princess Diarist is Carrie Fisher’s intimate, hilarious and revealing recollection of what happened behind the scenes on one of the most famous film sets of all time, the first Star Wars movie."

this was my second Carrie Fisher book. i also read Wishful Drinking a few months back, but i enjoyed this one more. it was really fun to read Carrie's side of her relationship with Harrison Ford (Carrison, she calls it). also, Carrie Fisher is ****ing hilarious and refreshingly, apologetically frank. i dunno that i'd recommend this book to just anyone, because a good third of it is old diary excerpts from a diary she kept whilst filming A New Hope. but i'd recommend Carrie Fisher as an author to just about anyone. i don't usually read 'celebrity' books, but Carrie Fisher is special. or, was special.

anyway, the diary bits are kind of pretentious, but they're really fun to read imo. it made me feel all nostalgic or a bit like reading my own old journals. she also talks about what it's like to be a poor rich person, and the weirdness of having millions of fans.

yeah, it's definitely worth a read.



The Red Tent by Anita Diamant


"Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that are about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons. Told in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood--the world of the red tent."

another historical drama... kinda. it doesn't pretend to be accurate, it kind of takes its own spin on the story of Jacob, Rachael, Leah, Dinah and her brothers, but in doing so it sort of makes a statement about perception... and rape culture in general, really. the story, told by Dinah, begins with Jacob and the story of her four mothers: Leah, Rachael, Zilpah, and Belhah. Diamant certainly takes liberties, and if you're Christian, you might not enjoy that so much. but the story of Dinah as told in the bible is pretty shoddy, anyway, isn't it?

__________________
letterboxd

Books read so far in 2019:



The Politics of Experience and The Bird of Paradise (1967) by R. D. Laing

While i dont agree with a lot of the sentiments in this book, it was a quite interesting read on the subject of schizophrenia by the anti-psychiatric psychiatrist R. D. Laing and i used it in my thesis defence on "The social worker's role in the social psychiatric work with young people diagnosed with schizophrenia". Highly recommendable if you are interested in social work or psychiatry.





The Street of Crocodiles (1933) by Bruno Schulz

A very lyrical and weird book that looks into an auto-fictional account of reality and fantasy. It was recommended to me by an editor of a small publishing firm here in Copenhagen. Highly recommendable if you are into eastern europen litterature from the interwar period.





Wise Blood (1952) by Flannery O'Connor

Another recommendation from an editor. This however felt flat and i was quite disengaged reading it and the religious connotation felt a bit ridiculous, however it had its moments.





Drømmeflygtningen (The Fugitive of Dreams) (1978) by Lillian Jacobsen

From my perspective a relatively interesting piece of litterature on the experience of being schizophrenic. A rather unknown book even in Denmark and i have been the only one who rated it on Goodreads.





Rædselsrealisten (The Horror Realist) (2018) by Jakob Hansen

A collection of horror short stories from the last century from the unknown Danish writer Jakob Hansen. Really good, but only interesting for a small segment of Danish readers.





Bidrag til en nær bykritik (Contributions to a local city critique) (2018) by Bypolitisk Organisering

A collection of essay from a radical left wing perspective in city development primarily focusing on Copenhagen. A few of my friends contributed and a lot of the essays are highly important in terms of having a critique of the current development with gentrification, Airbnb and so on.





Den, der lever stille... (The one who lives silently…) (2018) by Leonora Christina Skov

A huge price winner in Danish litterature and a queer account of growing up as a homosexual with a conservative family. Quite interesting.





The Queen of Spades and Other Stories (1834) by Alexander Pushkin

I am not sure the editions match, but i read a Danish version with some long poems, which had a bit of folklore atmosphere to it. Slightly interesting, but i am probably not going to be reading anything else by him.





The Rings of Saturn (1995) by W.G. Sebald

A huge masterpiece and a really interesting mix of autobiography, historical anecdotes and fiction with an excellent use of words. Highly recommendable even if you are not a history buff.





The Blindfold (1992) by Siri Hustvedt

A really good debut novel by Siri Hustvedt, the wife of Paul Auster and bears similarities with his book and some meta references.





Åndeverdenens dårekiste (The Madhouse of the Spirit World) (2018) by B.S. Ingemann (1789-1862)

A collection of short stories by the Danish hymn writer Ingemann. A very vivid account of gothic horror stories reminding you of Edgar Allan Poe. Probably only interesting for a small section of Danish readers.





Solaris (1961) by Stanisław Lem

A huge achievement and an impressive hallucinatory account of repressed memories set in outer space. Better than both of the films.

__________________
TokeZa's Top 100 Movies through Space and Time

TokeZa's inane ramblings about film

Letterboxd profile

The Politics of Aesthetics by Jacques Rancière (2000)

This was only my second book from French philosopher Jacques Rancière. The first one being Hatred of Democracy from 2005. The latter being a lot more understandable and concise even for a French philosopher. I had a lukewarm feeling of The Politics of Aestetics after reading it. A lot of it had to do with it being overly contrived instead of formulating a concise set of ideas. Its interesting to see the contemplations and reflections of such a philosopher, but it lacked precise wordings and the book could easily have been helped with some serious editing.





Fame by Andy Warhol (2018 edition)

I have a love and hate relationship towards Andy Warhol. In my opinion he is one of those artists who are both good and bad, which makes him really interesting. Last year i read Andy Warhol by Joseph D. Ketner II from 2013 and this year i read Fame which is a sort of collections of small essays and thoughts by Andy Warhold. Highly recommended if you are interested in the opinion and insights of one of pop cultures greatests.





Nærvær og næsten (Presence and Almost) by Svend Åge Madsen (2000)

Svend Åge Madsen is a Danish cult writer that has been recommended to me a lot but havent read before. This collections of short stories were a real disappointment with disjointed sentences and ireggular formulations. A somewhat erratic and underwhelming experience.





Flush by Virginia Woolf (1933)

My first novel by Woolf but not the first book, last year I read her feminist essay "A Room of One's Own" from 1929. Flush is a really an admirable piece of fiction seen from the viewpoint of a cocker spaniel. A really clever book if you can say that. The book is superbly written and i am really looking forward to reading both Orlando and To the Lighthouse.





Against Everything: On Dishonest Times by Mark Greif (2016)

A collection of essays with a political tone and an interesting take on recent times. Some of the cultural context (Ie. modern American culture) were lost on me. Overall a really interesting take on modern American life, but with, in my opinion, a few misses.





The Reflecting Team by Tom Andersen (1994)

I work as a educational consultant in a social psychiatric living institution for young people with mental illness and this book represents a scandinavian approach to dialogue in a psychiatric context which has been further developed by the Open DIalogue method from Finland. Probably only recommended if you work in the field of psychiatry / psychology.





Uren pædagogik (Filthy Pedagogy) by Lene Tanggaard, Thomas Aastrup Rømer and Svend Brinkmann (2011)

Another work related book, this time a proponent of a contextual educational approach towards pedagogy. A somewhat uneven collection of essays with some good hits but far to many misses.





Mayhem by Sigrid Rausing (2017)

A somewhat related work book on addiction. This memoir deals with the fall of the Rausing family into addiction. My overall view of this book is that it was both quite interesting but also a bit poorly written.

Plowing through her entire collection of writing ($1 on Kindle). Actually have always preferred to read her diaries, journals & letters, but recently read Mrs Dalloway. Have never managed to finish Lighthouse. Will give Flush a try definitely as I love animals.

I'll have to look out for those – I don't think I've read any Danish horror stories.

I can imagine it would be. Interesting, going by that cover, that the focus appears to be on something architectural on the planet's surface rather than it being about the whole planet – as it seems to be at least in the American remake.

I saw that image and my mind went back to this structure, in the Doctor Who story Warriors' Gate:

Mrs. Dalloway is certainly also on my reading list.

Yeah, Woolf is certainly a hard read, and i am pondering The Lighthouse in Danish instead of the original language.