#964

It’s always weird when and uncomfortable when stuff like this happens. Like when Jonathan Franzen wrote a whole thing about Bright Eyes in Freedom. I love Bright Eyes but it was excruciating.

2 Likes
#965

Novel I read last year mentioned always wanting to dance to Sonic Youth’s Teenage Riot with friends, talked about men not being able to understand Cut Your Hair by Pavement, listening to Stars in the Lid in the bath…

#966

I feel like in Wizard she is really just finding her feet with the world and is a bit off her normal game, maybe from having been asked to write it as a YA novel. Then in Atuan I think she really found her way with how to write that world and her characters and it is a real step up.

3 Likes
#967

Finished Girl, Woman, Other yesterday. What. A. Ride.

I love novels of interconnected short stories and in this each one was so delicate and meaningful. Her writing style made it flow so well too. Really great.

3 Likes
#968

I didnt realise I had written and published a novel tbh

But you know what

Well done me

7 Likes
#969

I was reading The Book of Disquiet after seeing it come up in the best writers thread, but I got worn out by how Rimbaudian it was. Halfway through Hangsaman at the moment. Jackson always does such a good job of making thought seem so clear. Works really well with the setting. Can’t stop thinking about how annoying the word ‘frosh’ is though!

#970

I would like to read the Aeneid properly after having only read chapters in school, does anyone know if there is a translation which is generally held up as the best? At a glance there seem to be quite a few out there, and having previously chosen a poor option on an oft translated text I am a bit hesitant to just get whatever without knowing if it is a good version. Le Guin basically said it was was untranslatable without losing the poetry of it, but it is tooate for me to realistically learn latin, so translation it is…

#971

I’ve been reading The Book of Disquiet this year - my Portuguese partner bought it for me. I love it but it’s very heavy and it’s better to dip in and out of than to read as a piece.

3 Likes
#972

Do you want a poetry or prose translation? Pretty sure the current Penguin Classic version is a good and modern prose rendering, but I’m not sure of any verse ones off the top of my head.

1 Like
#973

Hmm… I guess I would find prose significantly easier to read, and probably best for a translation? Like, a poetry translation is always going to be a bit of a poor substitute, so I might as well just go for prose to make it easier on myself so I am most likely to finish it (the end sections are what I most want to read it for, so I want to make it to them and it would feel a bit wrong just skipping ahead)

#974

I reckon this is the one, then.

(There is another Penguin Classic version, but it’s verse and done by Robert Fagles, whose Homer I was never sold on).

1 Like
#975

I bought this in about 2003, still haven’t finished it

1 Like
#976

@Scout enjoying Circe loads so far

3 Likes
#977

Thank you, just ordered this version :slight_smile:

1 Like
#978

Ah, so good. I want to reread it already but seems too soon. Which reminds me, I have the boom she wrote before that still to read.

#979

Doesn’t make me feel so bad then! Or maybe worse?! Used to hate not finishing books but it’s happening more and more now.

#980

My try that strategy then, I just tend to get obsessive about things and if I can’t do that I struggle to invest the energy!

#981

It is worth finishing but I do remember some of it being skimmed more than others.

1 Like
#982

I read that it changes quite radically with the introduction of a new ‘heteronym’ but it’s just a bit of a slog to get there! The first one sounds like some sort of proto-incel or something. Fascinating in terms of authorial intention though because there’s literally none! So maybe I should be picking parts out randomly, or going for whatever seems interesting rather than being so obedient to the chronology.

#983

Finding myself in a proper Pratchett mood right now. Might scout around and look for Thief of Time.