#241

I didn’t either for some reason - can’t remember why now. Read and loved House of Day, House of Night years ago though, so still got hopes for Drive Your Plough… when I get to it.

Have thrown Ulysses in the canal. Might fetch it out in the future, but my brain isn’t up to it at the moment. Read The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett instead, which was ace. And now on Paul Takes The Form of Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor, which is pretty good so far.

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#242

It’s this exact edition. The first 50 pages or so are still slightly slow but it’s really picked up the pace. Much better than the Garnett translation I’d previously read

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#243

It’s not all Kennit, but there’s still a fair amount of it.

I’m treating those series as things that are fine to read when I don’t have anything more interesting to read (or am in the mood for something straightforward) but I don’t find them to be anything particularly special.

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#244

Thanks!

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#245

I like the Glass Hotel a lot and I think Emily St John Mandel is fantastic but I want someone at the publishing company to tell her that no one has said electronica since 1998

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#246

I tend to feel a bit deflated when I finish a book just because of the nature of the medium, I think its really hard to really effectively end something when the act of reading essentially ends with you just finishing the words and putting the book back down. I don’t know if this makes sense.

Anyway, The Glass Hotel’s ending was great. Really haunting and there’s a real sense of all the diffuse bits throughout the narrative coming together in some ghostly dream logic. Really enjoyed that book a lot.

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#247

Re-reading Consider Phlebas :heart_eyes:

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#248

Actually just started re-reading that tonight too. Wasn’t a fan on my first read, but it was over a decade ago, and have loved most of his later stuff. Hopefully I will like it more on a re-read.

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#249

I’m got the extended version of American Gods without knowing it was the extended version and its alright but really long. just want it to end soon

#250

I don’t know which version I read but I remember feeling the same.

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#251

Thanks. I found it slog when I first read it which was I guess 2003ish? I did think a more modern translation might be better. I read a modern version of Don Quixote and managed to get through it!

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#252

What you’re saying is you want to flick through a few pages of references and then find another short passage to read that links to the next book in the series, and then flick through the index to find an amusing little closing paragraph to set it all off?

(I get what you mean. I actually try to cue up my next book, usually on Kindle so I can dive straight into something else otherwise I do tend to feel a bit out of sorts. It’s also quite nice to read a completely different sort of book.)

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#253

I managed to get through the first book of an 18 Century translation of Don Quixote, mostly because I was sleeping terribly at the time.

I may pony up for a modern translation of the second part, largely to say ‘i read Don Quixote’, and read more of the exemplary jokes about shitting in your trousers

#254

Personally I thought the second part of Don Quixote was far far better. I think there are theories he didn’t write it but I’d have said being in jail for 20 years or whatever would also change how you approached writing! Either way, the first book seemed like a sort of repeating cycle while the second had a lot other elements.

This is the one I read, btw
https://www.amazon.com.au/Don-Quixote-Miguel-Cervantes/dp/0099469693/ref=asc_df_0099469693/?tag=googleshopdsk-22&linkCode=df0&hvadid=341772727888&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=641332309582818001&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9071420&hvtargid=pla-442794436243&psc=1
so it looks like Edith Grossman is the one to look up

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#255

who are everyone’s favourite contemporary poets?

reading ‘the trouble with poetry’ a collection of poems by billy collins. it’s good, he’s v humorous and playful. poetry is more well suited to the e-book format than novels isn’t it, as long as the formatting isn’t fucked up. also got a tracy k smith collection on my backlog

#256

Jacob Polley and Helen Mort

Also I think I totally disagree about poems being better on an e-reader, I think being able to see the shape of them across two pages in a book is really vital to the sensation of reading them.

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#257

The Water Cure 4/5

All escalated a bit quick at the end didnt it?

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#258

Yeah definitely.

I found The Blue Ticket more moving and emotional but the Water Cure was more compelling.

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#259

yeah i get that

guess the advantage of a physical book for novels is that it gives you a feeling of how much you’ve read and how much you have left which you can’t really get from a % on a screen, and don’t really need for poetry or essay collections

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#260

See I find the percentage bar is actually a really effective substitute for just seeing the number of pages left, and in fact with something like War & Peace I really liked that it helped me pace myself by doing a certain percentage a day. Different strokes!