What Are You Reading??

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Re: What Are You Reading??
« Reply #270 on: May 12, 2008, 02:27:04 AM »
Just started on "Bulfinch's Mythology", Donald R. Rumbelow's "The Regency Underworld" and am about to continue my trek into the 19th Century with a visit to Ireland and the, outside of ivy covered halls, deplorably forgotten genius that is Sheridan Le Fanu and his "Uncle Silas". Read "In a glass darkly" in a remote cottage. Some of the best ghost stories, rank right up there with the stories of M.R.James.

Starting re-reading Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast". I cannot recommend that book enough.
"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination." Oscar Wilde.

"It's all oojah cum spiffy". Bertie Wooster.
"The stars are God's daisy chain" Madeleine Bassett.

Re: What Are You Reading??
« Reply #271 on: May 12, 2008, 02:27:58 PM »
Currently in rotation:

Henry Miller's 'The Tropic Of Cancer' ...yet again...
Arthur Nersesian's 'The Fuck-Up"
Thomas Lewis' 'The Monk'

and then it's on to Charles Palliser's 'The Quincunx'

Re: What Are You Reading??
« Reply #272 on: May 12, 2008, 08:25:15 PM »
"The Monk"..that's so good...wait, Thomas Lewis, not Matthew Lewis? Oh bugger...
"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination." Oscar Wilde.

"It's all oojah cum spiffy". Bertie Wooster.
"The stars are God's daisy chain" Madeleine Bassett.

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dasein

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Re: What Are You Reading??
« Reply #273 on: May 17, 2008, 04:33:19 AM »
Currently: Aristotle's The Nicomachean Ethics, Proust's The Guermantes Way and Lonely Planet's Mandarin Phrasebook.

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Lotus Eater

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Re: What Are You Reading??
« Reply #274 on: May 17, 2008, 04:54:22 AM »
Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens with Segun Afolabi's "A life elsewhere" waiting in the wings.  Plus I have a new Chinese textbook with DVD as well to keep me occupied! (New Practical Chinese Reader:4)

Re: What Are You Reading??
« Reply #275 on: May 17, 2008, 05:53:55 AM »
Good Omens is so cool. It's one of my all time favourite books.
"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination." Oscar Wilde.

"It's all oojah cum spiffy". Bertie Wooster.
"The stars are God's daisy chain" Madeleine Bassett.

Re: What Are You Reading??
« Reply #276 on: May 17, 2008, 08:41:15 AM »
Good Omens ... great to be amongst other Terry Pratchett fans !

I'm on a Paulo Coelho streak ... finished the brilliant Witch of Portobello last weekend and now started Brida.

Oh, also my Introduction to Chinese Mandarin textbook.
Everybody should believe in something.
I believe I will have another tequila.

Re: What Are You Reading??
« Reply #277 on: May 20, 2008, 10:26:53 PM »
"The Monk"..that's so good...wait, Thomas Lewis, not Matthew Lewis? Oh bugger...

Whoops!

Thomas
Matthew
John
James...

One of those Christian names...

Re: What Are You Reading??
« Reply #278 on: May 20, 2008, 10:29:26 PM »
So it is Matthew "Monk" Lewis?? Yay agagagagag agagagagag It's probably one of the greatest Gothic novels ever written in England. Only, IMHO, surpassed by Charles Maturin's "Melmoth the Wanderer". I did my MA on the Gothic novel, must have read "The Monk" 10 times and it never got boring.
"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination." Oscar Wilde.

"It's all oojah cum spiffy". Bertie Wooster.
"The stars are God's daisy chain" Madeleine Bassett.

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AMonk

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Re: What Are You Reading??
« Reply #279 on: June 08, 2008, 11:33:31 PM »
Just got a small box from the folks at Amazon.  Included is one special, amusing "treasure" that I have to dive into....The Meaning of TINGO and Other Extraordinary Words From Around the World.

Turns out that I've been tingo-ed over the years by my son (particularly in the area of books)!!  I wonder how many of you, especially parents of grown children, have found yourselves tingo-ed, too?

"tingo (Pascuense, Easter Island) - to take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by borrowing them".

WEll, he isn't going to "tingo" this book. bcbcbcbcbc (I already got him his own copy)
« Last Edit: June 09, 2008, 01:40:41 AM by AMonk »
Moderation....in most things...

Re: What Are You Reading??
« Reply #280 on: June 09, 2008, 05:50:14 PM »
I read Good Omens many years ago.  It was great.  I haven't read any Pratchett books since I was about 15, though.

I liked Guards Guards and Pyramids the best.
It is too early to say.

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decurso

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Re: What Are You Reading??
« Reply #281 on: June 09, 2008, 07:03:11 PM »
 Currently reading The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. It's a fascinating and objective look at how globalization has shrunk the world. Highly recomended reading.

Re: What Are You Reading??
« Reply #282 on: June 09, 2008, 10:24:41 PM »
I read Good Omens many years ago.  It was great.  I haven't read any Pratchett books since I was about 15, though.

I liked Guards Guards and Pyramids the best.

Contemporarydog, I highly recommend getting back on the Pratchett wagon. IMHO, some of his best work has been in the last 10 years.
"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination." Oscar Wilde.

"It's all oojah cum spiffy". Bertie Wooster.
"The stars are God's daisy chain" Madeleine Bassett.

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Raoul F. Duke

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Re: What Are You Reading??
« Reply #283 on: June 09, 2008, 11:15:00 PM »
I have just- very reluctantly- finished the best history book I have ever read.

If you can find a copy of The Boxer Rebellion  by Diana Preston, by all means find a way to read it. It manages to combine an extraordinarily high level of historical research with breath-holding, page-turning readability. She really puts you THERE!
It was an amazingly good read, and taught me a lot about an episode of Chinese history about which I previously knew very little.

My copy belongs to the Suzhou Bookworm, and I'm about to take it back before I go...
"Vicodin and dumplings...it's a great combination!" (Anthony Bourdain, in Harbin)

"Here in China we aren't just teaching...
we're building the corrupt, incompetent, baijiu-swilling buttheads of tomorrow!" (Raoul F. Duke)

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old34

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Re: What Are You Reading??
« Reply #284 on: June 10, 2008, 03:40:15 AM »
Currently reading The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. It's a fascinating and objective look at how globalization has shrunk the world. Highly recomended reading.

Ditto that. About a quarter of the way through I started reading it from the viewpoint of, "Hey, I'm teaching in China right in the middle of this whole epoch." It has informed some of my teaching since reading it.

I bought a bi-lingual copy (E-C) and gave it to a Chinese education mover and shaker. Chinese educationists need to realize (IMHO) that a lot of what Friedman describes and suggests is a lot quicker way to (re)joining the world than setting up endless IELTS/Study Abroad Programs for well-to-do students at schlocky western universities.

At the same time, I got my right-wing dad back home ("damn furriners takin' all our jobs") to read it and he's thrown in the phrase "The world is flat" at least a half-dozen times in phone calls and emails. He's still not off the kool-aid, but that's a tough habit to break when you have Fox News on the tube in the living room and Rush Limbaugh on the kitchen/bedroom/car radio 24-7. At least Friedman's mantra has seeped into his consciousness.

Lots of stuff about Dalian in the book if you're teaching up there, BTW.
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad. - B. O'Driscoll.
TIC is knowing that, in China, your fruit salad WILL come with cherry tomatoes AND all slathered in mayo. - old34.