what are you reading?

[PureElegance]

Yeah, I second that the Tale of Genji =
I get that it's supposed to be an epic tale, but it really should have been 1/3 of its 1100+ pages. And one too many "IDE/I can't" situations, mostly caused by that douche Genji.

I'm so glad you brought up "that douche Genji" because I'm only on Chapter 5 right now and I'm already saying to myself, "Can Genji be any more of a dog?"

I guess the author herself experienced men of his sort or saw other ladies going through that, so she definitely had a lot to draw on. I think the author is pretty perceptive of men-women interactions.

I don't think it's boring, haha. I would take it with me to classes and stuff... if it wasn't a brick.

@Cerceaux: My version has illustrations

 

[flowersofnight]

Now reading: "Entretiens sur la pluralité de mondes" (roughly: Conversations on the multiplicity of worlds), originally written in 1686 by one Monsieur de Fontenelle. It's framed as a series of conversations between the author and a noblewoman, on topics such as Copernicanism, whether the Moon and planets might be inhabited by life, and whether we might be able to travel to them one day. Pretty forward-thinking, considering that Galileo had been condemned for heresy only 50 years earlier.

Recently finished:
- Hesiod's "Theogony" and "Works and Days": some nice turns of phrase in there, but it's mostly only of specialist scholarly interest if you ask me.
- Jem - Jewels In The Dark: Truly outrageous

 

[Sumire_hitsugi]

I'm so glad you brought up "that douche Genji" because I'm only on Chapter 5 right now and I'm already saying to myself, "Can Genji be any more of a dog?"

I guess the author herself experienced men of his sort or saw other ladies going through that, so she definitely had a lot to draw on. I think the author is pretty perceptive of men-women interactions.

Haha, right on.

That seems likely, although I like to think that Murasaki Shikibu penned the longest soap opera novel due to boredom. From what I got out of it, being in an imperial court seems like srs business. I don't know if I could handle living life like that.

I didn't think it was that bad in the beginning, but then I felt the later half dragged on, ergo, boring.

 

[Iskanderia]

This is really up my alley. Guess I'll add this to my enormous to-read list.

It's actually pretty short (around 100 pages), so I think it'd be a quick read ^^ There are probably a few other books written like hers, so I'll be on the look out. I've always been interested in insane asylums and methods used to treat patients, so this is up my alley too.

The Kindle version of this is only 99 cents (I don't have a Kindle but I recently got the Android with the largest screen available, so I've been reading on that and it's fine). I'll go ahead and pick it up once I'm done with one of my current books.

Right now I'm reading "Lilith, A Romance" by George MacDonald (the Kindle version is free) and "The Heroes" by Joe Abercrombie.

I chose the former based on this description:

Lilith is equal if not superior to the best of Poe," the great 20th-century poet W.H. Auden said of this novel, but the comparison only begins to touch on the richness, density, and wonder of this late 19th-century adult fantasy novel. First published in 1895 (inhabiting a universe with the early Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, and Oscar Wilde--not to mention Thomas Hardy), this is the story of the aptly named Mr. Vane, his magical house, and the journeys into another world into which it leads him.

Meeting up with one mystery after another, including Adam and Eve themselves, he slowly but surely explores the mystery of the human fall from grace, and of our redemption...

It's pretty charming so far.


The latter book is just kickass fantasy for adults.

 

[Cerceaux]

Okay I finished "The Exorcist". I think I'll pass on the movie, because ewww.

Now on "The Wives of Bath" by Susan Swan. I saw the godawful movie "freely adapted" from this years ago, and I'm curious if the novel is better.

 

[PureElegance]

I'm so glad you brought up "that douche Genji" because I'm only on Chapter 5 right now and I'm already saying to myself, "Can Genji be any more of a dog?"

I guess the author herself experienced men of his sort or saw other ladies going through that, so she definitely had a lot to draw on. I think the author is pretty perceptive of men-women interactions.

Haha, right on.

That seems likely, although I like to think that Murasaki Shikibu penned the longest soap opera novel due to boredom. From what I got out of it, being in an imperial court seems like srs business. I don't know if I could handle living life like that.

I didn't think it was that bad in the beginning, but then I felt the later half dragged on, ergo, boring.

OK HE IS AWFUL. XDDD You know, I don't mind these types usually, but he just seems so "I can get whoever I want" that I hate him! XD He's just so arrogant when it comes to that, the way he just lies and whispers sweet nothings only to get women to sleep with him, UGH~

I can't believe he couldn't restrain himself and got Fujitsubo pregnant, AHHHH~

...


AHHHH~

Yeah, I wouldn't want to live in those times or be well-off. I can't even imagine. Too much ceremony and rules for me. It seems like all the men are ogres. And they haven't changed

 

[Cerceaux]

It seems like all the men are ogres. And they haven't changed

I'm going to tell Rickman you said that he's an ogre.

 

[Sumire_hitsugi]

OK HE IS AWFUL. XDDD
I can't believe he couldn't restrain himself and got Fujitsubo pregnant, AHHHH~

Ikr! And his relationship with Murasaki is just pathetic. He doesn't deserve her in the least.

 

[Iskanderia]

Okay I finished "The Exorcist". I think I'll pass on the movie, because ewww

The book is better anyway, so you're cool.

 

[PureElegance]

OK HE IS AWFUL. XDDD
I can't believe he couldn't restrain himself and got Fujitsubo pregnant, AHHHH~

Ikr! And his relationship with Murasaki is just pathetic. He doesn't deserve her in the least.

You mean Murasaki actually stays throughout the book? Right now she's still the 10 year old playing with her dollhouses... and Genji. I think it's really creepy that he's actually playing with her like that, with her toys while waiting for the day to, you know, have his fun

what a creep *shivers*

EDIT: OK they're getting married, eep. I think his idea of molding her into his ideal is interesting by the way, hmmm... Piggy but practical XD I'm excited to see how this goes!

 

[Cerceaux]

"Raise the Red Lantern" by Su Tong.

 

[PureElegance]

"Raise the Red Lantern" by Su Tong.

Dude, I need to check that out. I'll put it on my wishlist XD I bet it's way better than the movie, and the movie was so good ;_;

I also need to read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan some time because my dad kept bothering me because I didn't know what laotong meant. Well, I guess I get the literal translation from that word (so cool!), but it doesn't mean only that so XD

 

[Cerceaux]

I also need to read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan some time because my dad kept bothering me because I didn't know what laotong meant. Well, I guess I get the literal translation from that word (so cool!), but it doesn't mean only that so XD

I read that a couple months ago, it was pretty good.

 

[PureElegance]

I also need to read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan some time because my dad kept bothering me because I didn't know what laotong meant. Well, I guess I get the literal translation from that word (so cool!), but it doesn't mean only that so XD

I read that a couple months ago, it was pretty good.

Aight, I be getting on dat. I also should get "To Live."

As I was compiling my wish list I found this: http://www.amazon.com/Painted-Shadow-Vi ... 385499930/
Why is it 700 pages blarghsdfjfsd;fjs It's like the only book about her though!

By the time Vivienne Eliot was committed to an asylum for what would be the final nine years of her life, she had been abandoned by her husband T.S. Eliot and shunned by literary London. Yet Vivienne was neither insane nor insignificant. She generously collaborated in her husband’s literary efforts, taking dictation, editing his drafts, and writing articles for his magazine, Criterion. Her distinctive voice can be heard in his poetry. And paradoxically, it was the unhappiness of the Eliots’ marriage that inspired some of the poet’s most distinguished work, from The Family Reunion to The Waste Land. This first biography ever written about Vivienne draws on hundreds of previously unpublished papers, journals and letters to portray a spontaneous, loving, but fragile woman who had an important influence on her husband’s work, as well as a great poet whose behavior was hampered by psychological and sexual impulses he could not fully acknowledge.
Intriguing and provocative, Painted Shadow gracefully rescues Vivienne Eliot from undeserved obscurity, and is indispensable for anyone wishing to understand T.S. Eliot, Vivienne, or the world in which they traveled.

Man I love complicated people

Still on Genji...

(I also think I need to read some anthologies of Chinese poetry)

 

[Cerceaux]

(I also think I need to read some anthologies of Chinese poetry)

In the original Chinese, I hope.

EDIT:
Also was working on "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness, but I'm going to drop it because it's completely terrible (and it's a brick).

as other readers have shared, nothing happens in this book (unless you are entertained by pages and pages describing the main character eating, bathing, sleeping and exercising). This book was an absolute disappointment.

I hated this book so much. Basically a bodice-ripper without the sex. Ok ok ok I get it, vampires are good-looking, tea is delicious. There. There's your book.

Pretty much. If I had realized it was going to be a shitty twilight-for-grownups vampire romance I wouldn't have checked it out in the first place, but instead I just looked at all the rave reviews on the back hailing it as a "historical fantasy adventure". Wtf. xD

 

[PureElegance]

(I also think I need to read some anthologies of Chinese poetry)

In the original Chinese, I hope.

Actually, the one I want has the poems in both Chinese and English and people say that beginner Chinese students can follow along by looking up characters and all. I bet once I'm in China I'll definitely be able to follow along XD

I love Chinese poetry

Basically a bodice-ripper

I'm interested.

 

[Cerceaux]

Basically a bodice-ripper

I'm interested.

But there's no bodice ripping! They're too busy drinking tea and doing yoga and being horribly developed boring characters to have sex.

 

[PureElegance]

Basically a bodice-ripper

I'm interested.

But there's no bodice ripping! They're too busy drinking tea and doing yoga and being horribly developed boring characters to have sex.

What kind of story is THAT? Gosh.

Anyhoo, I just had to comment on this again:

He doesn't deserve her in the least.

Well, I actually think Genji is slowly improving himself for Murasaki XD Even though he got another lady pregnant. I can't believe he told everything to Murasaki though, he's being so open with her (unlike the way he was with Aoi).

I can't help feeling impressed with everything Murasaki says. I always think to myself, "Wow, what a girl."

I loved it when Genji went, "You are very odd, my dear. Things come into your mind that would not occur to anyone else."

Really, really interesting girl XD I guess she's not a girl anymore, but I think she always had this something special about her.

 

[Cerceaux]

"The Great Book of Amber: The Complete Amber Chronicles, 1-10" by Roger Zelazny.

Somebody on Poupeegirl recommended this, but I almost shit a brick when I saw it in person cuz it's over 1000 freaking pages, jeebus.
I dunno if I can get through this monster in 2 weeks.

 

[flowersofnight]

"The Great Book of Amber: The Complete Amber Chronicles, 1-10" by Roger Zelazny.

I read his "Jack of Shadows" a few weeks ago, which was okay but didn't really inspire me to pick up 10 more volumes by him XD

Finishing up here with:
Une histoire indiscrète du Nu féminin