Author Topic: Fave Books / Currently Reading  (Read 947185 times)

folksnake

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #315 on: April 27, 2008, 08:41:06 PM »
I am still slogging my way through Huckleberry Finn. Is this really the greatest American novel, Mr Saunders? Really?
I re-read Huck Finn last year, and it certainly didn't change my life. I sense that one had to live in the time of Twain to be floored by it.

I "cheated" a bit, and actually listened to it as a recorded book 2 years back--and was profoundly moved by it. Not floored exactly, but moved. I loved it. Hearing the characters acted out, without having to do the work myself, made it easier, no doubt; in the same way that hearing an actor do Shakespeare is ultimately more satisfying than reading the play could ever be for me. But still--loved every minute of it, and was very sorry to have it end. The version I listened to was read/performed by Dick Hill, and I recommend it. He does a masterful job.
An excerpt: http://excerpts.contentreserve.com/FormatType-25/0857-1/060649-TheAdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn.wma

dave from knoxville

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #316 on: April 28, 2008, 08:57:12 AM »
I am still slogging my way through Huckleberry Finn. Is this really the greatest American novel, Mr Saunders? Really?
I re-read Huck Finn last year, and it certainly didn't change my life. I sense that one had to live in the time of Twain to be floored by it.

I "cheated" a bit, and actually listened to it as a recorded book 2 years back--and was profoundly moved by it. Not floored exactly, but moved. I loved it. Hearing the characters acted out, without having to do the work myself, made it easier, no doubt; in the same way that hearing an actor do Shakespeare is ultimately more satisfying than reading the play could ever be for me. But still--loved every minute of it, and was very sorry to have it end. The version I listened to was read/performed by Dick Hill, and I recommend it. He does a masterful job.
An excerpt: http://excerpts.contentreserve.com/FormatType-25/0857-1/060649-TheAdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn.wma

It probably points me out as shallow as all get out, but when Tom Sawyer shows up and spends thirty pages with his passive/aggresive control freaky "we are going to do this my way or we aren't going to do it at all" routine, it ratcheted what was previously a vaguely disappointingly unpleasant reading experience into a downright painful one. I just keep chanting to myself "only30pagestogoyoucandoitonly30pagestogoyoucandoit".

folksnake

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #317 on: April 28, 2008, 09:02:35 AM »
I agree Dave. I hadn't read Tom Sawyer's book, so to speak, before hearing Huck Finn's--so when he showed up, I kept thinking "When is Huck going to punch this guy out?" He is powerful annoyin', yer mejisty.

Sarah

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #318 on: April 28, 2008, 11:15:07 AM »
I read Huckleberry Finn decades ago, but I remember wanting to smack Tom when he cropped up at the end of it--and I had read Tom Sawyer several times.  He's irritating even in his own book, but in Huck's he is insufferable.  In part, I think--though, as I said, it's been years--because Huckleberry Finn is really quite a serious book, and Tom seemed incongruous.

I really liked Huck when I read it, but for some reason my strongest memory of it now is the part where he betrays his sex by snapping his legs together to catch something that is falling from a table, instead of spreading them wide to collect it in the skirt he's wearing as part of a disguise.  I think I questioned the accuracy of the generalization, which certainly wasn't true at the time of my reading but may have been in the more skirt-wearing 1800s.

Spoony

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #319 on: April 28, 2008, 12:16:21 PM »
Halfway through The Terror.

This is a big-ass book and it likes to take it's time. Still enjoying it though. One page per commute on the train.

Shaggy 2 Grote

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #320 on: April 28, 2008, 02:41:24 PM »
If you thought Tom Sawyer was annoying, just wait 'til you meet Today's Tom Sawyer.
Oh, good heavens. I didn’t realize. I send my condolences out to the rest of the O’Connor family.

iAmBaronVonTito

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #321 on: April 28, 2008, 05:29:10 PM »
I read Huckleberry Finn decades ago, but I remember wanting to smack Tom when he cropped up at the end of it--and I had read Tom Sawyer several times.  He's irritating even in his own book, but in Huck's he is insufferable.  In part, I think--though, as I said, it's been years--because Huckleberry Finn is really quite a serious book, and Tom seemed incongruous.

I really liked Huck when I read it, but for some reason my strongest memory of it now is the part where he betrays his sex by snapping his legs together to catch something that is falling from a table, instead of spreading them wide to collect it in the skirt he's wearing as part of a disguise.  I think I questioned the accuracy of the generalization, which certainly wasn't true at the time of my reading but may have been in the more skirt-wearing 1800s.


ditto, on all accounts

Sarah

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #322 on: April 28, 2008, 07:25:36 PM »
Right down to the skirt thing?  That's weird.

Stan

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #323 on: April 28, 2008, 08:01:16 PM »
If you thought Tom Sawyer was annoying, just wait 'til you meet Today's Tom Sawyer.

 Does he get right on to the friction of the day?
                                 "This must be where buffcoat left his pants."

samir

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #324 on: April 28, 2008, 08:10:19 PM »
For the next two days, I will be reading only:

Cases and Materials on Corporations (Second Edition)
by Thomas R. Hurst and William A. Gregory.

Who's jealous?
"Son, there's a thin line between crazed and rabid"


AaronC

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #325 on: April 28, 2008, 08:15:35 PM »
For the next two days, I will be reading only:

Cases and Materials on Corporations (Second Edition)
by Thomas R. Hurst and William A. Gregory.

Who's jealous?

I read it last semester.  Definitely not jealous.   Good luck on exams.

Susannah

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #326 on: April 28, 2008, 10:20:36 PM »
I probably post to this thread more than any other thread on the board.  So can someone please help me with a new, summer-appropriate recommendation? I finally finished "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" and am baffled by its positive reviews.  I like nineteenth-century novels that are plot-heavy, like Trollope, and I like the pseudo-Victoriana of AS Byatt and her ilk.  I also really love Terry Southern's "Candy;" things that are kind of scatalogical but also smart.  Any good ones that might satisfy these criteria?

Ignore Function

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #327 on: April 29, 2008, 01:02:43 AM »
Today i finished "Artificial Light" by James Greer. JG was a member of Guided By Voices.  There are lots of allusions to GBV, probably many that I didn't catch.  Pretty compelling first novel.

Sarah

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #328 on: April 29, 2008, 08:17:02 AM »
Have you read Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, Susannah?  It's more seventeenth/eighteenth than nineteenth century, but there's a lot of book and a lot of plot.  I loved it (as I think I've said far too often already).

samir

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Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #329 on: April 29, 2008, 08:52:01 AM »
I finally finished "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" and am baffled by its positive reviews. 

That's a shame. I've got that one on my list. Only four days before I can read for fun again.
"Son, there's a thin line between crazed and rabid"