madartista said:

hi!



miss you. was gonna call, but i kicked out my now ex-bestfriend/deadweight, and he cancelled the phone service.

cborgman said:

BUMMER!
Miss you too. We'll catch up one of these old days.....

TheResistor said:

Did you read Infinite Jest? Does it live up to the hype?

2the9s said:

I have a favourite author! Bill Bryson! Just pick up any of his books and you'll love me for it!

2the9s said:

I read that. I say no, it does not live up to the hype, but it doesn't suck either.
[Edited 1/21/05 14:27pm]

OMG! I forgot to mention Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman who are my favourites too among the others :'/

Salman Rushdie - "The Moor's Last Sigh", "The Satanic Verses"

Umberto Eco - "The Island of The Day Before", "The name of the Rose"

Helmut Krausser - "Melodies", "Thanatos: The Black Book"

Ohran Pamuk - "My Name Is Red", "Snow"


I can't think of a fifth one right now since I prefer to read
dead writers

everyone!!!

my fav authors are:

stephen king

zane

I have a lot of favorites--or many that I enjoy....

Stephen King-- The Stand , On Writing (a non fiction for ya)


Alice Walker, not just Color Purple, Possessing The Secret of Joy.


Augusten Burroughs-- Dry, Running With Scissors


Barbara Kingsolver--The Poisonwood Bible

Kathleen Norris--Dakota, Amazing Grace,

Too many but...

Alan Warner-'Morvern Caller' & 'The Sopranos'

Ian McEwan-'Atonement' & 'Enduring Love'

Douglas Coupland-'Generation X' & 'Microserfs'

Iain Banks-'The Wasp Factory' & 'The Crow Road'

Irvine Welsh-'Trainspotting' & 'Filth'
[Edited 1/22/05 9:44am]

All my favourite authors are dead : Italo Calvino, Fernando Pessoa, Louis Paul Boon, Sandor Marai...

I did love 'Disgrace' by Coetzee though. And 'The secret history' by Donna Tartt. 'The city of the blind' (don't know if it's translated like that) by Jose Saramago was awesome as well. And 'The comfort of strangers' by Ian McEwan

MarieLouise said:

Eco as well. ('The name of the rose' and his work on semiotics.

IstenSzek said:

I've started a book by Orhan Pamuk this summer and it was one of the few books I never finished. Too boring. Can't remember the title right now, it was an older one, not one of the two you mentioned...

But I'm with you on Eco

MarieLouise said:

Indeed, Pamuk's older work is rather dry. His novel "The Black Book" is so
incredibly long and longwinded lol. But ultimately, his older books are as
rewarding as his newer ones.

However, "My Name Is Red" is an amazing book which is told by a different
narrator in every chapter. Some narrators in this story are

A dead man lying at the bottom of a well
A dog
A coin !!
A tree

etc etc. extremely well thought out book. I loved it from the first two
chapters. Plus it's a suspense book, so you might want to finish this 1

IstenSzek said:

'The Black book', that was it ! I read about 250 pages and quit. But maybe I've not been fair towards Pamuk, lol. I discovered a mistake in his narrative which was obviously a mistake and not some kind of postmodernist procede I hope (when wife leaves, man is looking for a pen his wife always used, writes sth with it, and some pages later he says that he can't find this pen)


Anyway, I've studied literature and I tend to write myself, so these things annoy me very much. Stupid arrogant me Maybe I should have kept on reading...

MarieLouise said:

that is not arrogant, that is just excellent perception.

I hate it too when a book contains obvious mistakes.

Even if it's just a spelling error.

I can understand how one or two spelling mistakes can
slip into a new novel, but if it's the 3rd or 4th or
even 10th+ re-print, I want to just throw up when I
read words spelled wrong.

PS: I'm Dutch, so English is not my 1st language, altho
I read most English and American authors in English cuz
the translations are usually very bad. Anyway, I just
wanted to point that out now because I rant about words
spelled wrong and I probably made at least 5 mistakes
in this post alone



(prince-bonics Xcluded lol)

IstenSzek said:

I also try to read in the original language. I manage to do this in English, French, and even in Spanish (and in the future I hope to read Portuguese as well). I don't speak Turkish fluently though

MarieLouise said:

now that ís arrogant



just teasing you

I wish I could do that. One of my future wishes is to some day be able
to read Balzac and Molière in their original format.

I've got to enroll myself into a decent French court sometime this year!

IstenSzek said:

I meant, fcuz, COURSE instead of COURT

IstenSzek said:

Yeah well, French... My French was very good in high-school, way better than my English (has ever been). But I started studying Germanic languages and didn't read in French for 3 years. In my masters degree (as it is now called) I took 'Algemene literatuurwetenschap' (theoretical part of literature, and all the philosophies about it) as one of the three main focuses. Suddenly we had to read Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Roland Barthes, in French. I was like wtf??


But I managed, with the dictionary very close at hand of course. Since I graduated I didn't manage to read French though. Sad sad. But I love the language, really. If I would have been able to combine Dutch with French instead of English, German or Swedish, I would have done this. But they're 6 years too late with this !

Is your French that bad? Can't you just start reading with a dictionary and try to find some people to speak the language with? IMHO that's a nicer way to learn a language, especially when you already have a basis. Listen to me... I'm a language teacher, not really promoting my own job.

IstenSzek said:

Yeah well, French... My French was very good in high-school, way better than my English (has ever been). But I started studying Germanic languages and didn't read in French for 3 years. In my masters degree (as it is now called) I took 'Algemene literatuurwetenschap' (theoretical part of literature, and all the philosophies about it) as one of the three main focuses. Suddenly we had to read Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Roland Barthes, in French. I was like wtf??


But I managed, with the dictionary very close at hand of course. Since I graduated I didn't manage to read French though. Sad sad. But I love the language, really. If I would have been able to combine Dutch with French instead of English, German or Swedish, I would have done this. But they're 6 years too late with this !

Is your French that bad? Can't you just start reading with a dictionary and try to find some people to speak the language with? IMHO that's a nicer way to learn a language, especially when you already have a basis. Listen to me... I'm a language teacher, not really promoting my own job.

A Dutch person that is insecure about his French... that reminds me of something I heard on holiday a few years ago. (sorry but I have to say the last part in Dutch)

I was on a camping. Next to our place a Dutch couple was camping. The girl pointed at something that read 'ce soir, feu de bois... pizza's 20h' and asked her boyfriend 'wtf does that mean?' He said, 'Ik tenk dat er fanavond een feest in het bos is ofso...'

But we're jacking this thread I guess.

RipHer2Shreds said:

Meridian is also very good, and so is Possessing the Secret of Joy.

MarieLouise said:

Nah, I think I have to start from scratch with my French. The only things I
remember from French in school is how to ask for the loo and how to order a
cup of coffee



But you're right about reading books, keeping a dictionary close and find a
few people to speak the language with.

We only skimmed English in school, but I found the language to be fascinating
and so I just got books from the library and watched BBC a lot with subtitles
from "teletext".

Because of that, I read the unabridged "Jane Eyre" for school when I was 14
whilst the rest of the class had read 25 page children's books with pictures



Ever since I have been fascinated with literature and read anything I can get
my hands on. Mostly the classics from English, American and Russian authors.

But I'm all over the place too much I guess. I go from reading Balzac one day
to reading Burgess to Pamuk to Bulgakov to Dickens and back to Rushdie lol.

I need to bring some structure into my reading and try to study what I read a
bit more. But for now, I just enjoy the books too much to do that. I just
want to read what I feel like that day or that week.

Still, I am sooooo incredibly jealous of your education! I wish I'd have had
the sense to go to university when I had the chance. I chose not to and I've
never regretted it too much.

But whenever someone mentions "algemene literatuurwetenschappen", I get a bit
of a lump in my throat



Ah well, I've got Aldous Huxley to read today so I guess I shouldn't complain

IstenSzek said:

Oh no, enjoy what you're reading. Only write down what you really want to. That's the hard part about my education... I've always read so much, as a child I mean (5 books a week), but now I just can't sit and simly read (as in simply get absorbed by anther world). I'm always analyzing, theorizing, horrible ! (and fun sometimes)

And eh, Enjoy Aldous Huxley ! Which one?

I love Aldous Huxley!

Lleena said:

Brave New World, 3rd time over

I should start one of his others, since I have most of them already on my
shelves waiting for me.

I always buy more than I have time to read, but I guess most bibliophiles
do that