What are you reading at the moment?

Just finished SPQR by Mary Beard. Thoroughly enjoyed it, very easy to get into for both a casual reader and history afficionado alike. I dare say I'll be digging out my Roman books next year.

For now though I'm going to be reading one of my favourite books, Appointment In Samarra by John O'Hara. Always give this a read around Christmas.
 
Iain. I have read your review a few times now. Please point out the glaring tautology.

B. - 'he was of the Scholastic school,' - necessarily anyone described as scholastic, with or without the capital - derives from or belongs to a school. If you couldn't spot it - maybe I'm being too hard on myself but it's extremely clumsy English at best. These things bother me. ha ha. As Tammy Wynette almost said - 'Sometimes it's hard to be a pedant....'

What is the cause of the second American civil war in the book you mentioned? - yours - I.
 
B. - 'he was of the Scholastic school,' - necessarily anyone described as scholastic, with or without the capital - derives from or belongs to a school. If you couldn't spot it - maybe I'm being too hard on myself but it's extremely clumsy English at best. These things bother me. ha ha. As Tammy Wynette almost said - 'Sometimes it's hard to be a pedant....'

What is the cause of the second American civil war in the book you mentioned? - yours - I.
Just a touch hard on yourself there I think Iain. Love the Tammy Wynette line!

‘American War' is a fascinating novel. Certainly thought provoking. Catastrophic climate change has led to the Federal government banning fossil fuels. But the old southern states......... We know from the start of the novel that the North has won the milatary convict without much difficulty. But of course, there's rebel resistance. The imagined new world order is interesting. American garment and electronic sweatshops producing cheap goods for the Chinese market, aid ships arriving from India etc. A good read. Particularly if you like a dash of dystopia in your novels.
 
40 pages into - 'The Dawn Watch - Joseph Conrad in a Global World,' by Maya Jasanoff.

A kind gift from the very generous @Barry Giddens - thank you again B.

A biography of Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski - b. 1857 - d. 1924 - better known as Joseph Conrad. Polish by birth - although technically there was no such thing at the time, it having been carved up between Prussia and Russia - and British by adoption. Generally regarded as a master stylist in English fiction - it's all the more remarkable that he didn't learn the language until his 20's. I always understood that Conrad's books were to some degree autobiographical - and this is the lead taken by Jasanoff - she traveled to the places mentioned in his works, including the Congo - fair play to her, it's even more insanely dangerous now than in Conrad's day. He was a sailor for 20 years before settling in England - and criss-crossed the globe - if you plot his journeys on a map - Jasanoff points out - you can see him as a forbear of our current globalised world, both in the sense that the points he sailed between are now the routes of the sub-sea cables that connect us all together and also still the vast majority of manufactured goods are transported by ship. This is an argument I'm comfortable with - if we take his most famous work - 'Heart of Darkness' - based on his own experiences of captaining a steam boat in the then Belgian controlled Congo - I have read this book many times, I always get something new out of it each time - it occurred to me that it was incredibly prescient and still very much relevant. Swop Colonial exploitation for corporate exploitation and you are left with pretty much the same thing - especially if you are on the receiving end of it. Swop ivory and rubber trading for diamond and rare earth element mining in the same part of the world - they dove tail as ideas even though separated by over a century. As I say - Conrad is still relevant. Granted some of his language would land you on a diversity course in 5 minutes flat - but set and setting - he was no Imperialist - in some some ways the very opposite of Kipling. Jasanoff's writing style is excellent - erudite but accessible - from the introduction - 'history is like therapy for the present: it makes it talk about its parents.' Ha ha - very good. I'm going to enjoy this book a lot. Along the way - I have learned to my delight that Conrad loathed Herman Melville, who he was often compared to - given the nautical themes - he commented about 'Moby Dick,' - 'a rather strained rhapsody with whaling for a subject, and not a sincere line in three volumes of it.' Ha ha. I couldn't agree more - it was one of the few books I refused to finish - dreary, overblown, pompous rubbish for me. Great opening line granted and then it's all downhill. So - I've just left the infant Conrad - whose father has just been arrested by the Russian secret police on sedition charges. I look forward to reading on.
Thank you again B. Yours - I.
 
40 pages into - 'The Dawn Watch - Joseph Conrad in a Global World,' by Maya Jasanoff.

A kind gift from the very generous @Barry Giddens - thank you again B.

A biography of Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski - b. 1857 - d. 1924 - better known as Joseph Conrad. Polish by birth - although technically there was no such thing at the time, it having been carved up between Prussia and Russia - and British by adoption. Generally regarded as a master stylist in English fiction - it's all the more remarkable that he didn't learn the language until his 20's. I always understood that Conrad's books were to some degree autobiographical - and this is the lead taken by Jasanoff - she traveled to the places mentioned in his works, including the Congo - fair play to her, it's even more insanely dangerous now than in Conrad's day. He was a sailor for 20 years before settling in England - and criss-crossed the globe - if you plot his journeys on a map - Jasanoff points out - you can see him as a forbear of our current globalised world, both in the sense that the points he sailed between are now the routes of the sub-sea cables that connect us all together and also still the vast majority of manufactured goods are transported by ship. This is an argument I'm comfortable with - if we take his most famous work - 'Heart of Darkness' - based on his own experiences of captaining a steam boat in the then Belgian controlled Congo - I have read this book many times, I always get something new out of it each time - it occurred to me that it was incredibly prescient and still very much relevant. Swop Colonial exploitation for corporate exploitation and you are left with pretty much the same thing - especially if you are on the receiving end of it. Swop ivory and rubber trading for diamond and rare earth element mining in the same part of the world - they dove tail as ideas even though separated by over a century. As I say - Conrad is still relevant. Granted some of his language would land you on a diversity course in 5 minutes flat - but set and setting - he was no Imperialist - in some some ways the very opposite of Kipling. Jasanoff's writing style is excellent - erudite but accessible - from the introduction - 'history is like therapy for the present: it makes it talk about its parents.' Ha ha - very good. I'm going to enjoy this book a lot. Along the way - I have learned to my delight that Conrad loathed Herman Melville, who he was often compared to - given the nautical themes - he commented about 'Moby Dick,' - 'a rather strained rhapsody with whaling for a subject, and not a sincere line in three volumes of it.' Ha ha. I couldn't agree more - it was one of the few books I refused to finish - dreary, overblown, pompous rubbish for me. Great opening line granted and then it's all downhill. So - I've just left the infant Conrad - whose father has just been arrested by the Russian secret police on sedition charges. I look forward to reading on.
Thank you again B. Yours - I.
An exemplary introduction to both Conrad and the biography Iain. I loved your description of Moby Dick. An old English teacher of mine once called me a ‘philistine' for not appreciating the magnificence of Melville's achievement. I wish I had been eloquent enough to have responded with ‘dreary, overblown, pompous rubbish'. I probably said something like ‘boring crap' at the time. I hope you continue to enjoy the book Iain. It's definately on my ‘to read' list now.
 
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As the Crusades rage, a secret war begins…
 
An exemplary introduction to both Conrad and the biography Iain. I loved your description of Moby Dick. An old English teacher of mine once called me a ‘philistine' for not appreciating the magnificence of Melville's achievement. I wish I had been eloquent enough to have responded with ‘dreary, overblown, pompous rubbish'. I probably said something like ‘boring crap' at the time. I hope you continue to enjoy the book Iain. It's definately on my ‘to read' list now.
Totally agree. My guess is you are in good company with all the other philistines out there. Don't know anyone who actually finished the book, even though it was required reading for many college and high school english lit classes in the US. Being a functional illiterate I spent a good deal of time with my Funk and Wagnall just looking up words I had never seen before (and since) and a quarter of the way through the book said screw it and have no regrets whatsoever.
 
Totally agree. My guess is you are in good company with all the other philistines out there. Don't know anyone who actually finished the book, even though it was required reading for many college and high school english lit classes in the US. Being a functional illiterate I spent a good deal of time with my Funk and Wagnall just looking up words I had never seen before (and since) and a quarter of the way through the book said screw it and have no regrets whatsoever.
I'm glad to be one among many philistines then William. Is Moby Dick still commonly required reading in the US? I think it has pretty much disappeared from UK syllabuses. Although I couldn't say for sure.
 
Don't know anyone who actually finished the book

At the time when I decided to 'abandon ship' with the book a friend was doing a dissertation on it for his English Lit. degree - so I could just phone him up and get him to talk me through the rest of it. Who dies, who lives. Was the whale god or the devil? Funnily enough after he had written 10,000 odd words on it - he loathed it too and hasn't been near it since. The only thing I learned of interest was the name of the coffee chain Starbucks derives from the book - Starbuck is the chief mate on the Pequod. Top trivia. Equally - the musician and record producer Moby - born Richard Melville Hall - is a distant relative hence his choice of stage name. Cheers - I.
 
At the time when I decided to 'abandon ship' with the book a friend was doing a dissertation on it for his English Lit. degree - so I could just phone him up and get him to talk me through the rest of it. Who dies, who lives. Was the whale god or the devil? Funnily enough after he had written 10,000 odd words on it - he loathed it too and hasn't been near it since. The only thing I learned of interest was the name of the coffee chain Starbucks derives from the book - Starbuck is the chief mate on the Pequod. Top trivia. Equally - the musician and record producer Moby - born Richard Melville Hall - is a distant relative hence his choice of stage name. Cheers - I.
So between us we know one person who has finished the book. And even he hated it. We need someone to come to it's defence.
 
I'm glad to be one among many philistines then William. Is Moby Dick still commonly required reading in the US? I think it has pretty much disappeared from UK syllabuses. Although I couldn't say for sure.
Not sure if it still is required reading. Back in the late 8o's my son had to read it for a high school honors English class. Seems he thought it was okay at the time. Either here nor there, but Nick just likes books and went on to get a PHD in Greek Litature.

In 2011 Nathaniel Philbrick, a Pulitzer Prize in History finalist, wrote a book Why Read Moby-Dick and apparently referred to Moby Dick as an American bible. Don't know anyone who finished this book either.
 
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Not sure if it still is required reading. Back in the late 8o's my son had to read it for a high school honors English class. Seems he thought it was okay at the time. Either here nor there, but Nick just likes books and went on to get a PHD in Greek Litature.

In 2011 Nathaniel Philbrick, a Pulitzer Prize in History finalist, wrote a book Why Read Moby-Dick and apparently referred to Moby Dick as an American bible. Don't know anyone who finished this book either.
I had a quick look on Google earlier. The novel certainly has some passionate defenders.
 
referred to Moby Dick as an American bible. Don't know anyone who finished this book either.

Ha ha - for 'American Bible' - we could also read it as the "great American Novel?' A category of literature I've always had a problem with. Nothing to do with the authors' nationality - I would point out - more the style. There are great American novels - just great novels really? Kerouac changed my life - literally - with 'On the Road,' - 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,' by Tom Wolfe also. John Irving worked for me too. I've read 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,' more times than any other book. None of these books - for example - to my mind - are bloated. They crackle with radical, vibrant ideas - concisely delivered. I can't stomach Hemingway or Norman Mailer by the same token. Joseph Heller - 'Catch 22,' was a work of genius but it kind of tails off after that for me. Gore Vidal - a bit too clever for everybody elses good? I'm probably going to get my head in my hands for expressing these opinions - but there are only the three of us reading this? You wonder - with the 'Great American novel,' whether the authors felt the pull to fill up the massive continent they were the inheritors of - the blank spaces - not blank to the locals granted - with words? Inventing a continental sized culture anew - from their European inheritance - which they weren't that keen to acknowledge? Just my thoughts. Each to their own.

Nick just likes books and went on to get a PHD in Greek Litature.

Ancient or modern Greek? Each - equally impressive - I'm just interested.

Yours - I.

@Barry Giddens
 
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