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So... what are you reading right now?

Pavlos

By Pavlos
in Ahto Spaceport Cantina

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Pavlos Newbie

Pavlos

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I'd have to say that this is one of the better translations, particularly since it includes rather verbose, comprehensive explanations for otherwise obscure 14th century Italian lore, as well as a myriad of maps, diagrams, etc. Don't bother yourself with the most recent "translation", since I don't have much faith in the historicity of the game to begin with, particularly the notion that Dante battle his pagan role models in Limbo.

I can't read (classical) Italian (you'll have to forgive me that sin) so I can't talk in terms of accuracy but Allen Mandelbaum's translation for the Everyman's Library is beautiful in its clarity.

 

Amazing book so far. What makes it better is that my literary course for school is focused on LotR.

That's surprisingly progressive for a school course, I'm impressed. Are you looking at it in the light of Professor Tolkein the Mediaevalist at all? LotR chimes with many of the themes of Anglo-Saxon literature, from little things like his pilfering of middangeard (Middle-Earth; it's actually a Norse phrase, I think) to reading the entire thing as a warrior-Christ story. To convert the Saxons, the Christians used their own culture, transforming Christ into a warrior king, far from the peaceful figure who dies on the cross.

 

Ring = Original Sin. Frodo = Jesus. Quest = the Passion. Though that's naturally pared-down somewhat.

 

Part of Tolkein's aim in writing his book was to reconnect people with an English literary heritage which had been silenced by the "civilising" influence of classical and neo-classical mythology: who in Mercia reads about Wodan these days?

 

Speaking of mock-mediaeval settings: I'm hacking through Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene at the moment. Nifty, I think sums it up.

 

And as she lookt about, she did behold,

How over that same dore was likewise writ,

Be bold, be bold, and every where Be bold,

That much she muz'd, yet could not construe it

By any ridling skill, or commune wit.

At last she spyde at that same roomes upper end,

Another yron dore, on which was writ,

Be not too bold.

 

Edit: Here's a rather disturbing video of a man who's far too enthusiastic reading from Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon epic and a favourite of Tolkein. And perhaps easier to grasp: Chaucer's much later

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JuniorModder Newbie

JuniorModder

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That's surprisingly progressive for a school course, I'm impressed. Are you looking at it in the light of Professor Tolkein the Mediaevalist at all? LotR chimes with many of the themes of Anglo-Saxon literature, from little things like his pilfering of middangeard (Middle-Earth; it's actually a Norse phrase, I think) to reading the entire thing as a warrior-Christ story. To convert the Saxons, the Christians used their own culture, transforming Christ into a warrior king, far from the peaceful figure who dies on the cross.

 

Ring = Original Sin. Frodo = Jesus. Quest = the Passion. Though that's naturally pared-down somewhat.

 

Part of Tolkein's aim in writing his book was to reconnect people with an English literary heritage which had been silenced by the "civilising" influence of classical and neo-classical mythology: who in Mercia reads about Wodan these days?

 

Speaking of mock-mediaeval settings: I'm hacking through Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene at the moment. Nifty, I think sums it up.

 

And as she lookt about, she did behold,

How over that same dore was likewise writ,

Be bold, be bold, and every where Be bold,

That much she muz'd, yet could not construe it

By any ridling skill, or commune wit.

At last she spyde at that same roomes upper end,

Another yron dore, on which was writ,

Be not too bold.

 

Edit: Here's a rather disturbing video of a man who's far too enthusiastic reading from Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon epic and a favourite of Tolkein. And perhaps easier to grasp: Chaucer's much later

.

 

Yeah it's very interesting. I love all of the allegories and metaphors Tolkien used. Tolkien must have been fascinating to know. Imagine sitting in on one of his readings of Beowulf. :D I read the Aeneid, and the Odyssey last year, and currently I'm reading Beowulf.

 

JM

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Jae Onasi Newbie

Jae Onasi

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I'm reading 'Confessor' by Terry Goodkind. It's the last book in the Sword of Truth series. All I can say is, thank God I didn't start reading this series when it first came out, because the last 2 books ended with massive cliff-hangers, a la The Empire Strikes Back. I wanted to wring George Lucas' neck for leaving Han Solo in limbo for 3 very long years, and I would have wanted to wring Goodkind's neck for leaving Kahlan in limbo through two entire books if I hadn't been able to pick up the next ones in the series right away.

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jrrtoken

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Just started reading "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. Quite interesting so far, even though it's rather slow in the beginning.
It's quite good, to say the least. It's... rather dismal at times, but it's post-apoc, so what else can you expect? :xp:

 

No Country for Old Men is also quite interesting, also from McCarthy.

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It's quite good, to say the least. It's... rather dismal at times, but it's post-apoc, so what else can you expect? :xp:

 

No Country for Old Men is also quite interesting, also from McCarthy.

 

I totally agree. It's kept me on the edge of my seat throughout! I'm only 107 pages in and the thing I think this book lacks the most is length. It is ridiculously short!

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Darth InSidious

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This Town Will Never Let Us Go by Lawrence Miles - the first novel in Miles' series concerning Faction Paradox, the time-travelling voodoo cult that crops up throughout his work in one form or another (and who, according to this one, don't exist), it's an interesting book.

 

There are five 'chapters', each divided into 60 sections (numbered 0-59), which in itself is an interesting choice. I've got through the first "chapter" so far; the written style is deceptively simplistic, and at times conveys a real feeling of creeping horror; the characters so far are peculiarly believable grotesques. Certainly intriguing so far, though I'm not quite sure how the various subplots are going to tie together.

 

The Book of the War, edited by Lawrence Miles - a pseudo-encyclopaedia of the first 50 years of the War in Heaven (in which the aforementioned Faction Paradox plays an ambivalent and often minor role); so far I've got to 'B', and there's certainly no shortage of interesting ideas so far.

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Pavlos Newbie

Pavlos

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Yeah it's very interesting. I love all of the allegories and metaphors Tolkien used. Tolkien must have been fascinating to know. Imagine sitting in on one of his readings of Beowulf. :D I read the Aeneid, and the Odyssey last year, and currently I'm reading Beowulf.

If you can get a hold of them then his essays on medieval literature, some of which are collected in the widely-available The Monsters and the Critics, are really rather worth reading. He's essentially the man responsible for ripping Beowulf out of the hands of the hands of humourless Historians and restoring it to its rightful place as a work of great creative genius: others had realised it before him (Tennyson and Hopkins leap to mind) but he's the first to argue it so convincingly. "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" is still probably the most influential essay on the poem.

 

It's really rather worth putting the effort into learning Old English and reading the poem itself. As Professor Tolkien himself says, it isn't a very difficult language to learn, the similarities with modern English are really rather staggering; once you get over how strange it can look on the page, at least. Professor C.S. Lewis, a critic who was of the utmost common sense, once said that to be unable to read Old English was to miss a corpus of poetry which, while so much Renaissance neo-classicism may have faded into effete and useless ornament, still speaks to man's soul: the Northern spirit of fighting on against the odds because it is the right thing to do.

 

Here's some Aelfric to show how easy it is to pick some of this stuff up:

 

Renas cumað of ðære lyft [...] Seo lyft liccað ond atyhð wætan of ealre eorðan ond of ðære sæ [...] ond þonne heo ne mæg mare aberan, þonne fealð hit adune

 

ð = a hard "th", as in "that"

þ = a soft "th", as in "thorn"

æ = "a" as in "bat"

y = "u" as in "pull"

g at beginning/end = "y" as in "yes"

 

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Rain comes of the sky [think of the German "luft", as in Lufthansa] ... The sky licks and draws up water of all the earth and of the sea, and when she may not more bear, then falls it adown.

 

Poetry's harder than that but it's still easier than, say, learning Latin.

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ChAiNz.2da Newbie

ChAiNz.2da

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Taking a step-down from all the "serious" reading lately.. I wanted a little light reading for a change... these books are hilarious (and aimed at a much lower target age..seriously 9-12 stuff.. but I digress).

 

Andy Griffith's "Butt" series.

 

Kid humor, fart jokes, plus any book that uses not only buttcano BUT crapalanche as well... well my peepz, this series is golden.

 

I love them (seriously). Raunchy but not "over the top". Mostly gross humor or typical kid playground stuff. Good for a laugh :lol:

 

Going to start Pride and Prejudice and Zombies next. Been holding out long enough now.. so I'm looking forward to it. :D

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