Favourite Books
Submitted by Elston on Sat, 05/09/2009 - 02:04
Tags:
- Beyond Good & Evil - Friedrich Nietzsche
- Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
- Hamlet - Shakespeare
- The Trial - Franz Kafka
- Lolita - Vladimir Nabakov
- 120 Days of Sodom (part 1) - Marquis de Sade
- The Stranger (aka The Outsider) - Albert Camus
- Eugenie Grandet - Balzac
- Rabbit Novels - John Updike (especially Rabbit at Rest & Rabbit is Rich)
- Bible - God
Shakespeare, I always found him a bit cold, the same way I don't really like Racine much. Do you read a lot from Shakespeare? What do you like from him?
I prefer Othello, for Iago and found the play Julius Caesar more badass (I don't know if the term is appropriate :P). Monty Python made a sketch "Julius Caesar on an Aldis lamp" that always made me laugh: The clip on YouTube (at 3 minutes)
I didn't read the others of your list yet, but I read a lot of Kafka short stories. I hope you will grow your list, I like to see the favorites of the other members.
I haven't read anything else from Shakespeare (aside from schoolwork). I had a copy of Hamlet and read it when I had nothing better to do and it was truly astonishing. What I did was read the lines out loud and try to make the characters human (ie not overly theatrical) and also understand really what their saying and how their feeling. I think that's the key to enjoying a Shakespeare play because most everything that is wonderful in it is in the dialogue. I particularly loved the character of Hamlet, he was so real and sarcastic and I really felt his pain. All the characters are wonderful like that, they all come alive in a way few works can achieve.
I remember loving Othello as well (from school), I'll have to give that one another go (and apparently Welles did a film version).
Kafka has many great short stories I have to say (Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, Description of a Struggle.) I wonder if his novel The Castle is any good. I hope the list grows too. If I keep reading it certainly will.
Brilliant list. I love Hamlet.
Metamorphosis is great, The Trial is better though. You should read Joyce!
The Bible sucks, if I want cool myths I go to the Greeks.
Not sure I agree with you on the Trial. Although it is merely a short story, Metamorphosis strikes such a fine balance between realism, absurdity, comedy & tragedy. I don't think I've read anything as graceful, though I am planning on re-reading the Trial. The Greeks did indeed have incredible pagan myths & gods, as did the Romans and the Norse. However, I don't feel like they approach the psychological maturity and spiritual purity of Judeo-Christian myths collected in the Bible. I certainly don't think the Bible sucks, though Christianity definitely has it's share of problems...I do hope to read some Joyce, as I keep hearing about him. Not sure if I'll like him or not, we shall see.
I read 2 pages of Finnegan's Wake and closed it (for at least another 3 months). Although what I read was quite interesting and certainly hilarious, there's no way I'm trudging through that thing. Way too experimental for my tastes. Perhaps I should have gone for Ulysses, as I've heard Finnegan is his most avant-garde. Actually I should probably go for Dubliners or Portrait. Anyways, he's still interesting. Very very difficult book Finnegan.
Haha you did what I did! Read Joyce starting with Portrait or Dubliners and then work to the more complex stuff. I guarantee you will not be disappointed!