To Read, and in my Possession
Submitted by jim on Tue, 02/20/2001 - 10:01
Tags:
- Rare Earth by Peter Douglas Ward, Don Brownlee (NF)
- A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
- The Annotated Alice by Lewis Carroll, Martin Gardner
- Baby, Would I Lie? by Donald Westlake
- The Bear Went Over the Mountain by William Kotzwinkle
- Celestial Matters by Richard Garfinkle
- Chocolat by Joanne Harris
- The Fan Man by William Kotzwinkle
- The Garden of Iden by Kage Baker
- Hyperspace by Michio Kaku (NF)
- The Iliad by Homer (Robert Fagles translation)
- Keys to Infinity by Clifford Pickover (NF)
- The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin (F)
- The Mind of the South by W.J. Cash (NF)
- The Odyssey by Homer (Robert Fagles translation)
- Return to Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber
- White Light by Rudy Rucker
- Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Author Comments:
I am current reading the books above the line. Below the line is the backlog.
And this doesn't count all the unread books I acquired when I married my highly literate wife. I'll have to catalog those one of these days.
Books with an "NF" are non-fiction. New entries are highlighted.
Jim, you wouldn't care to sort these into fiction and non-fiction, would you? I'm particularly interested to see where you would place Homer :-D
Done. What do you think of my classifications?
Well, there is reason to believe that THE ILIAD is based on real events that took place a couple of centuries before Homer's time (whenever that was). THE ODYSSEY is obviously much more fictional, but TI might be seen as a kind of history.
Yeah, ultimately I decided on fiction for The Iliad because of all the divine intervention (as I recall). I'll let you know if I change my mind after I read them.
First of all Jim, you put me to shame, and I call myself a future Lit major!! After seeing your lists and your posts I realize I'm in no capacity to teach this wonderful subject to the future of America. Second of all, have you read A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole? If I made a list I would put it under "Most Entertaining Books," right up there with Portnoy's Complaint.
Thanks for the compliments! But don't be too impressed. You'll notice that the items above the line are still above the line. I only get to read a few pages a day lately (fatherhood, homeownership).
Wait 'till you see my forthcoming "To Read, But not in my Possession" list. I find it simultaneously exhilarating and depressing that in my life I will only be able to read a molehill of the mountains of books available.
I continue to hear good things about The Confederacy of Dunces. I almost picked it up once, but the cover (I'm ashamed to admit) turned me off. I have added it to the aforementioned list. Now I just have to clean it up enough to post it...
I understand about the cover. The copy I read was from my college library and it didn't look so bad. When I decided to buy the book I waited until I found a "decent" looking cover. The copy I bought was published by Wings Books. But after you read the book you'll look at the cover and say 'oooohhhhhh.' It will all make sense.
The one thing I don't like about recommending books (being that I only recommend what I think is good) is the fear that the person won't like what they've read. And this tends to prick one's ego a bit.
Well you've got to create some book lists so I can tell if our tastes are similar. :)
I will beg here. I have read the Iliad 8 times in 6 translations, and I have read the Odyssey 6 times in 4 translations. I have read countless books on these works. Fagles' translations are fine, but please o please consider for a moment the superior translations of George Chapman. Yes, they are old, they can take a bit of getting use to, and they are not word-for-word as accurate as Fagles, but they are the ONLY translations to render into English the very qualities of language that makes Homer so great and mighty in the Greek.
And fiction is definitely where Homer belongs. The Iliad probably was very loosely based on real events, but the work was not written down for a LONG time after the events, and the many anachronisms in the text probably hint at the true accuracy of the epic. To twist a phrase, no doubt only the names have remained unchanged.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Yes, Keats liked Chapman's Homer so much that he wrote a great sonnet about it.
I wasn't seriously suggesting THE ILIAD as history; I was only trying to get a rise out of Jim. You knew that, didn't you, Jim?
While it might take awhile, given the molasses-like pace with which I'm crawling through my to-read list, I'm definitely going to tackle the Fagles first (since I own them). I read them each once in high school, but I don't know what translation they were. In any case, I'll add the Chapman translations to one of my buy/borrow lists, thanks!
I very much enjoyed Wicked, as well as Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by the same author. But I'm really big on alternate viewpoint stories of any kind, I always like to hear the other side of things.
Same here. Have you tried Grendel by John Gardner?
No, I haven't heard of that one. Though, I'm not really big on Beowolf - I like the classic Grimm's. Beauty by Sheri Tepper was fun, combined all the best known ones into one.
You'll have to let me know what you think of the Kage Baker book. I've now finished all 4 of the published books in the series.
Did you like them? It's been on my shelf for quite awhile and it hasn't had any luck climbing the ladder. If you recommend it that would certainly give it a boost (although I'm guessing since you're read all four that you do, in fact, recommend it - but is it a hearty recommendation?).
They're probably not for everyone (what is) but I've really enjoyed them. Read book 4 in its entirety last night.
FWIW, I read the first book in the series, I believe the same one you have on your list, and found it to be quite unsatisfying. I guess I like my fiction to be a little more thought provoking. Kristin, this is not intended as a slight against you because I know for a fact you have very good taste in books! :-) If you are interested in reading some good "fish out of watter" time travel stuff I'd recommend Doomsday Book by Connie Willis or Pastwatch by Orscon Scott Card.
I've read and enjoyed both. I'm actually not quite sure why I liked the Kage Baker books, but I did.
Well at the moment I'm on another Terry Pratchett kick (finished The Fifth Elephant, working on Mort). So I'm still not sure when I'll get to these, but I'm sure I will eventually.