What are You Reading Now?

[Zamora]

Currently reading Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion. It's a collection of magazine essays she wrote in the late 60s about her experiences in California at the time. They're very engaging and I definitely intend to read more of her collections after I finish this.

 

[litup]

Thought-provoking financial advice. The writing is nothing special but there’s enough wisdom to make it worth reading.

 

[krizzose]

Just finished this:



And now about halfway through this:

 

[MisterBadger]

Barabbas by Marie Corelli (1893). A massively popular novelist in late Victorian Britain, now almost consigned to oblivion. The book is terrible. An historical novel written with no insight nor research but what she probably was taught as a child at Sunday school. Supposedly from the viewpoint of the criminal who was released by Pilate instead of Jesus, it is replete with every stylistic failing you can imagine, and chock full of all the common errors, ignorance and prejudices prevalent among the late 19thC upper working class. So why am I labouring to read this dreck, you ask? During the summer months and the tourist season, a member of the late Victorian upper working class is someone I portray to visitors at a nearby Victorian working farm. This is the kind of thing I might have been reading then (along with McConnell's Agricultural Handbook, of which I also possess a copy but which I use for reference). Also reading newspapers of the period to absorb the Zeitgeist.

 

[warren99]

Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain. I started this twice when I was in my 20’s and found it too tedious and boring to finish. Am giving it another try in the autumn of my years.

 

[makhorkasmoker]

Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain. I started this twice when I was in my 20’s and found it too tedious and boring to finish. Am giving it another try in the autumn of my years.

View attachment 364185

I hope you like it this time! It's one of my all time favorites. I do prefer the old Lowe-Porter translation (though I switch to Woods when it gets to Hans Castorp's declarations in mangled French, which Lowe-Porter didn't translate, assuming her readers would understand--wrongly in my case).

 

[warren99]

I hope you like it this time! It's one of my all time favorites. I do prefer the old Lowe-Porter translation (though I switch to Woods when it gets to Hans Castorp's declarations in mangled French, which Lowe-Porter didn't translate, assuming her readers would understand--wrongly in my case).

Thanks. So far, I’m about 10% of the way through and it’s holding my attention. I am reading the Woods translation. I decided to give it another try, having enjoyed several of Mann’s other works.

 

[Choatecav]

View attachment 364173

Barabbas by Marie Corelli (1893). A massively popular novelist in late Victorian Britain, now almost consigned to oblivion. The book is terrible. An historical novel written with no insight nor research but what she probably was taught as a child at Sunday school. Supposedly from the viewpoint of the criminal who was released by Pilate instead of Jesus, it is replete with every stylistic failing you can imagine, and chock full of all the common errors, ignorance and prejudices prevalent among the late 19thC upper working class. So why am I labouring to read this dreck, you ask? During the summer months and the tourist season, a member of the late Victorian upper working class is someone I portray to visitors at a nearby Victorian working farm. This is the kind of thing I might have been reading then (along with McConnell's Agricultural Handbook, of which I also possess a copy but which I use for reference). Also reading newspapers of the period to absorb the Zeitgeist.

Very cool, Mister Badger.
I think this sounds great and I have done many first person historical characters where I had to stay in character for extended periods. Have had to read a lot of period materials like this, so I know just what you are talking about. I think that it is great that you are doing this.