What are You Reading?
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Just finished The Lords of Finance, just started The Seven Storey [sic] Mountain by Thomas Merton.
I picked up this book called, Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe, about a few months ago and I'm just now getting around to it. I'm about 50 pages into this thing and It's very much unlike anything I've ever read. It's copyrighted in 1980 and 1981. It's 2 volumes in one, of 4 total. The other 2 volumes, 3 and 4, are in the second book I have.
I would like to share my favorite couple of paragraphs so far into the book. I really love how the writer makes his characters really make an impression on you so far through the book. The excerpt is from a character who is a librarian of a ridiculously old and immense library.
"Yes, I recall it now-that little square of green and brown. I believe they dry rosemary there to put in pillows. I was sitter there, as I said, and had been for several watches, when it came to me that I was reading no longer. For some time I was hard put to say what I had been doing. When I tried, I could only think of certain odors and textures and colors that seemed to have no connection with anything discussed in the volume I held. At last I realized that instead of reading it, I had been observing it as a physical object. The red I recalled came from the ribbon sewn to the headband so that I might mark my place. The texture that tickled my fingers still was that of the paper on which the book was printed. The smell in my nostrils was old leather, still bearing the traces of birch oil. It was only then, when I saw the books themselves, that I began to understand their care."
His grip on my shoulder tightened. "We have books here bound in the hides of echidines, krakens, and beasts so long extinct that those whose studies they are, are for the most part of the opinion that no trace of them survives unfossilized. We have books bound wholly in metals of unknown alloy, and books whose bindings are covered with thickset gems. We have books cased in perfumed woods shipped across the inconceivable gulf between creations-books doubly precious because no one on Urth can read them.
"We have books whose papers are matted of plants from which spring curious alkaloids, so that the reader, in turning their pages, is taken unaware by bizarre fantasies and chimeric dreams. Books whose pages are not paper at all, but delicate wafers of white jade, ivory, and shell; books too whose leaves are the desiccated leaves of unknown plants. Books we have also that are not books at all to the eye: scrolls and tablets and recordings on a hundred different substances. There is a cube of crystal here-though I can no longer tell you where-no larger than the ball of your thumb that containsmore books than the library itself does. Though a harlot might dangle it from one ear for an ornament, there are not volumes enough in the world to counterweight the other. All these I came to know, and I made safeguardingthem my life's devotion."
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It's really an amazing book so far. Things can only get more interesting.
P.S. The librarian is like over 100 or something and he's 7 or 8 feet tall, and blind; with a beard down to his waist. And he knows where most of the books are. :
:
I would like to share my favorite couple of paragraphs so far into the book. I really love how the writer makes his characters really make an impression on you so far through the book. The excerpt is from a character who is a librarian of a ridiculously old and immense library.
"Yes, I recall it now-that little square of green and brown. I believe they dry rosemary there to put in pillows. I was sitter there, as I said, and had been for several watches, when it came to me that I was reading no longer. For some time I was hard put to say what I had been doing. When I tried, I could only think of certain odors and textures and colors that seemed to have no connection with anything discussed in the volume I held. At last I realized that instead of reading it, I had been observing it as a physical object. The red I recalled came from the ribbon sewn to the headband so that I might mark my place. The texture that tickled my fingers still was that of the paper on which the book was printed. The smell in my nostrils was old leather, still bearing the traces of birch oil. It was only then, when I saw the books themselves, that I began to understand their care."
His grip on my shoulder tightened. "We have books here bound in the hides of echidines, krakens, and beasts so long extinct that those whose studies they are, are for the most part of the opinion that no trace of them survives unfossilized. We have books bound wholly in metals of unknown alloy, and books whose bindings are covered with thickset gems. We have books cased in perfumed woods shipped across the inconceivable gulf between creations-books doubly precious because no one on Urth can read them.
"We have books whose papers are matted of plants from which spring curious alkaloids, so that the reader, in turning their pages, is taken unaware by bizarre fantasies and chimeric dreams. Books whose pages are not paper at all, but delicate wafers of white jade, ivory, and shell; books too whose leaves are the desiccated leaves of unknown plants. Books we have also that are not books at all to the eye: scrolls and tablets and recordings on a hundred different substances. There is a cube of crystal here-though I can no longer tell you where-no larger than the ball of your thumb that containsmore books than the library itself does. Though a harlot might dangle it from one ear for an ornament, there are not volumes enough in the world to counterweight the other. All these I came to know, and I made safeguardingthem my life's devotion."
***************************************************************************************************************************
It's really an amazing book so far. Things can only get more interesting.
P.S. The librarian is like over 100 or something and he's 7 or 8 feet tall, and blind; with a beard down to his waist. And he knows where most of the books are. :
:
Just munched down "On Killing" By Col Rex Grossmann. Examines the psychology of training soldiers to kill another human being, and what happens to you when you do. It's grim but a must read for any student of military history. It explains why up to WWII, only 15-20 percent of soldiers fired their weapons at the enemy, and why that percent increased to 90-95 in the Vietnam war. Unfortunately, he almost ruins the book on his last page. He says perhaps it's time for the government to start controlling 'assault rifles' or pistols, movies, tv, the internet and video games, with which I do NOT agree. YMMV 
Also reading several non-fiction accounts of WWII experiences and fishing books (ok, the fishing books are probably half fiction)
Also reading several non-fiction accounts of WWII experiences and fishing books (ok, the fishing books are probably half fiction)
Just started reading Resident Aliens today. I have to have it done by tomorrow night for a paper i need to write so that i dont get too behind.....but its so hard! So much good stuff in that book. I wish i would have started earlier so that i would have more time to digest everything, but so is the life of a college student.
Just finished "Acts of Vengeance" by Ronnie Speer. It's a book about how POW's were treated during the Civil War and how they were often victims of retaliatory acts conducted by the two sides. They were often shot or hung because the other side shot or hung some men. The first chapter is about a Union Major and 5 of his men who were murdered shortly after being captured in southeast Missouri. When Union officials learned of this they took 6 POWS from the Jefferson Barracks POW prison in St. Louis and shot them. As I read the list of the confederate soldiers names one sounded very familiar-Asa V. Ladd. of Dexter,Mo. age 34. I called my sis who know more of the family genealogy and she said yes Grandma James was a Ladd. After some digging we found that Asa V. was our grandmothers-grandfather. We knew that he had been killed during the civil war,now we know how and why.
I got the new Stephen King novel "11/22/63" for Christmas, which was a very enjoyable read. I also re-read "The Hobbit" recently (started reading it as soon as the movie trailer was released, lol). I might tackle the other Tolkien books if I can find the time. It's been ages since I've read them.
R.A. Salvatore's Transition - Book 1 - The Orc King
I've read the first 25 books. If you're a fan of Fantasy style writing these books are the shit.
flyfishn[/quote]
I agree love all of his books, I alternate between those and Stephen R Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series. That and all my fishing 2012 catalogs that just came in.
I've read the first 25 books. If you're a fan of Fantasy style writing these books are the shit.
flyfishn[/quote]
I agree love all of his books, I alternate between those and Stephen R Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series. That and all my fishing 2012 catalogs that just came in.
Currently have three books going. "History of the English-Speaking People: The Birth of Britian" Winston Churchill, "The Complete Father Brown Mysteries" G.K. Chesterton, and "Surprised by Hope" N.T. Wright. Guess I'm just in a British mood right now.
"Exceptional lives: a Survey of Exceptionalities" for a grad school class, "John Lennon: The Life" by Philip Norman for curiosity's sake, and working my way through "Walden" by Thoreau for the third time to satisfy my inner philosopher. I really enjoy reading, but I have found that prioritizing "required" readings for graduate school kills my ambition to read for fun. It's a shame really.
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