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What are you Reading Now?

Excellent choices.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Odyssey despite it being a slow read. (I cannot for the life of me finish books for English class) The Iliad is providing a much more intense read but I chose it so it’s much easier to finish for me


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Gurkhal

Auror
Honestly I loathed the Iliad. The Odyssey wasn't bad though. (I had to read them both in 8th grade.)

Really? While the cast is male-heavy to say the least I must confess to be suprised that you would loath it. Would you mind if I asked what it was that made you feel this way about it?

Yeah I really enjoyed the Odyssey. Reading the Iliad is a lot harder


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I took a break about half-way through the Illiad. But I am looking forward to finish Montaillou and then get back into the Iliad and finish it before I move on to the Odyssey, after some intermediate reading.
 
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pmmg

Myth Weaver
I finished reading "Writing The Breakout Novel".

I wish to get back the hours spent reading that waste of time. My $10, too, while we're at it.

On to greener reading pastures now with Autumn's Touch.

I've read a few 'How to improve your writing' type books over the years. I don't know that one specifically, but in general, I find that the thinner and more to the point they are the better. There are a few by Noah Lukeman that I thought worthy of reading. There are a few by many others, I found not. Writers Digest had a series out, from which the few I had picked up seemed to have good content. One I see that is still in my keep pile is 'How to Write a Romance', which as I pull off the shelf and blow the dust off of it, is about 120 pages.

Oh and currently I am reading the The Eye of the World from the Wheel of Time series. This is my third attempt at it. I started and stopped twice already. I am determined to get through it, but so far (about 2/3rds done) it has not really grabbed me. Sorry Mr. Jordan :~(
 
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Really? While the cast is male-heavy to say the least I must confess to be suprised that you would loath it. Would you mind if I asked what it was that made you feel this way about it?



I took a break about half-way through the Illiad. But I am looking forward to finish Montaillou and then get back into the Iliad and finish it before I move on to the Odyssey, after some intermediate reading.

Sweet, I’m about a third of the way through The Iliad, the Odyssey was for a school assignment so I paced it slower anyways but I am reading Ulysses second semester so I kind of need to finish The Iliad soon


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skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Honestly I loathed the Iliad. The Odyssey wasn't bad though. (I had to read them both in 8th grade.)

What a shame. Those works are for grownups, not kids. We do this sort of thing far too often in public education. I doubt I'd have given you anything Greek at that age, but if I did, it'd be Aristophanes.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I'm reading Call for the Dead, the origin story for George Smiley (John Le Carré). Le Carré is always reliable. This one has some lovely plot twists. He does a brilliant job of giving us the MC as an utterly uninteresting character (toad-like) moving through an uninteresting world, and then bam! an inexplicable murder drops in his lap. And whoop! there are oblique references to a beautiful lost love. How did the toad win a princess? Le Carré is also a master of giving us so many clues we can't winnow out which ones are significant. All served with a generous dollop of British post-war cynicism.
 
What a shame. Those works are for grownups, not kids. We do this sort of thing far too often in public education. I doubt I'd have given you anything Greek at that age, but if I did, it'd be Aristophanes.

Aristophanes is good! I haven’t read all but I enjoyed the parts I’ve seen so far. I’m currently way ahead on reading level so I’ve been picking up some classic Greek literature. My next is Republic by Plato and to finish five of his Dialogues. Then it’s on to Sophocles with Oedipus.


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Mythopoet

Auror
I picked up a volume that had Agatha Christie's A Mysterious Affair at Styles and Curtain (the first and last Poirot stories) at the thrift store and read both of those. Curtain seems to be fairly acclaimed, but I thought it was pretty poor. There just wasn't enough Poirot since he was an invalid who stayed in his room at Styles almost constantly and so did no actual detecting, instead just waiting to hear reports from Hastings (forget his first name) every night as to what happened all day. That left the majority of the narrative as Hastings bumbling around and being profoundly stupid. Just didn't work for me. Especially as at this time Hastings has apparently been Poirot's partner in solving several mysteries in the past. And yet he's constantly doubting Poirot's ability and sanity. That works ok in their first story together, but not in the last.

I am now reading The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. Which FINALLY came down below $11-12 as an ebook. I've been awaiting this day. I read the book years ago from the library and it really had a huge impact on me and set my feet on the path to creating my current world. I've wanted to buy it as an ebook for ages now but couldn't get myself to spend that much. And it's even better than I remembered. In true Tim Powers fashion there's a lot of strange supernatural stuff thrown together in a really interesting way that you don't expect.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I'm trying to read Doctor Zhivago but it's proving a tough slog. Two things stand out. One, I'm about 15% in and I still can't find the main character. Pasternak jumps from character to character, location to location, even within chapters, with no apparent logic to it. I've seen the Zhivago name a couple of times, but have yet to meet the actual Doctor. This has the cumulative effect of having me not care about anyone in the story.

The second thing is what I might call emotional lurches. Characters will be talking about this or that, maybe a disagreement or a hope, and the language suddenly, almost instantly, goes hyperbolic. The rhetoric is so overwrought it sounds almost comical. In theater we would call it chewing the scenery. And there again, the cumulative effect is that I don't really care about any of it because the author has not led me to those emotional highs or lows but merely throws them at me.

I really, really want to like the book (never saw the movie). I love the time period, but not loving the author.
 
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