What 📔book are you reading right now?

[rollinstoned]

Hollywood: the Pioneers, It relates to the silent movie era - my favourite era. Tons of pictures, and little interviews from the surviving (at the time of publication) stars.

Circe has moved further down my list as I am reading some other non-fiction first.

 

[frodolives7601]

Right now I'm reading a book I was given in a reading group I'm part of.

It's Let me tell you about a man I knew by Susan Fletcher. The man is Vincent van Gogh during his time in the asylum and the narrator of the book is the wife of the warden of the asylum who got to know van Gogh while he was painting outside, Now you could say this is a woman's novel but I'm enjoying it: it captures the feeling of Provence very well and the human story of the characters is quite fascinating.

That book sounds intriguing, Rivendell_librarian. I may add it to my list. I just finished re-reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer and started a novel called Miss Iceland by Audur Ava Olafsdottir. It's about a young woman writer who comes to live in Reykjavik during the '60s. I've never read a novel set in Iceland before, so the setting interests me as much as the characters.

 

[Alice]

Recently finished Les Miserables. I think it's better than War and Peace

Spoiler alert!

Why?

1. The exciting action sequences that often come at the end of each book. My favourite is the escape to the convent with Javert and his men closing in but there are many others e.g the confrontation in the Gorbeau house when Valjean sticks the hot iron (meant for his torture) into his forearm.

2. The time taken to describe the life of the bishop of Digne - skipped over by the dramatic versions but so important to what Hugo is saying.

3. The religious themes combined with scepticism of the Catholic church e.g. Valjean carrying Marius on his back and the description of life in the convent

4. The darkness of the relationship between Valjean and Marius: so important to Hugo's message about prejudice against convicted criminals

5. Fewer characters than W&P yet each one is an essential building block to the story.

6. Gavroche and what Hugo is saying through him e.g. the moment when Gavroche asks
"This word, Hercle, struck Gavroche. He sought all occasions for learning, and that tearer down of posters possessed his esteem. He inquired of him:—

“What does Hercle mean?"

7. Javert is not a monster but a believable character who has taken a wrong path

8. Hugo even evokes pity for the Thenardier parents though he paints them much darker than the musical! They also are Les Miserables.

9. Eponine's teenage love for Marius and its consequence - tissues required

10. The digressions

There is one moment in the film of the musical that scores for me: when Javert puts his medal of honour on the dead Gavroche. That's not in the book as we next see Javert chasing Thenardier who escapes into the sewers which plays an important part in Hugo's story.

Oh. It is a bit sad to hear that War and Peace is worse

 

[Olorgando]

Oh. It is a bit sad to hear that War and Peace is worse

No need to be sad, Alice.
I've read neither book. but have heard and read a little about both, and both are considered absolute classics.
And it is a matter of taste, anyway.
So while librarian may consider Les Miserables better that War and Peace, that may easily "even better" than tis great book, not necessarily putting down W&P. librarian may still consider W&P better that a whole lot of other books.

 

[Alice]

No need to be sad, Alice.
I've read neither book. but have heard and read a little about both, and both are considered absolute classics.
And it is a matter of taste, anyway.
So while librarian may consider Les Miserables better that War and Peace, that may easily "even better" than tis great book, not necessarily putting down W&P. librarian may still consider W&P better that a whole lot of other books.

Oh, I understand. I just was a bit sad because I considered War and Peace the greatest russian classic in high school

 

[Olorgando]

Oh, I understand. I just was a bit sad because I considered War and Peace the greatest russian classic in high school

Well, even there, some people might prefer say Dostoevsky to Tolstoy. And comparing authors from different cultures, writing in different languages, is difficult. I'd have to read anything originally written in Russian, French, Italian, Spanish etc. in translation. As I have read books by JRRT in both of my native languages, English original and German translation, I know that even for these closely-related languages, some things get lost in translation. How much more gets lost when translated from more distantly related languages like the Romance or Slavic ones I can only guess.

 

[Rivendell_librarian]

Oh. It is a bit sad to hear that War and Peace is worse

I didn't mean any criticism of War and Peace! Les Miserables is very big in France.

 

[Alice]

Well, even there, some people might prefer say Dostoevsky to Tolstoy. And comparing authors from different cultures, writing in different languages, is difficult. I'd have to read anything originally written in Russian, French, Italian, Spanish etc. in translation. As I have read books by JRRT in both of my native languages, English original and German translation, I know that even for these closely-related languages, some things get lost in translation. How much more gets lost when translated from more distantly related languages like the Romance or Slavic ones I can only guess.

Yes. So I rarely read anything which isn't written in Russian or in English. Because translation spoils a book

 

[Alice]

I didn't mean any criticism of War and Peace! Les Miserables is very big in France.

I understand

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I didn't mean any criticism of War and Peace! Les Miserables is very big in France.

That's an understatement. At Hugo's funeral, the crowds of mourners were so huge, several people were crushed to death.

 

[Olorgando]

Yes. So I rarely read anything which isn't written in Russian or in English. Because translation spoils a book

That might be overstating it a bit - but then again, I can only judge for books I've read in both English and German (almost all English originals and German translations). I bought "The Children of Húrin" back in 2007 in the German translation first, as it was readily available in almost all bookstores. I had to order the English original (as I have had to do for every JRRT-themed book in the English original since then). The difference, I felt, was in fine points that many would miss.
What is often more difficult to translate is humor. I started reading Douglas Adams's books, the first three, in German: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979), The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980), and Life, the Universe and Everything (1982). Play on words, double meanings can be untranslatable. The same can be true for poetry. Only the first two books of Christopher Tolkien's The history of Middle-earth book series were translated into German, The Book of Lost Tales volumes 1 and 2. The third volume being The Lays of Beleriand (that's only a guess, but see below) probably put a stop to the translations. It could also be a matter of sales. The whole HoMe series was certainly published in much smaller printings than either LoTR or TH, or even The Silmarillion, by orders of magnitude. All of the HoMe books also are even more difficult to read than The Sil.
But then ...
The Children of Húrin, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, The Fall of Arthur, The Story of Kullervo (ed. Verlyn Flieger),
Beren and Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin were all translated - but this was after the films ...

 

[Rivendell_librarian]

And of course there is the danger of rating a book you've read more recently better than one you've read a while ago.

This applies to other popularity lists as well. Audiences tend to go for PJ LOTR, Titanic and Star Wars V whereas critics go for Citizen Kane, Vertigo and Tokyo Story for instance. But I tried to allow for that.

 

[rollinstoned]

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS by H.G. Wells.

the first time I've read it, and it is unbelievably good.

 

[rollinstoned]

Currently I am reading a great hefty book on the subject of the Hobbit and it's developmental stages - "The History Of The Hobbit & The Return to Bag End" by John D. Rateliff. It has the unfinished 1960 Hobbit rewrite manuscript text included inside with essays and tons of other stuff. A great book and so very interesting

 

[frodolives7601]

I am actually re-reading The Hobbit for the first time in maybe sixteen years! I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Tolkien seems to have such a great time telling the story. And I relate to the tension between Bilbo's love of routine/longing for safety and his adventurous spirit.

 

[Olorgando]

Currently I am reading a great hefty book on the subject of the Hobbit and it's developmental stages - "The History Of The Hobbit & The Return to Bag End" by John D. Rateliff. It has the unfinished 1960 Hobbit rewrite manuscript text included inside with essays and tons of other stuff. A great book and so very interesting

I commented on Rateliff's HoTH earlier after having read it:

https://thetolkien.forum/threads/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now.10249/post-535905

Rateliff certainly matches the standard set by Christopher Tolkien in the latter's HoMe - including being at times overwhelming in his detail, so a treasury trove for trivia nerds. 🥴 😃

 

[Ealdwyn]

LotR again. 😂
Started my annual re-read on 22 September, and reading in a leisurely fashion.

 

[frodolives7601]

LotR again. 😂
Started my annual re-read on 22 September, and reading in a leisurely fashion.

I started The Hobbit on the 22nd, too! I'm curious--when you mentioned "reading in a leisurely fashion," how much do you usually read a day (or a week)? This time around, I find that I'm just reading one chapter per evening, and I'm enjoying that slower pace.

 

[Ealdwyn]

I started The Hobbit on the 22nd, too! I'm curious--when you mentioned "reading in a leisurely fashion," how much do you usually read a day (or a week)? This time around, I find that I'm just reading one chapter per evening, and I'm enjoying that slower pace.

I'm reading a chapter a day, too. I agree it's a really nice pace, although it's difficult not to hurry ahead to favourite bits.
Tonight is Tom Bombadil - not a favourite chapter of mine - but tomorrow is the Barrow Downs, which I'm really looking forward to.

Last year I tried to read it day by day with the events of the story, but it was too uneven: some days get a couple of lines in the book, others get 2 chapters, and the 2 months they spend in Rivendell is too long to wait.

 

[rollinstoned]

I commented on Rateliff's HoTH earlier after having read it:

https://thetolkien.forum/threads/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now.10249/post-535905

Rateliff certainly matches the standard set by Christopher Tolkien in the latter's HoMe - including being at times overwhelming in his detail, so a treasury trove for trivia nerds. 🥴 😃

No slight to Christopher but i think so far Rateliff has slightly less 'dry' prose, which makes the reading much easier. Some of the Chris essays can drag on for ages..

also-
The name changes are so interesting, that first draft is vastly different too. The first chapter draft in fragment form - 'Pryftan' fragment. All of the characters have their personalities but it's very embryonic, Also the overall plot was going to be so slightly different from the hints dropped in the dialogues.

It is a lot of info to digest but I really do recommend the book to anyone with the Tolkien fever

OH and the inconsistencies that are identified with the Humphrey Carpenter Biography on some manuscripts is quite eye-opening. It raises the question of a possibility that other 'facts' could be incorrect within the bio.