What 📔book are you reading right now?

[Eldacar]

I started out with German as a young Teenager with the Lotr, Hobbit, Silmarillion and a bit more. Since I have been about 18 or 19, and it could read English for more than 20 pages at a time without getting a headache, I reread everything and whatever had the name "Tolkien" written on it in the Professors own words, but I am far from finished. I am not reading it right now, but the Beowulf Translation and Sellic Spell is on its way to my doorstep.

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

Were there even any good books in the 30-60s? 🤔

 

[Eldacar]

Like the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit? If interested in Science Fiction, I enjoyed The Foundation Series, Solaris and The Left Hand of Darkness.

 

[Rivendell_librarian]

2 books I've read this year:

1. Can You Forgive Her by Anthony Trollope. A long 830pp English Victorian novel
It's the first of his political Palliser novels but istr I bought it second hand because it seemed like good value in pages per pence. Well actually it was pretty good. The story features three women who choose between Mr Safe but Boring and a more exciting risky rake - Hardy's Gabriel Oak vs Sergeant Troy though in this case the Gabriel Oaks are well off to rich but none are called Frank. One of the women is already married to Mr Safe but feels she was forced into it by society - and we are talking very high society here.

The polite language and subject matter invites obvious comparisons with Jane Austen but these were themes that other Victorian novelists wrote about - and there is more latent edge to this novel than with Austen. Also the main women characters are treated in greater depth than the men. By the end one feels one knows them.

 

[Rivendell_librarian]

The second book was a much shorter 170pp well known American SF novel: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Well I know I'm supposed to think this was really good given the seriousness of the subject (the bombing of Dresden in WW2) but I just can't.

Firstly, what is this mid 20th century male US SF writers obsession with pneumatic females (here: Montana Wildhack)? I guess the back and forth in time structure was supposed to be innovative, but I found it needlessly confusing. And this annoying repetition of "so it goes" which just got worse and worse. Dickens uses repetition, but to good effect e.g. "what the waves are saying" in Dombey and Son. I also found the black cynicism just too wearing to be funny. A pity given the importance of the subject.

P.S. Not just US writers e.g. Aldous Huxley.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I've read a few Trollopes, and have the Palliser series, but haven't tackled that yet.

 

[Deimos]

Were there even any good books in the 30-60s? 🤔

I'm pretty sure there weren't any books, good or bad, written in the 30s-60s. 🙄

 

[Beleg_Cúthalion]

I am rereading the Time Machine by H.G Wells. I'll probably be watching the movie again as well.

 

[Deimos]

I am rereading the Time Machine by H.G Wells. I'll probably be watching the movie again as well.

Uhhh... which movie would that be?
And you do know, of course, that there is one, and only one, acceptable answer to my question....you do know that...🤨

 

[Beleg_Cúthalion]

Uhhh... which movie would that be?
And you do know, of course, that there is one, and only one, acceptable answer to my question....you do know that...🤨

This one. It's one of my favourite movies, actually. I have not yet watched the 1960 version, only the 2002 one.

 

[Deimos]

I have not yet watched the 1960 version, only the 2002 one.

I 'm going to interpret your "yet" to mean a time well before the Second Coming....like before this decade is out. 🤨

 

[Erurávennë]

Just finished The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

What's your conclusion?

 

[Deimos]

What's your conclusion?

Ditto...would like to know also. 😐

 

[Elbereth Vala Varda]

Currently rereading a book written by a friend of mine. The Hoppy Hooligans: Lessons from the Reaper by Abigail M. Hanley.

Maybe I'm a bit biased, but I highly HIGHLY recommend. In many ways, it resembles Tolkien in the prose and premises. Faith-based fantasy and I really love it. There is a book 2 as well, and it's excellent also.

 

[Ugluk]

Re-reading Asimov's The End of Eternity for the first time in decades.

 

[Erurávennë]

What's your conclusion?

Well, I enjoyed it. It was more than a simple translation; alongside the Lay, Christopher Tolkien explains how Tolkien pulled from various poems, fragments of poetry, and history, and arranged these into his version (much like Tolkien's other posthumously published work). It is fascinating for this, the story, and the poetic structure.
You can imagine how much Tolkien was influenced by it because of the parallels to his work (especially older Middle-earth history/stories). I don't want to give too much away. Do you have any questions about it? I will 100% be checking out more of Tolkien's translated things.

 

[Glorfindel Goldtress]

I will 100% be checking out more of Tolkien's translated things

I highly recommend both The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun and The Story of Kullervo, the original inspirations for Beren and Lúthien and Children of Húrin. It's fascinating what elements were retained in the Tolkienian works.

 

[Erurávennë]

I highly recommend both The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun and The Story of Kullervo, the original inspirations for Beren and Lúthien and Children of Húrin. It's fascinating what elements were retained in the Tolkienian works.

I will look for those. Thanks!

 

[Idril Celebrindal]

I'm currently on the 4th book of the Pendragon Cycle, which is called, uh, Pendragon. The other three were Taliesin, Merlin, and Arthur. After I finish Pendragon there's Grail, and I think that's the end of the series. Not sure what I'll read after that.