*What book are you reading? (part 2)

[Betsi]

I'm currently reading Bob Mortimer's The Satsuma Complex and absolutely loving it.

I didn’t expect to like it but thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[frogwoman]

The other passenger by Louise Candlish. Seems a bit slower than the one of hers I just read, Those People. She's an automatic read for me although I was slightly disappointed with the ending of that one. This ones about awful London yuppies having affairs and someone gets murdered. She does horrible upper middle class hypocrisy really well. Not sure I'm enjoying it as much as Those People or The Only Suspect though, but we'll see

 

[Orang Utan]

Trying to manifest my concentration by saying I'm reading these books. Perhaps saying it will make it happen. At least I am now accountable to an impersonal thread entity.


So I am reading Homer's The Iliad and Robert Graves' The Greek Myths - what I've read so far is so exciting and interesting that I'm worried I'll never finish them as they've opened up a whole new world of interesting things that have piqued my curiosity. I've dipped into the Graves, which is very well written and entertaining - can see myself blasting through it, though I find myself getting distracted looking stuff up cos it's so interesting. I've only read a bit of the introduction by the translator, Caroline Alexander and it's even more fascinating, but therefore far too distracting, as I've already compiled a growing list of books on the huge subject. Just reading her talk about the Ancient Greek language is making my mind pop with connections from the etymology of certain English words to the background history and culture that I only little about beyond what I've gathered. I'm telling myself I won't fully understand some of these books, the Iliad especially, if I don't learn more about the Ancient World so far.
My father has a huge history collection so I had a look in his study to see if there were any popular (ie readable) overall histories of the Ancient Greeks. On another shelf I spotted Mary Beard's SPQR, so now I have to read that too, but of course I'm jumping the gun. I asked my dad if he had any recommendations. Don't ask a scholar such things - 'weeellll...it depends on who you mean by the Ancient Greeks and where you want to start...". But he did in the end say that I could just get an overview from Wiki, but that's another distraction that will guarantee no progress on the books I have here.

I am now also looking at the other books in front of me that I'm planning to read and wondering about those...


So in truth - what book am I reading? - everything and nothing
What do I think about it? It's too early to tell. Perhaps there are some reviews online. <opens yet another tab>

I'm amazed I ever get anything read. How do folks here do it?
I think I need to hire a storage space that operates as a Faraday cage, with nothing but a chair, a footstool and a side table in it and just go there a few evenings a week with just one book, a bottle of water and zero devices.

 

[Orang Utan]

BUT does anyone have any reccs for books, in a similar vein to Beard's SPQR, but on the subject of the history of the 'Greeks'?
(Tom Holland's Persian Fire looks fascinating, but it's not quite the thing I'm looking for - I grabbed it anyway of course)

 

[frogwoman]

A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara

Several people have raved on about this so, pleased with the value for money, vast number of pages, I set off to read this...and have been riveted with an almost visceral hatred of just about every character (all male) in this horrible, utterly improbable misery ride. To complain seems almost as mean as dissing Helen Keller but truly, it took over 600 pages for the central character to finally off himself (i would have done it at page three). A ghastly, manipulative wail about 4 New York glitterati - an actor, an artist, an architect and a lawyer (give me a fucking break).
My advice - don't.

I was thinking about reading this. I think I'll probably stick to thrillers etc though

 

[izz]

Just finished rereading The Cider House Rules again, hadn't read it for a few years. Published in 1985 and this paragraph feels prophetic:

'He heard her say, so many times, that a society that approved of making abortion illegal was a society that approved of violence against women; that making abortion illegal was simply a sanctimonious, self-righteous form of violence against women- it was just a way of legalizing violence against women'