What are you reading?

[Thomas]

Finished The Masters (meh) and started Perfumes: The Guide. I'm only partly reading it for the subject matter, mostly for the style of writing.

 

[Nonk]

The Irish Story: Telling Tales and Making It Up in Ireland by Roy Foster.

Recommended.

 

[MetroStyles]

Originally Posted by Thomas

Finished The Masters (meh) and started Perfumes: The Guide. I'm only partly reading it for the subject matter, mostly for the style of writing.
What about the style of writing? Currently: The Autobiography of Ben Franklin and New York Stories

 

[Thomas]

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

What about the style of writing?

(...)

Well, first, when Turin or Sanchez like a scent, they're liberal with words, and usually manage to be engaging. When they do not like a scent, the review resembles a carpenter wielding a hammer - sharp, purposeful blows, and just as few as will get the job done. Sometimes one line or even less (KTHANXBYE), but there's no mistaking the fact that they hate it, or not worth hating.

Then there are the back-stories they'll tell about a given scent (provided they like it). Turin in particular has loads of these stories, and his style in telling them is crisp and economical. ("When I asked Lutens whether he had considered bringing back Nombre Noir, he shot me a look as if I'd asked him to being back Cholera")

Turin in particular is more old-world european in his approach and references, while Sanchez is more US streetwise (one Sanchez review of a men's fragrance: "I'm in ur bottle, borin ur gf")

They have some text at the front and an index at the back, and here's the funny thing about the reviews: They're not out to make friends with the expensive houses. Some $$$$$ scents are one star while Lady Stetson gets four.

I've covered a lot of the book and will probably keep it close at hand, since some of the reviews are more interesting and entertaning than some of the books I've been plowing though.

 

[landho]

Finished reading The Weird of the White Wolf, book three of Michael Moorcock's Elric saga.

 

[entropy kid]

Ugh ... I still think Moorcock was on serious drugs when he wrote that.

Me, I'm reading Among the Thugs by Bill Bufford. A pretty grim account of english football hooliganism in England and abroad. Just some preparation for the european championships in town in 6 weeks time...

 

[Dedalus]

I've finished Hume's Concerning Human Understanding and am working on Concerning Natural Religion. Part of me wants to quit and move on to Kant's Prolegomena, but I've already started it and it will bother me if I don't finish it. It's a fun and relatively easy read, anyways.

 

[dopey]

I've turned the various books I mentioned earlier in this thread into something of a theme party. After some John O'Hara short stories, I read Appointment in Samarra and then went through a collection of novellas, Hope of Heaven, a novel, some more short stories and even a collection of his newspaper essays. Much is out of print and scarce at the library, so I have been buying used copies where I can. I still need to get my hand on some of the other novels. Similarly, after my taste of Our Crowd, I got some more of Birmingham's histories - namely The Grandees and The Rest of US. The former is better than the latter, but neither are as good as Our Crowd.

 

[landho]

Originally Posted by entropy kid

Ugh ... I still think Moorcock was on serious drugs when he wrote that.

I don't doubt it. I read that he finished each of the Elric books in two weeks!

 

[Connemara]

I found a first edition of Galbraith's The Affluent Society at a book sale for 50 cents. I think I'll read that next.

 

[Missshopin]

Almost finished with Infidel by Aayan Hirsi Ali
it has been very interesting.

 

[Aficionado]

The Devil's Cup A History of the World According to Coffee Written by Stewart Lee Allen

 

[academe]

Just started my second reading of "The Confusion" by Neal Stephenson. Also reading "My Name is Red" by Orhan Pamuk.

 

[centalones]

Originally Posted by Tarmac

I just finished Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami.

I love that book. I've tried to get started reading it in its original language, but it's so hard. I have to look up 2 or 3 words per sentence, which makes it take 10 min. to read a single page.

 

[dkzzzz]

Nabokov "Glory", Horhe Luis Borges Collection of Stories.


I could never progress beyond first 20 pages of "Norwegian Wood". It is girly fashiony pseudo literature.



P.S. I have to admit one have to be Asian to relate to things like Asian literature, music or cinema.