Thread: What are You Reading?

Originally Posted by Cangooner

Very sad to hear of the death of Seamus Heaney today. First and foremost of course he was a poet - one of the greatest of his generation. But as a mediaevalist, my thoughts upon hearing this news turned immediately to Beowulf. Before his, all translations of Beowulf (that I'm aware of) were either slaves to the translator's notion of poetry that disregarded the beauty of the language, or slaves to the idea of literally translating the language, that sacrificed the wonder of the poem. He found a beautiful balance. If you have never read Beowulf, you really should as it is a fantastic story (not to mention a foundational text of the English language and all that...). And if you want to read it in translation, read Heaney's version.

All of this to say: I'll be re-reading Beowulf today.

When a light goes out in this world you can only hope that its energy will be transferred to a soul in waiting.

By William Graham Sumner. Amazing how political economy was so well described - in 1876. If you've not read Bastiate's "The Law", you lead a deprived life. 'About 1/4" thick. 'Plain simple language that had my jaw hanging open at how profound the simple things were about law.

Lonely Planet's 'Travel Writing'. This is essentially a book that repeats itself over and over by saying "It doesn't pay well and isn't worth it unless you love having no life and living in stress."


Mick

Originally Posted by MickR

... "It doesn't pay well and isn't worth it unless you love having no life and living in stress."
Mick

Sounds like my job around exam marking time.....

At the moment I am reading a jaunty little monograph called "Spatial Statistics" by B. D. Ripley. I can highly recommend it for insomniacs.

James.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

Sounds like my job around exam marking time.....

At the moment I am reading a jaunty little monograph called "Spatial Statistics" by B. D. Ripley. I can highly recommend it for insomniacs.

James.

The few pieces I have done in this field would have held my interest more than marking exams...And would have been much more fun to do as well.


Mick

Originally Posted by Jimbo

Sounds like my job around exam marking time.....

At the moment I am reading a jaunty little monograph called "Spatial Statistics" by B. D. Ripley. I can highly recommend it for insomniacs.

James.

I personally have never fell asleep while reading. Even the most boring book. If I lay it aside I can be out cold in 15 seconds.

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins, the author of The Hunger Games. She wrote it for children and young adults, but this half century old dude is enjoying it very much!

H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction. A beast of a book at over 1000 pgs, its all Lovecraft's stories. Its quite packed, his writing is very dense, descriptive, and imaginative.

Originally Posted by animalwithin

H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction. A beast of a book at over 1000 pgs, its all Lovecraft's stories. Its quite packed, his writing is very dense, descriptive, and imaginative.

Read lovecraft some time ago, also used to play call of cthulu role playing games, they were always a blast too, it gave the GM lots of scope for weird stuff to happen.

Originally Posted by edhewitt

Read lovecraft some time ago, also used to play call of cthulu role playing games, they were always a blast too, it gave the GM lots of scope for weird stuff to happen.

Mick