Originally Posted by pikesome:
Dostoevsky? The Russians are too wordy and depressing for my tastes. Although I did finish C&P, something I couldn't do with War & Peace.
It's always fun to me to turn that first page of a long work like that. It's like embarking on the first step of a really long journey. I haven't tackled a large work like this since Pynchon's Against the Day. I definitely enjoy Dostoevsky more than Tolstoy, though. [Reply]
[QUOTE=NewPhin]I finished The Road last week as well. I really liked it, probably more than any other McCarthy book. As you said, it has an eerie, chilling feel to it. It reads like a parable or something.
The Road is an excellent work. I am not a McCarthy fan, but this went beyond the man as an author. I felt a sense of surrealism for days after reading it. I am thinking about assigning it in a interdisciplinary critical thought class that I teach. [Reply]
Originally Posted by JohninGpt:
No I haven't. I've always been fascinated with history, and kind of read him for the first time (the Great War series) on a lark. I found that the way he wrote alternate history was very plausable, even likely if certain events would have changed or not happened. I really enjoyed the whole series. But I don't know if I can get into the Sci-fi/fantasy stuff. From what I understand "Guns of the South" is based on a time traveller giving the Confederacy AK-47's, which is too big of a leap for the history guy in me.
I have read a couple other stand alone alternate histories by him that I enjoyed. One was "Ruled Britania". Sheakspeare as a resistance leader was pretty cool. And I can't remeber the other. Let me refill my Bubbakeg with rum and coke and I'll try to figure it out.
Ruled Britannia was very good, I also liked "In The Presence of my Enemies". He also did a decent two book series on an invasion of Hawaii following Pearl Harbor (Days of Infamy/End of the Beginning).
Worldwar is fun, but very hokey. The Guns of the South..well, obviously the war is over in the first 100 pages or so. The main reason I really enjoyed it was it's a fantastic presentation of a post-war Robert E. Lee, and very well researched. Especially the parts dealing the the 41st North Carolina Irregulars, IIRC.
I'd also suggest "Death is Lighter than a Feather". It's not Turtledove, but a great book about the Olympic/Coronet landings that Hiroshima made unnecessary. [Reply]
Originally Posted by NewPhin:
I finished The Road last week as well. I really liked it, probably more than any other McCarthy book. As you said, it has an eerie, chilling feel to it. It reads like a parable or something.
The Road is an excellent work. I am not a McCarthy fan, but this went beyond the man as an author. I felt a sense of surrealism for days after reading it. I am thinking about assigning it in a interdisciplinary critical thought class that I teach.
I think it would be an excellent work for critical analysis. It just has a certain gravitas to it. As I was reading it, I also couldn't help but think what a great minimalist art film the book would make. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Adept Havelock:
Ruled Britannia was very good, I also liked "In The Presence of my Enemies". He also did a decent two book series on an invasion of Hawaii following Pearl Harbor (Days of Infamy/End of the Beginning).
Worldwar is fun, but very hokey. The Guns of the South..well, obviously the war is over in the first 100 pages or so. The main reason I really enjoyed it was it's a fantastic presentation of a post-war Robert E. Lee, and very well researched. Especially the parts dealing the the 41st North Carolina Irregulars, IIRC.
I'd also suggest "Death is Lighter than a Feather". It's not Turtledove, but a great book about the Olympic/Coronet landings that Hiroshima made unnecessary.
One of my students is reading a Turtledove where aliens invade during WWII, forcing the Axis and Allies to unite with each other against the common enemy. [Reply]
Originally Posted by pr_capone:
Right now I am reading Don Quixote.
It is taking me some time... have to do it in chunks to get anything done really.
I read Don Quixote while I was backpacking across Europe (probably one of the greatest ways to get a ton of reading done, as you have so much time just sitting around or riding on trains). I loved about the first half of it, but it really seemed to drag after that. [Reply]
Originally Posted by NewPhin:
One of my students is reading a Turtledove where aliens invade during WWII, forcing the Axis and Allies to unite with each other against the common enemy.
That's Worldwar/Colonization series. Turns out the "Foo Fighters" they detected over Europe were recon for the little green guys.
It's hokey as hell, but fun.
For more serious reading, I just finished another trip through William Craigs "Enemy at the Gates" and am getting ready to start "The First Circle" by Solzhenitsyn. [Reply]