What book are you currently reading?

[User169]

I'm reading Inside The Centre - the life of J Robert Oppenheimer by Ray Monk. Brilliant analysis of a complex man.

Hadn't realized Ray Monk had written this. I really enjoyed his Wittgenstein and Russell biogs and will look out for this one too.

 

[flatflr]

Aye. I've got a liking for Russian Literature and History (translated unfortunately) but Solzhenitsyn is a difficult one. The Gulag archipelago is one of my favourite books and full of bitterness and righteous anger, but away from his personal experiences I think he can be a pretty turgid writer.
Not everyone's samovar of tea, but Mikhail Bulgakov is the man. Anyone who has the cajones to write to Stalin asking to leave the country because his works kept getting banned has my admiration. Its still a bit of a mystery why Stalin didn't off him.

I was told about Master and Margarita by a Russian friend and tried reading it, got part way through and realised I didn't understand the Russian culture enough, went off and read Tolstoy (bangs on a bit), Dostoyevsky (depressing) and Solzhenitsyn (as you say pretty turgid away from the gulag), eventually went back and finished Master and Margarita and understood it a little better I really got into Solzhenitsyn's (felt honoured to be able to visit his grave in Moscow) and other's gulag books, including some of the escape books such as As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me and The Long Walk.

 

[flatflr]

If you like that genre, have you tried Faithful Ruslan by Georgi Vladimov, a twist on the gulag...through the eyes and mind of a camp guard dog. Very good.quote]

Will give that one a try, Gulag Boss by Fyodor Mochulsky (strangely it's about the boss in a gulag camp) was pretty interesting.

 

[Licramite]

the forever war again

 

[Licramite]

I was told about Master and Margarita by a Russian friend and tried reading it, got part way through and realised I didn't understand the Russian culture enough, went off and read Tolstoy (bangs on a bit), Dostoyevsky (depressing) and Solzhenitsyn (as you say pretty turgid away from the gulag), eventually went back and finished Master and Margarita and understood it a little better I really got into Solzhenitsyn's (felt honoured to be able to visit his grave in Moscow) and other's gulag books, including some of the escape books such as As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me and The Long Walk.

A musical version - called the Russian winter -is being enacted in Bristol in February

 

[Yellow Fang]

Aye. I've got a liking for Russian Literature and History (translated unfortunately) but Solzhenitsyn is a difficult one. The Gulag archipelago is one of my favourite books and full of bitterness and righteous anger, but away from his personal experiences I think he can be a pretty turgid writer.
Not everyone's samovar of tea, but Mikhail Bulgakov is the man. Anyone who has the cajones to write to Stalin asking to leave the country because his works kept getting banned has my admiration. Its still a bit of a mystery why Stalin didn't off him.

Stalin seemed strangely tolerant of writers. A poet friend of Boris Pasternak (Dr Zhivago) was picked up by the secret police, and Boris made some noise about it around town. He received a phone call from Stalin, who listened to him bluster and then accused him of not being prepared to defend a friend. Yevgeny Zamyatin, the author of the dystopia novel, We, also wrote to Stalin for permission to leave the country. Surprisingly it was granted. This may have been a mistake, because George Orwell ripped off the plot, characters and the ending of We for 1984.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

A musical version - called the Russian winter -is being enacted in Bristol in February

They made it into a porn movie too.

I much prefer Chekov myself.

 

[Saluki]

It by Stephen King, again. I quite like it

 

[Tigerbiten]

I've just started reading the "Toaru Majutsu no Index" set over at baka-tsuki as I've both read the manga and watched the amine.

 

[slowmotion]

The Gamblers by John Pearson. Very badly written. The Clermont people were interesting, but absolute monsters it seems.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Viz - The Camel's Toe.

 

[asterix]

Viz - The Camel's Toe.

That figures. How's the goat?

 

[nappadang]

I just read The Dinosaur that Pooped a Planet. A literary Tour De Force and highly amusing.
Obviously, my 3year old son helped me with some of the longer words but we both really enjoyed it.

 

[andylaw79]

I just read The Dinosaur that Pooped a Planet. A literary Tour De Force and highly amusing.
Obviously, my 3year old son helped me with some of the longer words but we both really enjoyed it.

Another literary giant that has had more than a few reads in our house is 'Father Christmas Comes Up Trumps'. And on a less intelectual note I'm currently reading Karl Pilkington's 'The Moaning of Life'.

 

[nappadang]

Books play a huge role in our house. I wrote the above post tongue in cheek but it is a brilliant kids book and I was hoping others would suggest books in a similar vein for us to read to the littleun.