[underground]

I've only ever read 'Hard times' by Dickens and it was O.K. a bit full of caractures I recall.

Interesting. I thought there were a lot of caricatures in Madame Bovary eg. the druggist. I thought it was extremely well-written, and felt the theme rang very true. But I just couldn't sympathise with Madame Bovary herself. Maybe that's the point, but I never rate a novel as highly if I just don't like the main character in any way.
 I don't like Jane Eyre. I don't recognise humans as having emotions that are so overblown and consuming yet so well-articulated. I don't find it realistic and so I can't believe in the characters. Then I start to just see them as transparent agents of the story or means to convey the author's moral or message. I find this annoying and it stops me enjoying the book.

The last few years I've read all of Thomas Hardy and books about trees and woodlands, and Silas Marner by George Elliot. Struggling for time to devote to envelop myself in books to be honest, what with driving to work instead of using public transport, children staying awake past 9pm and the tiny bedtime window being so small I don't get beyond a couple of pages...

But... I do find Hardy's characters utterly believeable, and they are entirely constrained by the morals and judgements of their time - I think Dickens made a point with his caricatures, again due to the constraints of his time - the only way to make a point was to drive it home as he didn't have commonly known comparisons to draw on, especially for the higher class reader who may have shunned / never met the more common element. In Hardy you can read so much repression of emotion and expression (mainly about burgeoning love, love triangles and moralistic obligation that invariably ends in thrilling tragedy), and it is totally aligned with modern day / all our experiences, just without the luxury of phones, text messages, facebook, lack of what they saw as propriety and moral goodness, that they discuss tings in a very overblown and prim way, to our modern view.

I haven't read Jane Eyre, but I did watch Pride and Prejudice, and all I saw was similar, and could entirely believe the whole idea of social standing and overbearing mothers / long suffering yet dutiful yet obligate fathers to their overprivileged daughters making a massive show to the higher ranking social entities in order to get on in a world where women of a certain standing didn't work and were under pressure therefore to snag a rich man without really talking to him or excessively flirting or showing their knockers or legs..

I love it more than modern literature, because it takes me away yet I can entirely relate to the characters on a level I don't have to endure myself.

 

[krymson]

A previous colleague of mine (commercial manager in an IT consultancy - shows what an arts degree can manifest in career wise ?!?!) did her Masters thesis on how the role and character of a translator can influence a novel or text. 

As a Kindle owner, this is why I never read the freely available ebook classics as most are really bad translations or reproductions that go nowhere near the original.

As a Kindle owner, this is why I never read the freely available ebook classics as most are really bad translations or reproductions that go nowhere near the original.

It is true that even the best translations often rob the text of its original elegance and meaning. As someone who has read translations of Chinese texts i know this as much as anyone. However for meaningful classics even a translation is well worth reading.

Unless you are proficient at the oriignal language and have plenty of leisure time, chances are you will never read the original, and even if you did you may not catch it on the level of detail the translator would anyways, so I see absolutely no harm in reading a proper translation.

[andy popp]

Just about to go on hols and very happy with the reading I have lined up:

Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate
Patrick Hamilton, Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky, and
John Cheever, The Wapshot Chronicle.

Will report back.

[seankenny]

On a similar trend I've been focusing my classic reading on stuff written in English for the last year or so
Highlights have been largely J Conrad:

The Secret Agent
Typhoon
Under Westerrn Eyes
The Rover



Conrad is ace and The Secret Agent feels so contemporary. Read it and you'll think differently about terrorism (hopefully).

In a similar vein I recently read "The Good Terrorist" by Doris Lessing which was excellent, all about a botched terror plot by a group of leftist revolutionaries in the early 80s.

Also recently read The Way We Live Now by Trollope and Going Clear by Laurence Wright. TWWLN is sweeping and funny, lacks much psychological insight but it's very angry and really takes the piss. Any similarity between London in the 1870s and now is purely co-incidental.

Going Clear is a history of Scientology, it's out in the US but you can't get it in the UK thanks to our lovely libel laws. Well worth seeking out. Some of the stuff they get up to is insane.

Can't believe there have been plenty of posts about Russian books and no-one's yet mentioned Anna Karenina... 

[tomtom]

I've had an on off battle with Anna Kerenin for 20 years or so... I made it 1/2 way through once - then lost my copy. Subsequent attempts have been thwarted by undergoing too much heartache at the time to bear it, and not having a chunk of time to get stuck into it again. Its beautiful, but takes an effort to get engaged...

Its been on here before, but I've just finished Shackletons diarys.. amazing.

[SA Chris]

I'm working my way through The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry Garrard (as recommended on here a while back) - unbelievable.

[chillax]

Continuing on the Russian/Soviet theme (the author is Ukrainian), I'm nearly finished "Death and the Penguin" by Andrey Kurkov, which I picked up yesterday. Fantastic bleak humour. Could be a contender for my new favourite book (used to be Catch 22, which I've read about 5 times. Then read the sequel, which ruined the whole thing for me. Don't read the sequel).

Starting "...Ivan Denisovich" next, and very much looking forward to it.

As for non-fiction, I'm currently half way through "Dirty Wars" by Jeremy Scahill. The same guy who broke the whole Blackwater military contracting story. Good investigative journalism on US military policy and covert operations during the War on Terror. If its really how the world works, I'm scared.

[tomtom]

Death and the Penguin is amazing! I've found someone else who's read it!

[mrjonathanr]

Notes From underground - Dostoevsky
Ashes & Diamonds -  Jerzy Andrzejewski

These are not easy to read. If you like Conrad, dark themes and short books then Heart of Darkness is a must-read.

[SA Chris]

Starting "...Ivan Denisovich" next, and very much looking forward to it.

Well you will be going from bleak humour to just plain bleak. Brilliant though.

[butters]

Just ordered Paradoxical Undressing by Kristin Hersch (Throwing Muses) following a recommend on Radio 6.

Super SYKED for this - one of my all time favourite singer\songwriters - the epitomisation of Gin in a singer (makes me a bit depressed to listen to it but keep going back for more).

Blurb: "Kristin Hersh was a preternaturally bright teenager, starting university at fifteen and with her band, Throwing Muses, playing rock clubs she was too young to frequent. By the age of seventeen she was living in her car, unable to sleep for the torment of strange songs swimming around her head - the songs for which she is now known. But just as her band was taking off, Hersh was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Paradoxical Undressing chronicles the unraveling of a young woman's personality, culminating in a suicide attempt; and then her arduous yet inspiring recovery, her unplanned pregnancy at the age of 19, and the birth of her first son. Playful, vivid, and wonderfully warm, this is a visceral and brave memoir by a truly original performer, told in a truly original voice."

 

[andy popp]

So, Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate fully lived up to the (very obvious) War and Peace comparison - a sweeping, multi-stranded epic of Russia under siege that at the same time manages to be humane and intimate, with people you care about deeply.

Whilst on the theme of Stalin's Russia I can't speak too highly of both The Whisperers and Just Send me Word, both by historian Orlando Figes, I may mentioned before but bears repeating.

[SA Chris]

Considered a book giveaway / exchange on UKB? There's a fairly successful one running on Magicseaweed and used to be on UKC for a while. Either give away books (via post or local collection) or swap (usually gets complicated), then person puts it up once done with. I've got stacks of novels cluttering the house I will never read again. No judgement passed on what gets put up though!

[JackAus]

Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter.
Basis of the movie Shooter. Really really good book, thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommended. Liking the movie may help too!

Now reading Hunter's first novel: The Master Sniper. WW2 based, written from the perspectives of 3 characters from different sides. Pretty good so far.

[psychomansam]

Can anyone recommend any sci fi with a  political/philosophical bent? Apart from the culture (rip) or Alastair thingy?

[Duma]

Ursula K Le Guin

[lukeyboy]

Recently finshed reading "Everything is illuminated" by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Definitely worth a read, it's loosely about an American Jew who goes to Ukraine to delve into his family's past, specifically in relation to the Nazi era, and the subsequent relationship between his Ukrainian guide/translator. Very funny and quite different to anything else I've read for a while.

Wiki link (spoilers)

[Boredboy]

Can anyone recommend any sci fi with a  political/philosophical bent? Apart from the culture (rip) or Alastair thingy?

The Forever War is great old school sci-fi with a political / philosophical bent to it. I think it's a classic of the genre, a bit more 'basic' than the culture stuff but really good anyway.

[rodma]

Can anyone recommend any sci fi with a  political/philosophical bent? Apart from the culture (rip) or Alastair thingy?

Dune?

[r-man]

Can anyone recommend any sci fi with a  political/philosophical bent? Apart from the culture (rip) or Alastair thingy?

Duma suggested Le Guin - I remember the Dispossessed in particular being pretty good.

[Rocksteady]

Can anyone recommend any sci fi with a  political/philosophical bent? Apart from the culture (rip) or Alastair thingy?

I'm currently reading all the Foundation books by Isaac Asimov. I'm really loving them. Seems to me these would meet your criteria - kind of a speculation on how politics of a galactic empire would play out over an extremely long timeframe, kind of based on Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire I think.

Otherwise 'Daughter of the Empire' etc series by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts is fantasy which mainly focuses on political manoeuvring rather than battles etc.

The Sarantine Mosaic books by Guy Gavriel Kay are sort of about the philosophy of art and how art and politics and religion intertwine.
Tigana also by Guy Gavriel Kay I think is political in its premise and studies the ramifications of conquest and is also one of my personal favourites.

[Johnny Brown]

Not read any myself but M John Harrison's recent output sounds like it would fit the bill. His previous works include Climbers, the second-best climbing novel of all time, which I can recommend.

[rodma]

Not read any myself but M John Harrison's recent output sounds like it would fit the bill. His previous works include Climbers, the second-best climbing novel of all time, which I can recommend.

the best being Revelations? 

[SA Chris]

Bet he says Taking Leave

[Johnny Brown]

Greig's Electric Brae, by a mile. Taking Leave I enjoyed but isn't quite in the same class as that or Climbers.