What are you reading?

[shade of dae]

Macbeth is from the outset the most villainous of Shakespeare’s heroes, at least out of the plays I have personally read. He is driven by ambition from the very beginning, when the witches hail him as the future king and he asks them to tell him more, rather than rebuking them as a loyal subject ought.

Hmm, I suppose that's true. I guess I never really thought Macbeth to be extremely villainous because I subconsciously considered those who are driven by hatred or personal vendettas to be villains, but I suppose that the true villains are those like Macbeth: Easily persuaded to do wrong, overly greedy, and backstabbing. When you have a villain that only fights against the protagonist because he feels he was wrong and is trying to right it, there is still a heroism in their character. But with characters like Macbeth (or Wormtoung from LOTR), there is true treachery.

Hmm, without an annotated edition handy, and not having read the play for a few years, my best guess would be that Banquo does, in fact, have descendants that will eventually become kings, probably in some sort of pseudo-historical sense, but not quite yet. The witches do say that he will beget kings]

The character Banquo was partially based on a historical figure of the same name. Today there is debate about this that I don't exactly remember, but the people of Shakespeare's time believed Banquo was an ancestor of the House of Stuart. James I was part of that line, so the sisters are likely referencing the current kings. On that note, historical sources suggest that the real Banquo was an accomplice to the murder.

I see. Thank you both for your replies, I wondered if that might be the case, but I had expected for Banquo's son to play a larger role in the play and was disappointed to see he had not. I thought perhaps that Shakespeare had just forgotten about that prophesy or something. After reading Romeo and Juliet and throughly disliking it, I have a tendency to look for errors in Shakespeare's work. I didn't know that Banquo was based off a real person, though, I'll have to look that up.

As for my own reading, I have just finished The Ball and the Cross by G.K. Chesterton, which combines the stunningly beautiful prose styling of Conrad or Emerson with all the scintillating wit of Wilde. Also just began reading The Pilgrim’s Regress by C.S. Lewis] The Ball and the Cross[/I] highly; kudos to ich1990 for recommending this book particularly and to bigsleepj for very probably influencing my decision to read The Man Who Was Thursday a few years ago (my introduction to Chesterton).

The Ball and the Cross is one of my favorite books by my favorite writer. Chesterton's mix of almost dreamy descriptions of places and people and his rather blunt and hilarious views on humanity and society I find refreshing. I'd love to re-read it, but I lent my copy to my humanities this last semester and haven't seen it since. I would, as I've said, recommend the Father Brown series, they're a very fun read, and are short, so I'll read a story or two during lunch break.

Also, about your The Importance of Being Earnest question, [spoiler] Although it isn't explicitly stated in the end, I always had just assumed that Algernon is christened as Earnest afterwards. After all, that is where both Jack and Algernon were going to do before they were interrupted by Lady Bracknell. [/spoiler]

[ich1990]

“Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide, 2nd edition”

Contained within this book is a collection of 88 or so tips to streamline one's life in this technology driven era. These tips were cultivated from the hundreds (thousands?) that have been published on the Lifehacker's website, so if you frequent Lifehacker.com, you will know exactly what to expect.

When I picked up this volume, I had little idea what it contained. It had been recommended to me, however, and looked like a quick read so I went for it. None of the tips are extremely revolutionary, and any person who has spent a lot of time with computers probably already knows most of them, but I found it to be a good reminder nonetheless (and it also helped me to realize the benefits of things like RSS, which I had previously written off because I didn't want to deal with a reader).

Thanks to this guide, I have cleaned up my inbox and organized it to Getting Things Done standards, set up Google to send me an e-mail when FMA chapter 108 scans come out (and also to alert me when new pages containing my name pop up, I am paranoid that way), arranged for all of my scanlations and web comics to e-mail me a link when they are updated, and set up text macro hotkeys for all of my frequently typed sentences (as well as auto expanders for acronyms via the program Texter). These seem like little things, but even a few seconds of saved time adds up over a few months or years.

Not all tips are useful, but anyone who spends a significant amount of time using a computer (which probably means everyone under the age of 60) should give the book a quick look over to see if anything looks useful. 9/10

Political thriller? Certainly the political intrigues are there]Hm. Shakespeare does have a sort of habit of packing his works with character studies. As I read it I saw King Lear as a sort of backdrop against which the politicizing was performed, rather than the focal piece of the story. A tragic aside that offered a break from the Edmund and Lear's daughters' machinations.

Looking back at the story, however, I see that King Lear gets a awful lot of screen time for being just a backdrop. Perhaps I have misjudged. That would also explain why I was bored with a few of the acts, they did little to add to the political intrigue, but added much to Lear's story. I wonder if I were to read it again under different presumptions if it would feel better paced.

@ich: I tried reading All the Pretty Horses once, but I got bored with it. But there's a movie version out (which I haven't seen). Also, he wrote No Country for Old Men.

That also was produced into a movie, wasn't it? Perhaps I will have to check it out. Or find some reviews of it at any rate.

[Kaori]

the people of Shakespeare's time believed Banquo was an ancestor of the House of Stuart. James I was part of that line, so the sisters are likely referencing the current kings.

I’m glad someone was able to clear that up with certainty.

Macbeth would have been written during the time of James I, so that explains why Shakespeare put so much emphasis on the prophecy about Banquo—not to reference events later in the play, but to compliment the current ruler, which is something often done by writers of the time, usually with even greater obsequiousness.

Chesterton's mix of almost dreamy descriptions of places and people and his rather blunt and hilarious views on humanity and society I find refreshing. [. . .] I would, as I've said, recommend the Father Brown series, they're a very fun read, and are short, so I'll read a story or two during lunch break.

Yes—have you noticed how often he describes sunrises and sunsets? Yet they are all fresh, different, and beautifully written. If I attempted the same thing I would find myself always reusing the same words and images.

I’ve heard good things about the Father Brown series (outside of CAA, also)]
Also, about your The Importance of Being Earnest question, [spoiler] Although it isn't explicitly stated in the end, I always had just assumed that Algernon is christened as Earnest afterwards. After all, that is where both Jack and Algernon were going to do before they were interrupted by Lady Bracknell. [/spoiler][/QUOTE]

[spoiler]I had considered that also, but thought it unlikely given the fact that Jack had called off the christenings, and Lady Bracknell had specifically forbid Algernon to be christened again, just a few pages ago. There’s also the fact that (as one of the characters pointed out), it would be absurd for both of the men to be named Earnest, but with so many absurdities in the play anyways, I suppose that doesn’t really rule out the possibility.

The convention with this sort of ending is to wrap up all the loose ends quickly, explicitly, and neatly, so I can’t help but regard Wilde’s silence about whether Algernon keeps his name or is christened Earnest as an imperfection in the play’s form—although it is very hard to believe either that Wilde committed an oversight this glaring or that an aesthete would tolerate any imperfection in form. It would be interesting to see what literary critics have to say on the matter.[/spoiler]

C.S. Lewis The Pilgrim’s Regress

Note to anyone considering reading The Pilgrim’s Regress, ever: get an annotated edition (assuming one exists). It’s a book in which French, German, Latin, and Greek are all interspersed liberally throughout, so footnotes are needed--for those of us who don't understand all of those languages, at least. In addition to translation of the foreign languages, some explanations of names would be helpful, as well as of some of the more obscure ideas and thinkers that John encounters. I recognized many of them, but I still could have benefited from an explanation in some places. Also, this book should probably be read in conjunction with Surprised by Joy, since it is partly (though not entirely) autobiographical.

Anyways, it's an amazing book, both as a history of thought and as a history of an individual spiritual journey. Comes across as being universal specifically because it is so personal. I admire the earnestness with which Lewis engages the different schools of thought that John encounters and also Lewis’s way of conveying that longing which he later terms “joy.â€

[Okami]

I just finished Don Miller's Blue Like Jazz, and am now reading Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis for the first time. Again, continuing the theme of spirituality.

[rocklobster]

Just started Warriors the New Prophecy Book 1: Midnight.

[ST. Attidude]

I don't know if graphic novels fit with thread but since its not manga I'll post it here anyway...

Maus : A Survivor's Tale Vol. 1: My Father Bleeds History - Art Spiegelman

[bigsleepj]

I don't know if graphic novels fit with thread but since its not manga I'll post it here anyway...

Maus : A Survivor's Tale Vol. 1: My Father Bleeds History - Art Spiegelman

It fits. And Maus is maybe one of the best graphic novels of all time.

[yukoxholic]

Finished Memoirs of a Geisha! Love that book now on too, The Blue Hour by Lilian Pizzichini.

That book made me cry.

I know what you mean! Chiyo (Sayuri) had to endure so much. Though for some reason every time I progressed in Memoirs it always reminded me of "The Good Earth". I have no clue why but I suppose it is because both stories result in some pretty heavyhearted times. XD

[Atria35]

Just finished The Shining, and I have to say, it was terribly interesting. I enjoyed the author's use of the unreliable narrator, even though it was fairly obvious from the beginning that you coldn't trust Jack (it's been done where you really couldn't tell the narrator was unreliable until near the end, and those impressed me). But the story was scary. And I loved it!

[Winry]

Just started the fifth book in the Wheel of Time series =)

[rocklobster]

Atria, if you like Stephen King, I highly recommend his Dark Tower series.
Anyway, I am now starting Faith of the Fallen, book 6 in the Sword of Truth series.

[bigsleepj]

I'm currently reading Olympos, the sequel to Dan Simmons' Ilium. Not as well written as the previous book, but still good.

[Kaori]

Reread Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones; I always enjoy her sense of humor.

Currently rereading God in the Dock by C.S. Lewis. Some of the essays overlap each other, but there is also a lot of good, solid reasoning and apt use of metaphor. That Lewis has such a personable, (usually) accessible writing style is probably one of the main reasons he continues to be so popular.

[SnoringFrog]

Just started the fifth book in the Wheel of Time series =)

I'm inching my way through the fourth, The Shadow Rising. Thusfar, I've been surprised at how easily I've recalled what all is going on, with a three year hiatus between the third and fourth books for me.

[Atria35]

The Kieli light novels. She is so cynical, yet so naive..... I really enjoy them!

[uc pseudonym]

Finishing up what western books/series I have available...

Y, The Last Man: Whys and Wherefores by Brian Vaughn

A suitable conclusion to the series. I’m not sure that a certain major character’s death was really necessary (as opposed to a ploy to make the ending more tragic). I also would have preferred to be given more information about the cause of the initial incident, since the most explored answer is one of the worst. Still, a good ending with one of the most satisfying epilogues I’ve read in some time.

Scott Pilgrim Volumes 1-3 by Bryan Lee O’Malley

Since so many people I know like this series I decided to give it a try. It is alright, but not for me. The story relies heavily on readers identifying with the characters, and most people here should know how I feel about that. I enjoyed the inside jokes and the incongruous battles, but those aren’t enough of the content for my taste.

Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson

The novel spends about half of its time with each side of a major war. There really is no lesser of two evils, so I found myself supporting Lether simply because it had all the interesting characters. Brys is the first smart swordsman in this series (I’m counting Whiskeyjack as a commander), which makes him fun to read. Tehol and Bugg have some of the most consistently intelligent dialogue I’ve read in some time.

However, my enjoyment of this book waned throughout. Because of the way Tehol and Gerun were introduced, I was expecting a showdown between different kinds of geniuses with plans decades in the making. That was disappointing, especially because their plans didn’t turn out to be critical to the plot.

The war itself also disappointed. It was good enough for standard fantasy, but I was expecting something as massive in scope as the Pannion Dominion. Some things were good, it just didn’t feel like a legitimate clash of empires in the same way. Hopefully this is mostly setup for these characters to engage the larger Malazan world.

[the_wolfs_howl]

[quote="bigsleepj (post: 1402935)"]I really admired Notes from Underground, though I believe more people admire the book than actually like it. It is well written for what it is]

I'm one of those who genuinely liked that book, as you probably already know. There's no way I could have grasped it all in my first reading, but there were several times when I just gaped at the words on the page and thought, "That's me! That...is...me." And it wasn't a pleasant thought, let me tell you. Very sobering.

[Blacklight]

Recently finished Artemis Fowl and The Spiderwick Chronicles.
Just yesterday got from the library:
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident
Never Ceese(Decided to try it out...)
Some time ago, The Bride Collecter (I know that after the Ted Dekker novels I read I decided that he wasn't an author that I was a big fan of, but I decided to check this out anyway.)
A couple of manga, but that's for a different thread.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan

I have an interesting history with Robert Jordan. I read The Eye of the World because my brother said I had to read it before I could read any of his other books. I initially disliked it. I don't know if I would dislike it now, but after the first 200 pages, Jordan's style began to grow on me immensely. I finished it and moved onto The Great Hunt. The Great Hunt remains one of my favorite books, and it had all I liked about Jordan without all that I disliked.

So then I moved on to the third book, pumped as I could be. The book was disappointing at first. The first hundred pages or so were kind of bland, with Perrin being kind of boring, Rand being kind of emo, and Min, Lan, and Moiraine being the only characters around that I like and Min being the only one doing anything interest.

The next three hundred pages are the series low point. Egwene is not my favorite, but I can tolerate her, especially if she's around characters I do like, like Elayne, Nynaeve, and Mat(the best character). Having two hundred pages of Egwene doing nothing but be paranoid that everyone is a Darkfriend is terribly boring. Mat's chapters are few and far between, and Elayne and Nynaeve do nothing made for a part that nearly made me drop a series I really liked.

And then Jordan decided that having a plot makes books better. And it got awesome. Bringing in the Aiel and shifting back to Perrin doing interesting stuff and a cool new character with Mat being awesome and Moiraine using balefire makes for a much cooler story. Everything was brought together and made for a climax as good as The Great Hunt's. My brother informs me that the next three books are some of the best in the series, and I have torn about a hundred pages into The Shadow Rising, which doesn't disappoint one bit so far, beginning with my other favorite character, albeit continuing to make her the Chew Toy.

[Atria35]

Recently finished Artemis Fowl and The Spiderwick Chronicles.
Just yesterday got from the library:
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident

So... since you got the second book, does that mean you like the series?

[Blacklight]

So... since you got the second book, does that mean you like the series?

I could say that I liked the first book enough to keep reading, but I can't know if I like the series until I've read the rest of it... I'll find out soon enough though.

[Sheenar]

Currently reading: The Mentally Sound Dog: How to Shape, Train, & Change Canine Behavior to brush up on some things to prepare for working with Handsome.

I love this book so far. This trainer actually understands dogs and uses methods that work for the domestic dog --she knows how to read their body language and behavior. And I love how, right at the beginning of the book, there is this not-so-subtle reference to the techniques that Caesar Milan helped make so popular (and have created so many issues that I won't get into here).

I am looking forward to really delving in with this book. I believe it is going to be so helpful in learning how to better interpret dog behavior and how they learn --and how to better my training techniques for Handsome.

[Htom Sirveaux]

Just started Terry Pratchett's Thief of Time today. Looking good as always, plus now Death's raven has a name: Quoth. Brilliant.

[Silent Seraph]

Just finished Ted Dekker's Showdown and C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters. Definitely a good thought-provoking read (Screwtape Letters that is). Lewis's sense of humor is diabolical, just diabolical. About halfway into Ted Dekker's Sinner which is very...interesting just like Showdown.

[Hohenheim]

In the middle of reading The Faith of a Physicist: The Reflections of a Bottom-up Thinker, by John Polkinghorne.

Like Polkinghorne's other works, I find myself agreeing with quite a bit of what he says here. The main difference, though, is that since this is one of his earlier works, he explicates on his ideas and arguments more thoroughly and with more detail than in his later works. As a result, some of the questions I had regarding the ideas in his most recent books are, ironically, being answered by an older work. Also, as usually comes from a detailed book, this is a more difficult read than what I am used to from Polkinghorne, primarily in that he uses more evidence and theories from his scientific background for his theological and philosophical arguments (chaos theory is one example of this). Then again, I suppose this is what you would expect of a quantum-physicist turned priest. Regardless, I've been enjoying this book immensely, and hope to gain a better understanding of Polkinghorne's view of science and theology as I continue to read.

[Kaori]

The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh. The best part of this book is its ending: everything comes together and all the loose ends are tied up very well; it's executed with great skill, which is something I can admire. There were a few passages in the book that I found humorous, though less than I expected (I enjoy satire sometimes and black humor not infrequently, but somehow, this book just did not do much for me).

Regrettably, I have to say that this book's satire just does not quite seem to strike home to me, perhaps because of my expectations of the genre. According to my view, satire at its best ought to make us recognize our own flaws and weaknesses (while laughing at them). And although I have quite a few flaws and weaknesses, they just are not the same as the ones that the characters in this book have, nor do I find myself thinking that people in real life are really like the characters in this book. A few of the author's comments about Americans were apt, but overall, I am left feeling that I missed something, because it just does not seem to hit home to me. It might just be a failure of perception on my part, I suppose.

The Autobiography of George Müller. Elsewhere, I have read some of the more dramatic stories about Müller’s answers to prayer. His autobiography, in contrast, is rather more reserved; he gives a minute account of the amounts money he had at certain days and times, and the amounts of donations he received (often at the very day or moment it was needed) and intersperses this with advice and thoughts about the Christian life, ministry, and so on. Although without particular literary merit, his laconic style is well-suited to the subject matter, as one can see that he is not exaggerating or playing on the reader’s emotions but is simply giving a straightforward account of the events connected with his ministries.

[rocklobster]

Finally starting on Ranger's Apprentice #4, The Battle For Skandia.

[Radical Dreamer]

Started reading Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? today! This brings my "currently reading" count to about three, because reading one book at a time simply isn't how I operate. XD I'm also still reading Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart. XD

[FllMtl Novelist]

Almost done with The Claidi Journals: Wolf Tower by Tanith Lee. My Mom read it and kept rereading parts of it, so I wanted to see how it was. I like it enough so far, and I'm really curious about how it will end. I've only got around 50 pages left, and I don't see how the author can tie all the loose ends up without making a big change in the pace of the story.

[That Dude]

I'm reading quite a few books right now, but mainly focusing on Relentless by Robin Parrish, and Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton.