JCC Literary high-brow thread

All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren is one of the best American novels of the 20th century. Also I've read everything by Larsen: Devil in the White City, Isaac's Storm, etc.

 

I did. I elaborated along with it using a simple statement.

 

Party pooper.

 

"Somewhere" is not "at the top".

Where it should be.

 

That top of the pile, just under "Building Harlequin's Moon".

Beautiful poetic sci-fi, like Niven couldn't have written it alone.
Jabbadabbado, did you read it?

 

Oh top of my pile is finishing Johnson's Churchil book and Stephenson's REAMDE.

 

Are you seriously telling us. Twice now. That Boris Johnson wrote a book on Churchill.
And that it deserves a place - twice - in a topic about what YOU think is great literature.
This isn't the What Are You Reading Now thread. This is the Literary High Brow Thread. Explain yourself!

 

My favorite literary genre is "Juggs" followed by "Hustler" and "Big Butts."

 

A noted classics scholar, descendant of King George II, and all-round top bloke wrote a book about one of the most revered Prime Ministers and statesmen of the 20th century.

How is this requiring explanation?

 

I'm pretty eclectic. I'll post my list at the end of the year of every book I've read this year. Somewhere. I'll post it somewhere, God help me.

I think it would be shorter if I posted what I absolutely refuse on principle to read. James Patterson. The Marquis de Sade. The Painted Bird. That's about it.

 

That indicates you would read 50 Shades or Twilight.

 

When I worked as a buyer for a bookstore, one of my bosses offered me money to read and review Twilight.... I think I made it about six pages in, before I put it down for good.

 

I have read both 50 Shades and Twilight for the sake of trying to keep up with modern culture. I stuck both of them out (lots of skimming) but dear god neither is worth it. Twilight was just, generically not good but 50 Shades was embarrassingly awful on all levels.

 

It's possible. Those books would certainly be annoying and laughable, I'm sure. But they would not be the deliberate anti-humanizing force that the books listed are.

I actually still own my copy of The Painted Bird because I cannot in good conscience give it away or even throw it away for fear of someone else finding it and reading it. However, I also cannot in good conscience destroy a book via burning or shredding. So I keep it on my bookcase; it's like Annabelle in The Conjuring. It's one evil thing that I can keep from hurting anyone else by just containing it. Yes, it's only one copy, but one man can only do what it is given to him to do.

 

Have you read Birdsong, Rogue?`

 

idk i read books

 

Have not, Ender. You're not the first to recommend it to me.

 

Oh man.

I know Literary Folk get big stiffies over Faulk's oeuvre but truth be told I feel like he peaked with this book. It's not that, say, Charlotte Grey was bad, it's just that the depth and complexity and emotion of the story has never been so well presented as it has in Birdsong.

 

Ramza, how much Foucault have you read? I read the first volume of The History of Sexuality last semester. Quite impressed, and was glad to see something a little more penetrable than Sartre- even Existentialism is a Humanism's interesting content was mired by being a bit too impenetrable. Reading the newer translation of The Second Sex during the Caitlyn Jenner fracas made appreciate how de Beauvoir can reach her point without too long of tangents. I was similarly surprised when I read Beyond Good and Evil without much effort.

Ulysses was a lot of fun despite intentionally putting the novel off for several years. I went through Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, most of Woolf, and all of Faulkner first, to be fair. Ulysses made me laugh a lot. Not a beginners novel, but really does deserve its place in the canon. Rogue 1.5, what was your theory on Finnegan's Wake being the greatest practical joke ever?

I might give The Lord of the Rings a retry thanks to my Norse mythology and epics course. I never cared for Tolkien since I found the the novels dry and characters flat. Going through the Prose Edda, Poetry Edda, and the Volsung Saga I can now see somewhat where Tolkien is aiming.

I gave up on The First Law after almost fifty pages. I dislike lazy world building. Angland? The Gurkish? A saw to my head, please.

 

I congratulate you on missing the point so spectacularly there, Sniper. Having said that, I'm glad you didn't, because it means you provide endless amusement as you strut yourself with undeserved superiority.

All that applause, my good man, it is reserved for you.

 

I read a lot of history and biography -- preferably big and comprehensive. Mostly it's on Western history -- in the past couple years I've read on the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, Churchill, Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, John Adams, the Thirty Years War, Lafayette, Franklin, Julius Caesar, the Crusades, the Black Hawk Down incident, the transcontinental railroad, and the Plantagenets. I've also put a priority on catching up with classic literature that I've missed out on, mostly American classics. I'm very big on Hemingway and Fitzgerald and looking to expand from there. I also have a particular fondness for hardboiled fiction -- Hammett, Chandler, Cain. I guess that's part of my general love for fun, pulpy adventure, whether it be the classic charm of nineteenth-century historical adventures or modern fantasy and science fiction, though I really read very little science fiction. And I don't even know what you'd call the Aubrey-Maturin books I'm reading now -- literary historical naval adventure? I don't really think in terms of genre as much as what interests me.

 

no I don't think I ever read that one.

 

I can bull**** anyone when it comes to talking about books, authors, genres...etc. I sell them. It's what I do

 

Like Havac, I also read a fair bit of history along with historical fiction and biography. I read also science fiction and fantasy. More recently, I have begun branching into reading the western literary canon.