I will have a lot of time for reading in the next few months. Usually I read things like genetics or archeology but I should educate myself given the chance. Please list one great book (hopefully pre 1900) by a great author that I ought to read, English language or in translation, and why. Jim was asked to get me some 'light' (under 8 oz paperback) classic fiction from the library and returned with the Norton Anthology of English Literature so I already have Beowulf, Chaucer, biographies of various writers (the Victorians were pretty promiscuous!), essays, lives, etc. Hardly 'light'. Please no murder mysteries, anything with much violence, sci fi or westerns, just the famous stuff that people refer to elsewhere, hopefully annotated.119 responses total.
Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
Did Jim take a kitchen scale to the library?
This response has been erased.
(it's not pre-1900, but it's close: _Invitation To A Beheading_ by Vladimir Nabokov.)
Oliver Goldsmith: The Vicar of Wakefield http://www.classicreader.com/booktoc.php/sid.1/bookid.1284/
_Life on the Mississippi_ by Mark Twain is one of my favorites, and will keep you busy for a while. How much you'll enjoy it depends on how much you like Mark Twain's style of humor, though.
didn't jime get you any de'sade?
Cock & Bull by Will Self. it's a quick read about a woman that sprouts a fully functional penis followed by the tale of a man who grows a vagina on the back of his knee.
This response has been erased.
Dracula, by Bram Stoker. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. (I've read the first, but not the last.) King Solomon's Mines. The Picture of Dorian Grey (and the rest of Wilde, while you are at it. ;) Beau Geste (may not be pre-1900). Too bad you eliminated Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; his "Professor Chandler" stories were fun, too. Same for H G Wells. The Invisible Man and The Time Machine are both 'must' reads. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Treasure Island. Kidnapped. Robinson Crusoe. Gulliver's Travels. The complete works of Edgar Allan Poe (the *real* inventor of the modern mystery story, no matter what pretenders may be put forward). If you can't read anything else of his, read "The Purloined Letter." But "The Raven" and "The Bells" are both excellent.
Sindi, if you like medieval writing and King Arthur, I recommend the works of Chretien de Troyes. He was a big influence on Mallory, writing a couple of hundred years earlier, and gives great insight into the origins of the Norman version of the legend of Arthur. The legend of Arthur has gone through more than a thousand years of revision and adaptation. Everything most people have ever read was based on Mallory's "Le Morte D'Arthur", but Mallory stood on the shoulders of other giants and adapted their stories a great deal. You've got the time. It can be a lot of fun looking up and reading older Arthurian stories.
Speaking of Arthur, _The Winter King_ and its two sequels are very recent but very good, too.
Will someone PLEASE explain to me who in the Hell chooses books based on WEIGHT?!
(Holding a book over your head while reading it gets very tiring, very fast.)
The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, preferably in verse translation. The basis of western literature. Anything by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
HEY, GELINAS< that MAKES SENSE. I always get that, myself.
I thought Aylmer Maude's translations of Tolstoy were very well done. "War and Peace" is a great novel, and a decent pageturner, but the fairy-tale-loving kid in me has always loved Tolstoy's short works based on Russian folktales and fables (e.g. "The Tale of Ivan the Fool", "How Much Land Does a Man Need", "What Men Live By", etc..) There's a decent collection of these recently published under the title "Walk in the Light and Twenty Three Tales." Sindi may or may not like the fables. Tolstoy's spin on them is unabashedly Christian but in an inspirational and not condemnatory sense. If she can get past the religious aspect she'd probably enjoy the political and spiritual elements of them.
I was, among other things, a Russian major, and read Tolstoy, Pushkin, Chekhov and others in Russian (and War and Peace in English). Tolstoy's Childhood is my favorite. Thanks for a really carefully thought out selection of books. I will send JIm after specific titles. Today he went through the paperback section A-M and picked out authors he recognized. The weight is because I am reading in bed mostly on my back with the book propped up on a small pillow on my lap which leaves two hands free. I sit up 1/2 hour at a time, walk a few minutes (looking for things to make me walk - I went after the sewing kit but Jim had piled a lot of stuff on top that is still on the floor - I have some trouble getting things off the floor). Jim weighed a couple of nice art books he got me first time I sent him for something lightweight - 1.9 kilos. He was going to get me one that was twice that weight but it was reference. I have no fat for padding. The extra weight lands on my bones against the futon. I am thinking I might want some sort of history of English fiction to go with the reading. Norton (which is also sort of heavy) has good biographies of the authors who did poetry, plays, essays, but not novels. Please recommend some good books bout English literature. World literature - I have read Tale of GEnji and Dream of the Red Chamber and a bit of Boccacio and Don Quixote. What are the best few books of other cultures? Borges confuses me. Egyptian, Syrian...?
Get Jim to rig up a sheet of (plexiglass) over your pillow, at reading height. Nice big books will have more words per page, requiring less frequent page turns.
re #18: given your experience in Eastern European languages I figured there was a pretty decent chance you'd already read lots and lots of Tolstoy but I figured it was worth posting anyway, as other Grexers might be scanning this item for recommendations as well. On a completely different note, and for something much more lighthearted than Russian literature :-) you might enjoy some of Bill Bryson's humorous travel books, particularly "A Walk in the Woods" and "Notes From a Small Island" which deal, respectively, with walking the Appalachian Trail and walking around Britain.. I've enjoyed the sense they give of being someplace else and I can imagine that right about now there's an awful lot of places you might rather be..
It's short, but I thoroughly enjoyed Gaston LeRoux's "Phantom of The Opera" as the prototype for the detective novel.
which is a nice read while playing a cd of the zoogz rift classic: "Mobey Penis"
I suggest Mika WAltari's "The Egyptian", John Julius Norwich's "A Short Story of Byzantium and jared Diamod's "Guns, Germs & Steel" ... GREAT BOOKS!!! ALL OF THEM!
Rivethead by Ben Hamper
English Lit: Pride and Prejudice, Lord Jim, Wuthering Heights, Northanger Abbey. Conrad in general has thoughfutl tales of expatriots. The Brontes and Austen had a wonderful eye for social customs and ironies. Conrad's are more adventure/action stories. The Brontes and Austen are more oriented to daily life.
Kipling and Saki.
By the way, some of the older books people have mentioned here may be available online from the Guetenberg Project, if you have a comfortable way to read electronic texts.
I'll second the recommendation of Wuthering Heights - I'm not an afficianado of 19th century literature, but I liked that one a lot. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pisig, is not pre-1900, but it's good anyway.
Jim got out Northanger Abbey in paperback, and a Conrad. I am not up to reading things on the computer for long yet. What Jim got me from the library in A-M paperback. And why I am avoiding the 20th century classics as they are rather strong on death and violence and general misery. Jack London short stories - all about people freezing to death or killing each other. Hemingway stories about people killing each other and making each other miserable. Graham Greene stories which I have no idea of what they are supposed to accomplish. Are they funny? Turn of the Screw/Daisy Miller - Henry James. We had to read Turn of the Screw in high school. Ghost story. Austen Northanger Abbey. Will rerea. Good intro. Bantam. Snow Country (Japanese) 20th century about unhappy people. Jim says he eats 700 calories of popcorn a day (wrong item). George Eliot Adam Bede Sinclair Lewis Main St. (read it twice, nobody tries to kill anyone) Jude the Obscure (too close to 20th century, everyone unhappy) Dickens Oliver Twist (Jim liked the movie). I find Dickens annoying as a writer and he was a jerk. Cooper Last of the Mohicans. I hated this in high school and will get a chance to remember why. I don't think I like action novels. Conrad Heart of Darkness. Not for reading in the middle of the night when things keep me awake Charlotte Bronte Shirley (no other Bronte paperbacks there). Joyce Dubliners - what should I be getting out of this? Wish there were lightweight paperback books on recent science. The appalachian trail book sounds fun - we hiked part of it for a day, Mount Jim, and fed fresh potatoes to people grateful they were not freeze dried. They were fanatics and would not skip any part of the trail even if it meant backtracking to get back to it after going to the post office to pick up their CARE packages from home with the freeze dried food. Some people who wanted to do the whole trail in one season started in the south and walked half way north, then flew to the north end and walked south to the middle to avoid the hot weather in mid summer. We hiked up to the top with a wok and hiked down and it got dark and we camped next to the trail and discovered in the morning we were 100 feet from the road. People were looking at us funny. Any recommendations of other good travel books or autobiographies or biographies?
Somewhere we have a couple of little tables that go over you in bed but I don't know if they are just for sitting up and eating on or you can get them low enough for reading. I hope to be able to sit up more soon.
(maybe this should be linked to books?)
This response has been erased.
The Dubliners is probably a good introduction to Joyce. Its short stories are not as full of the stream-of-consciousness that characterises Ullysses and Finnigan's Wake and so are still accessible. They are about people living in Dublin, Ireland, at or about the turn of the century. I should re-read it.
Though I agree that he was annoying as a writer.
Joe slipped in. The "he" I'm referring to is Dickens.
For minute, I thought it was me. ;)
This response has been erased.
I do not know
This response has been erased.
I said he was an annoying writing, IMO. Sindi called him a jerk
Dickens was paid by the word..... Maybe this should be linked to humor? Sindi is being given a universal list of great and not-so-great books from people with a multitude of reading preferences. She might as well be reading the library card catalog (which is on line - great characters but not much of a plot).
This response has been erased.
read some bukowski!
This response has been erased.
Re #42: I think people expect more from Dickens because he wrote "classics". No one is going to be reading "Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot" in 100 years.
This response has been erased.
Until this century, the "classics" were the books everyone read and liked and gave to their children, who read them and liked them. Mark Twain and Charles Dickens and Thomas Mallory and Shakespeare are great for that reason. Nowadays, the "classics" are defined by experts in literature. They give "classic" books awards like the Nobel Prize for Literature, or the Pulitzer Prize, on the basis that they can't be understood by most people, or enjoyed by anyone. To the modern experts, the concept of the story is old hat; it's outdated. I have no idea what modern "classics" are about or what they're for. If I could know that, they wouldn't be defined as classics. The stuff I read is stuff even my grandparents, or their grandparents, could have enjoyed if they were around now. I like stories, and don't consider post-modern writing to be interesting at all. I am uncultured, because I have not adapted to the definitions of those who have redesigned greatness.
This response has been erased.
Thomas Pynchon is not a jerk.
re #47: Please.. The canon of western literature has long been filled with boring or pretentious works that practically nobody enjoys (hands up from everyone who had to read "Ethan Frome" in high school!) and yet classic tales which touch on timeless themes manage to survive year after year. But then you don't really feel uncultured -- in fact you're showing all the signs of feeling a smug superiority of those who also enjoy newer literature..
Not at all! I think it's great there are people who like that stuff. I do, however, respectfully object to them being allowed the power to declare their preferences -- inaccessible to most literate people -- to be "the great works of literature". Real culture is not exclusive by design.
Nobody has allotted them that power. To whatever extent you care about the books other people tell you you're supposed to like, that's your own failing.
I can't suggest much, with the initial rejection of science fiction. I'd be pretty curious as to why "no sci-fi", though. Some stuff like Ursula LeGuin is extremely good stuff which is just barely about the future, or rocket ships, or whatever else tends to define science fiction for most people.
So what 19th century sci fi do you recommend? I used to read sci-fi in junior high. My brother is an addict and goes all over the world to conventions. My favorite (read-over-again) fictions: To Kill a Mockingbird - beautifully written, good plot, good characters, but the author never wrote again. Why try to improve on perfection. Anything by the modern Indian writer (who lived all over the place) Vikram Seth. Golden Gate novel in prose set in SF about an assortment of typical characters leading complicated lives and being nice to each other. A book on how he managed (illegally) to return from being a student in China to his home in India by the direct overland route. A Suitable Boy novel set in India about real people being nice to each other. A strange one about musicians whose title I forget. I heard of him because the translator's journal had had part of Golden Gate translated to Russian. The Once and Future King was fun. Post 1900 art and music and literature other than the popular stuff seem designed more for the critics than the audience. Jim liked 'Opera in America' (Jim, that is not fiction). It described the opera houses too. Social history.
I'd recommend almost anything by Ursula K. LeGuin, although she's not 19th century since she's still alive and writing. "The Lathe of Heaven" is a pretty good starter - it's about dreaming. Most of her stuff is essentially sci-fi because it is set in some far future, but basically it's a way for her to set up her characters in much different societies than we have in reality.
My favorite writer is Ferrol Sams. He has a book of short stories called, "The Widow's Mite," and a series of three books about one Porter Osborne, Jr. And a couple others.
I just finished an interesting book called "HEre's to the Ladies", by Carla Kelly, about the frontier forts in the late 1800s. She worked as a ranger and living historian at a couple of the forts, and these are fascinating stories. But of course it was published this year. Recommended anyhow. She used several true incidents in her stories and, as a writer, she is very upbeat, even wehn the story is tragic. She lets the quiet heroism of everyday kindness and life shine through. If you want 19th century, I'd recommend Kipling (I love Kipling, both his poetry and his prose -- Kim is my favorite, although I 've read Stalky and Co. about twenty times in the last three years) and H. Rider Haggard (She is his most famous work, I think, although I like King Solomon's Mines) -- I read him when I was in kindergarden, which started a lifelong adoration of things Egyptian and pharaonic.
I've already mentioned R. L. Stevenson, H. G. Wells and A. C. Doyle, all who wrote scienti-fiction in the 19th century. (Jekyll and Hyde, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and the various Dr. Chandler stories.)
And then of course there's Jules Verne -- "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea", "From the Earth to the Moon", etc.
(NB: That should be "Professor Chandler"; I don't know that he was a doctor.)
I read Kim twice but not the other Kiplings. I have downloaded this item and we will see what is in the catalog. Today I am still so exhausted from our day on the town Friday that I have no energy to even turn pages so it may be a video day instead. I can type with my arms resting on the table.
My recommendations is to go to http://www.commonreader.com/ The "Common Reader" also has a very nice print catalog. This is a book company run by compulsive readers. Every book they list is a book they have read and liked, and the advertisements are personally written reviews of the books not publisher's ads. Of course, all the reviews are glowing, because they pretty much only sell the books they liked. For me, this has been the the most reliably successful way to browse for books. I haven't liked every book I've bought there - the people there have good taste in books, but not everyone's taste is the same - but none of them have been dogs either. Their prices aren't necessarily the lowest on the net, but I usually try to buy books I found through their catalog from them anyway.
I wont' be buying books. Tried to use the library catalog but it was not accessible this morning. I only buy dictionaries. Saves space, the library can buy the others. They take requests and bought all sorts of strange things that we asked for including a book on what we thought was residential but turned out to be agricultural insulation techniques. We could heat the house with pigs or apples. Here are some suggestions from another translator (who is doing a lot of reading while waiting around for radiation). ----------------- <<I am going to educate myself about literature. The local computer conferencing people are all listing their favorite books. Sort of random way to study.>> I have an eclectic bunch of favorites. Do w/this list what you will. from h.s.: the trilogy by Sigrid Undset [Kristen Lavransdatter, The Ax, and The Cross, I think]; she got a Nobel prize for the first one in the '30's. Story of a young girl in 14th century Norway and her life and experiences. Fascinating to me then and now. from college: Catch 22 by Heller from afterwards: The World According to Garp by Irving [wonderful quirkiness, combination of comedy and tragedy and the unlikely. a couple of my female friends hate Irving and Garp, bkz they are anti-feminist. I just enjoyed it for what it was; guess I'm not PC enough in the eyes of some people. ohwell] anything by Nelson DeMille, but the best is Gold Coast, second best Word of Honor. [for fun; sharp writing, my first response to Gold Coast was--wow, he writes popular books expecting that his audience will actually have a brain] amazing little books: Painted Bird by Jerzy Kozinsky King Rat by ..... can't think of the author. same guy who wrote Shogun I think. Ah. yes. James Clavell. novels by Pat Conroy [I'm reading Prince of Tides now, and loved Beach Music -- two good beach reads]. His first autobiographical book was interesting -- The Water is Wide - and this summer I went to Daufuskie Island where it actually took place [he taught in a 2-room still-segregated schoolhouse in 1969] Anthony Adverse [one of my mother's; a fascinating book at the time I read it, though I can't tell you now any of the details] Tom Jones by Fielding for fun and mental gymnastics, I enjoy some detective novels written by women: Reichs' books: Deja Dead, for instance, and Patricia Cornwell's books w/Kay Scarpetta character in them, and Grafton's A is for Alimony series, B is for..... etc. Comments?
I don't think you'll like Grafton's books: too much violence. I like them, though. King Rat was the first Clavell book I read. It turned out to be the first in his Oriental series: King Rat, Shogun, Tai-pan and Noble House. (He may have written another after Noble House. Noble House links them all together.) I liked these books, too. I remembered an American book to add to the list: _The Virginian_, by Owen Wister. If I remember correctly, the chapters were originally short stories written for magazine publication. He adds a frame to tie them together into a novel. I thought the ending a little weak, but it was still worth reading. I suspect this was the first appearance of things that later became cliches.
I'm reading "Shogun" right now. I'm not sure I like it enough to look up Clavell's other books, but am only just starting the 2nd volume so maybe it'll dazzle me later.
Second volume? I remember Shogun being a single paperback. Thick, but just one volume.
Segou by Marise Condee. But I honestly don't know if it's translated into english
In hardcover, Shogun came out as two volumes.
What classic and good Dutch fiction is available in English? I don't recall ever reading any at all? Jim has heard of Shogun.
Jim brought me seven books, all 20th century. He had carefully printed things out and alphabetized by title. The library does it by author.
"The Decline of the West" Oswald Spengler
"Girls Lean Back Everywhere" by Edward De Grazia
How the current interpretation of the First Amendment with regard to
obscenity developed. Includes excerpts from several publications which
were subjected to prosecution in their respective eras.
"A Fish Caught In Time" by Samantha Weinberg
The fascinating story of the relatively recent discovery of living
members of a species of fish thought to have been extinct for over 400
million years -- the Coelecanth.
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" by Richard P. Feynman
Stories and anecdotes by and from the life of one of the greatest
science educators of modern times.
"Pimp" by Iceberg Slim
What can I say? Read it. It's a bit dated, but it is a fascinating
window on a subculture.
I'll second the recommendation of Feynman's autobiographies. They're a lot of fun.
Keesan, there aren't many Dutch writers translated into English. Names that come into mind are: Jan Wolkers (not so good, very 70s), Harry Mulisch (a tad better, but pretentious), Frederik Hermans (one of my favs, but I wouldn't know whether he ever made it to translations) Some modern day writers (80s, 90s. Mostly poorly done, but youths tend to like this violent, shitty, drug scene kind of books) Alltime fav: Multatuli with the book Max Havelaar.
WHAT THE FUCK IS PRETENTIOUS WRITING? SOMEONE PLEASE PRETENTIOUSLY WRITE ME A PARAGRAPH SO I MAY SEE SUCH.
^^^^ i'd recommend also reading any of the Sarai Reader editions. i am on the first one and it's quite good. http://www.sarai.net/ you could ask the library to get these or maybe i could send you a copy when i'm done... www.autonomedia.org is a good source of things too.
Are there any good classic Dutch books pre 1900 worth reading? I have at least a weeks' reading before Jim goes back for more. Jim says to print the authors very clearly this time spelled last name first (with van etc.)
Well, if you don't mind going back to the 15th century, there's Erasmus of Rotterdam, author of "In Praise of Folly" and other blasphemous writings. (Erasmus was a secular humanist type guy.) It's not fiction, though.
I am looking at Prince of Tides. I have learned to ignore the summaries on the jackets which tend to be unrelated to the book itself. I wonder who writes them. 'dark and violent past' 'dusty glitter' 'huge brash thunderstorm of a novel' 'she is willing to sell her kids down the river to achieve them' (is this English?) 'cruel patriarch' 'shocking fate'. Makes it sound like a cheap thriller. The reviews are written much better. I do a lot of my reading in the middle of the night when I cannot sleep. This one is a bit heavy and does not stay propped open. Never thought I would judge a book by its binding.
I like Van de Wetering, but his books are certainly violent in places.
Did you even consider my suggestions? All of them were enjoyable and edifying reading.
I only got a few books from the list suggested by the other translator so far. The rest is printed out on two pages. My library website is no longer working (they must have changed something) so Jim went to the librarians and got a new URL which I will help him figure out how to use today, to see what is actually available at the library. I condensed the suggestions (up through a few days ago) to two pages of titles and authors and we will work on those next. Lots of interesting looking books there. Maybe I can handle hardcovers in a week or two. I looked at Ursula LeGuin but cannot get interested in fantasy, sorry. It was educational to see what she has been writing, which seems well done but not for me. Currently reading Gold Coast, 1990 but said to be a classic already, and quite well written. It does of course have a fair amount of sex and violence but I guess you are stuck with that if someone is trying to be a best selling author. The intro was interesting -apparently books are now written by authors working with agents and publishers and movie companies. I read Northanger Abbey when I could not get back to sleep until 3 am. That was skinny enough to hold in one hand.
I just finished *Seabiscuit*, by Laura Hillenbrand. I know almost nothing about horseracing, but the book is very entertaining and very carefully researched. And it was written by a woman who rarely leaves her apartment, because of illness. I recommend it.
Time to print out a third page. The online catalog is not terribly convenient compared to what is at the library (maybe with pictures it works better) but if you type in the author you get a list of works. I tried typing in a title (A Walk in the Woods, which is by Bill Bryson) and got not that title but everything they have by the author. They don't have that book but they have some other travel books and several on the history of English in America, for instance. Jim looked up Jared Diamond and found six copies (?) of Guns, Germs and Steel, which he said he read (on tape) - how the natives here were killed by disease. We will continue with the library catalog but I have reading matter for a week here already (and ten videos including Dinner with Andre, which I can take about 20 minutes of at a time).
Q. What do read ...... back?? A. The tattoo on your girlfriend's (.)(.)
Keesan doesn't have a girlfriend, of that sort anyway. (I'm assuming here, but just call it a hunch.)
Keesan has lots of girlfriends all over the world. None have tatoos. I read Gold Coast which was well written but I could have done with less sex and violence. I suppose he had to throw in enough to make it sell. That is the problem with 20th c books, they are written usually to sell. Not that Dickens did not have the same problem, I guess, plus the 19th c people had to plan on serialization. Reading Jude the Obscure. The sex object just threw a piece of dead pig at the hero. This must be symbolic of her lack of intellectual background (her father raises pigs). The hero is busy teaching himself dead languages. Clearly not the ideal match but what is a novel without conflict?
Huh?
Today after blood draw we talked to the nurse who explained what to expect at the next chemotherapy which adds a new chemical Rituxin that takes 4 hours by itself and may cause fever or chills in which case they slow it down. The remaining sessions will only be about 5 hours total. I get a bed, or a chair, and can walk a few feet from it if I get bored. Bring lunch (and maybe supper). Eat first. Six days of prednisone pills in addition. On the way back we stopped at the library. There is no need for me to wear a mask or avoid people this week. Only bone marrow people wear masks. We did not have the list this time. Bill Bryson is popular and everything is on loan. I got some more paperbacks of authors I recognized and some videos. We are picking up my armchair and some small cushions so I don't need to lie in bed all day. Had to clear a path to it first. Jim thought my fried vegetables in a bread crust looked good last week so he got two this week. Sort of greasy but he liked his 1.5. From the hosp. cafeteria for $4 each plus tax. Time to go recover and watch videos. Jim wants to get me more ice cream. I did not each too much of the last box of it ;) Our friend who works at the hospital was walking in late to work just before Jim came back for me with the car and has lots more pears. Which reminds me we need to get the dryer. Maybe I have the energy (before Monday) to peel and core pears.
Got to the library, but without the list. See 167.
Used a reclining chair. Was able to walk about 30 ft. to the restroom, which you need to do occasionally, especially since that red stuff goes right through you. 4-5 hrs is about right. Other patients (breast ca?) came and left a lot quicker. RNs also gave me some meds (benadryl?) to start off the day. Didn't appreciate the sleepiness, so asked that the dosage be cut down on subseqent treatments. Had Rituxan from the start, but was scheduled for only 6 cycles. Made me warm/feverish the first time, so the rns slowed the drip to a trickle. Didn't seem to have any immediate side effects thereafter. Was explained that Rituxan had been tried on older ppl & seemed to be beneficial, so they began to use it on younger folk, altho they didn't know if it would work on us. Read an article about a person who was treated with just Rituxan when he had a relapse.
Jim's sister gave him a list of her favorite authors of detective novels set in ancient Rome. She says there is minimal violence. I got out Island by Aldous Huxley, 1962, the era of psychotherapy curing everything, pre HIV. Some books could only have been written during certain decades.
Sindy, Multatuli's Max Havelaar is pre 1900.
If you've not yet read it, _Musashi_ is interesting. The translation I read is recent, but Musashi was a 17th century Samurai.
basho: narrow road to the far north
I will make a complete list and see if I can get to the library again. I don't need to go out again for ten days. I may try using the online catalog and sending Jim for books when I come closer to running out. I am currently reading Emma (left by slynne, thanks) and Tom Jones and watching a library video made for british TV about how a family volunteered to live three months in a house restored to 1900. They are having trouble with the coal stove and doing laundry by hand. I bet they never went camping. It sounds pretty luxurious to me compared to places I have lived in other countries. March (England is warm enough not to need coats then), running hot and cold water to the tub, a flush toilet outside and a pan to use at night, a stove instead of a fireplace, paved floor, a special copper tub for laundry, a bathtub. I lived one place with an outhouse at the far end of the garden, a cold-water faucet and cement sink outdoors as the only plumbing, no heating, a wood stove in the kitchen (the landlady slept there - she smoked so I cooked in my room on an alcohol stove from Greece with two heats, on or off). I got one bucket a week of hot water to wash me (in a screened unheated area) and my laundry (outdoors at the faucet),. I left in November. Outside the city people got their water from wells, often at a distance.
I really liked that PBS show, 1900's House. I liked the other ones they have done too, like Frontier House, 1940's House and Manor House.
poop on the floor house
I have an elderly dog so they might be able to film that one in my house soon.
I had not heard of the 1900 house being shown here on TV, but I guess that explains the American-language commentary. I hope they kept the house afterwards as a museum. I live in a 1920s house (original sink, kitchen cabinets and linoleum) and have lived in 1850 and 1840 but there was electricity. Upstairs in one of the houses was a round switch that you turned, and I have one pushbutton type (I put that one in myself). What was the 1940s house like? (I lived in a 1950s apartment when growing up in the 1950s but the house was probably 1900).
I'd be interested in seeing 1940's House if they rebroadcast it. My early childhood was spent in a 1940's house, so I'm curious how well their re-enactment fits with my memories.
eating-paintchips-off-of-the-floor-ghetto house
I predict they won't do that one.
1940's house was a wonderfully series. It took the family to the left side of what we would call of duplex in a London neighborhood, starting them at the eve of WWII in England. In the time the family spent there, they went through the entire war, including rationing and loss of supplies.
...and Luftwaffe bombing runs?
(They'd have to be careful with that, lest they suddenly need to change the name of the series to "1940's Rubble.")
Ah, so it was a British 1940's house during WW II. Probably much different from the Indiana 1940's house that I grew up in.
The farmhouse I grew up in was built in the 1860's and had gas lighting fixtures converted to electicity. It was double walled brick, and had a carriage house attached to the rear made of wood.
I hear they are filming another series like that. Colonial House or something. They are going to do a whole town though so it might be called something different. I almost applied to be a part of it but decided that I didnt want to torture myself like that.
Yup, they had to build an Anderson. They then got loudspeaker air raid blasts at any time, as done by the crew taking care of the family. the family also got some vintage radio shows/newscasts.
Yesterday we watched one of two Sister Wendy art videos that slynne dropped off. She is rather opinionated but they were fun. Cleveland. I am nearly done with Tom Jones, started Adam Bede, and may tackle the library catalog online again soon as we are running short on bread and cheese and the library is not far from the coop.
sister wendy is cool, slynne turned me on to her as well.
Sister Wendy always makes me smile
I read Emma, Auntie Mame, and Wuthering Heights, all from slynne.
I can't remember the name of the author of Auntie Mame, but he also wrote about an attempt to make a movie in Mexico. Fun stuff!
Last night I read Waterlily, also from slynne, a fictional account of life among the Dakota Sioux, including the distribution by the White Man of blankets with smallpox. Lots of people also died of other infectious diseases and were killed by 'the enemy'. In all the 19th century novels people were also dying like flies in infancy, in childbirth, or from 'a fever' caught by getting wet feet. In Wuthering Heights the author managed to kill off 4 of 6 main characters and get the two narrators sick for a month each as well. The richer people got sick more in the novels - maybe because they kept marrying their first cousins. Lilyflower's author was the third wife of someone whose first two wives (and two kids) died of some infectious disease. Maybe the flu used to be worse?
Re #115: Author of Auntie Mame is Patrick Dennis.
Patrick Dennis is a fictional name for the real author. It was originally just a collection of short stories that got strung together as a novel and then made into two movies, a play and a musical. We watched part of the first movie but it was too full of tobacco smoke. Rosalind Russell in the first movie, Lucy in the second (as in I Love Lucy). There was also a tremendous amount of smoke in Waterlily - it must have been pretty awful in those tipis.
Thank you, John. All I could remember was "Pat". :( Doesn't look like AADL has the book I was thinking of. I'll have to try something else to find it.
You have several choices: