What's Everybody Reading?

[Pongi]

I'm amazed at all these people reading Eco! Name of the Rose's tangle of literary quotations and jokes is hard to follow also for the Italian readers who are familiar with the original text, can't imagine for foreign readers (I agree with phatch, it must have been a hard job for the translator...). I remember that the first time I read the book, about 20 years ago, I had the bad idea to do that in August, while I was sunbathing in my garden. After few pages my brains seized up and I had serious problems even in following the plot. After having read it another couple of times in a cooler season, I started to unravel the hank and to love it

As for now, I'm reading the works of the Sicilian writer Leonardo Sciascia. I just finished "Il Giorno della Civetta" (The Day of the Owl) and I'm reading "Todo Modo". If you are interested in some thrillers that also enlighten about the mechanisms of Italian political corruption and connections with Mafia, buy them, they're classics.

I also just got as a present from a couple of Japanese friends a book entitled "The Art of Japanese Food and Manners". Very nice! Do you know, for example, what are "the 11 things you mustn't do with chopsticks"?

Pongi

[Mezzaluna]

Please, Pongi, tell us at least a few of them!

I tried valiantly to read Name of the Rose but it just didn't catch with me. I loved the movie, although I thought I heard it was a pale imitation of the book. Can't refuse a chance to see Sir Sean, though!

[Pete]

I thought the movie was pretty good also, though it pales by comparision to the book. But then again don't most movies?

[Isa]

I am re-reading Les rois maudits, The Damned Kings maybe in English? Anyhow it's an historical novel retelling the life of the kings of France during the XIV century during the trial of the knight of the temple, the biggest trial in history. The geat chief of the order of the temple, jacques de Molay, has been arrested and will be burned alive by order of the King. Before dying Jacques de Molay calls to the king saying he will be damned to the thirteen generations....

Foodwise I am deep into Land of Plenty by ***hsia Dunlop, on Sechuan cooking. A fascinating book, I am somewhat surprise though not to find in it the recipe of the General Tao chicken. It's the best seller of Sechuan dish in Montreal, you can find it in most restaurants. Yet no one has ever seen a recipe for it.

[phatch]

That's 'cause General Tao/Tso/Djo/Chu is about as Chinese as fajitas are Mexican.

Phil

[Isa]

Originally posted by phatch
That's 'cause General Tao/Tso/Djo/Chu is about as Chinese as fajitas are Mexican.

Phil

You can say that again!

The General Tao Chicken is a bit of a joke here. Two or three time a year someone will ask for the recipe in the food section. Strangely enough the recipe they give out is never the same....

[RitaFajita]

Anything by Lee Smith or Sharyn McCrumb.

RF

[markovitch]

Originally posted by Pete
Just recently finished "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco.

Have you read "how to travel with salmon and other essays"? it is freakin hilarious. its a collection of his favorite columns he writes for a magazine in Italy that resembles the new yorker.

Other than my insurmountable assignments for college, i;ve been working my way through Andrew&Karens's books and "the psychology of Taste"

markovitch

[markovitch]

Originally posted by phatch
Eco is great. I also like Focault's Pendulum. An aside, Eco's translator, William Weaver must also be a genius. The number of times I have to go to a dictionary to find a word in these books scares me now and then. And for Weaver to translate it all amazes me.

Phil

yeah, Eco is almost Kantian is his pentient for creating new terms...

[Pongi]

markovitch,


In Italy, that collection has been published with the title "Secondo Diario Minimo", following a former "Diario Minimo" published in the 70s, and contains many other essays which maybe haven't been included in the American edition (some of them could be hardly appreciated by non-italian readers, as they refer to things that are familiar only to italians).
I agree with you...those columns are hilarious! My best favourites are "How to become a cowboy movie indian", "How to write an art catalogue" and "How to recognize a pornographic movie"

Pongi

[Kayakado]

I just got an xm radio (Roady), so I've been listening to radio dramas and stories at night while lying in bed instead of reading. No light needed and using headphones, I don't keep anyone else awake. Detectives, thrillers (Theatre of the Mind stuff)

[soussweets]

i am hopelessly addicted to the lord of the rings trillogy, tolkien was a true genius.

[Mezzaluna]

Amen, Soussweets. I wasn't much of a reader before I discovered him. Now what do I do for a living? I'm a reading specialist.

[soussweets]

well said mez. its amazing what a good book can do for you. i myself have never been a big reader,,,, but the trilogy has made me very hungry for new and unknown books. any suggestion???

[gilbear]

Stay with some books in the same vein. For example; The Hobbit; The Silmarillion; Unfinished Tales; and , The History of Middle Earth. Some are by JRRT and some by his son, Cristopher. They extend the mythology of the Trilogy in ways I didn't expect. If you are interested, there is a site called the Barrow-downs that explores all of Tolkiens works. Not, of course, that one would ever leave Cheftalk.