The Swamp

Just wondering how cultured and fancy and litterate I am. Did you read Crime and Punishment in high school?

Old motherfuckers.



(I didn't read most of the "I read that in HS" books but maybe because I went to catholic school?)

mister d wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 10:59 am Old motherfuckers.



(I didn't read most of the "I read that in HS" books but maybe because I went to catholic school?)

In my defense, I am currently 45, but since I can never be 44 again I just went with older. ONly have a month or so left anyway.

Never read it as assigned reading or unassigned reading.

At the risk of turning this into a Russian Lit thread, War and Peace. I've been considering jumping in feet first and reading it, merely for my own edification. I'm not doing this for a bragging thing, especially since I don't do cocktail parties. I've never read Russian Lit before, and I know enough of its length and breadth. Is it too much of an undertaking?

Tried as unassigned and couldn't get through it.

L-Jam3 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 11:23 am At the risk of turning this into a Russian Lit thread, War and Peace. I've been considering jumping in feet first and reading it, merely for my own edification. I'm not doing this for a bragging thing, especially since I don't do cocktail parties. I've never read Russian Lit before, and I know enough of its length and breadth. Is it too much of an undertaking?

My mom had an old copy of War and Peace from her college days. I cracked it open once. Read a few pages and realized I wasn't prepared. Just so different from what I enjoyed reading. I don't mind a challenge, but that one just didn't do it for me. I could try again, but do I want to?

I would have liked to have had that book when she passed. I never saw it at the house though. lost to time I suppose. I do have her Shakespeare and it has her handwritten notes in the margin for a lot of it. Pretty neat to travel back in time like that.

Nope. But I remember reading such delightful books as Washington Square, The Rise of Silas Lapham, and Three, and A Thousand Acres.

We also did the typical Catcher in the Rye and Great Gatsby, which we enjoyed. And I know we read some Hawthorne because Massachusetts. Also, some Dickens.

But when I look at lots of "high school" reading lists, I didn't read nearly enough of what was supposed to be read.

Edit:

Also read A Separate Peace and A Prayer for Owen Meany too. Just remembered.

No. But I read Candide and The Grapes of Wrath.

L-Jam3 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 11:23 am At the risk of turning this into a Russian Lit thread, War and Peace. I've been considering jumping in feet first and reading it, merely for my own edification. I'm not doing this for a bragging thing, especially since I don't do cocktail parties. I've never read Russian Lit before, and I know enough of its length and breadth. Is it too much of an undertaking?

I recommend reading it in the original Russian. I found the Maude translation too simplistic and leaves out much of the poetic symbolism, while the Volokhonsky translation fails to account for the traditional Russian idioms and you lose the meaning when translated literally.

This book intimidates the fuck out of me, maybe I'll read the Cliff Notes one day, but I highly doubt it. My parents had it on the bookshelf my whole life, never thought to ask if they actually read it.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 12:07 pm No. But I read Candide and The Grapes of Wrath.

Same here.

I can add "Of Human Bondage" by Somerset Maugham, a grim and gruelling 700 pager that left me feeling that life is futile and painful.

On the positive side, "Catch 22"

I remember really liking The Chosen between 8th and 9th grade.

The Sybian wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 12:22 pm

I recommend reading it in the original Russian. I found the Maude translation too simplistic and leaves out much of the poetic symbolism, while the Volokhonsky translation fails to account for the traditional Russian idioms and you lose the meaning when translated literally.

Found the Canadian who must not be named's burner account!

A_B wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 11:11 am

mister d wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 10:59 am Old motherfuckers.



(I didn't read most of the "I read that in HS" books but maybe because I went to catholic school?)

In my defense, I am currently 45, but since I can never be 44 again I just went with older. ONly have a month or so left anyway.

I am both Mr. D's and AB's responses.

Reaper wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 2:13 pm

A_B wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 11:11 am

mister d wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 10:59 am Old motherfuckers.



(I didn't read most of the "I read that in HS" books but maybe because I went to catholic school?)

In my defense, I am currently 45, but since I can never be 44 again I just went with older. ONly have a month or so left anyway.

I am both Mr. D's and AB's responses.

The Swamp is nothing if not diverse. We've got white males in both ages 45 and 46!

Giff wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 1:49 pm I remember really liking The Chosen between 8th and 9th grade.

Same here, at least before the ending.

Just turned over to 50.

Didn't read C&P in HS, did have a teacher read us Beowulf in Old English (wonder if she regretted that degree.)

Mainly kept with the smaller classics, Old Man, Steinbeck, Willy Shakes, Hawthorne etc.

I did work a Summer for the USFS when I was in college. The main camp we worked out of had a small library of the HS classics so I read some that I hadn't (Twain, Catcher In The Rye) and reread some I had, and appreciated them a bit more.

L-Jam3 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 11:23 am At the risk of turning this into a Russian Lit thread, War and Peace. I've been considering jumping in feet first and reading it, merely for my own edification. I'm not doing this for a bragging thing, especially since I don't do cocktail parties. I've never read Russian Lit before, and I know enough of its length and breadth. Is it too much of an undertaking?

Never read C&P...not sure if it would be my thing.

I tried reading Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita for the "Defector Reads A Book' series, and gave up after 20% of it or so. It just wasn't doing anything for me, and I was struggling to get through even a few pages a night.

I started on War & Peace once years ago and thought it was good, but it was so dense and the length so daunting it felt like chipping away at a mountain so I gave up before long.

I abandoned Catch-22 a ways in because I found the author too pleased with his own cleverness and not as funny as he seemed to think he was.

This might be true for others, but the information age has shredded my attention span to the point where I can't read anything much longer than a couple hundred pages before wanting to move on to something else.

Johnny Carwash wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 3:25 pm I started on War & Peace once years ago and thought it was good, but it was so dense and the length so daunting it felt like chipping away at a mountain so I gave up before long.

I abandoned Catch-22 a ways in because I found the author too pleased with his own cleverness and not as funny as he seemed to think he was.

This might be true for others, but the information age has shredded my attention span to the point where I can't read anything much longer than a couple hundred pages before wanting to move on to something else.

Vonnegut did it all better.

A_B wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 3:26 pm Vonnegut did it all better.

Yeah, I went through a phase in my late teens and early 20s where I read almost all of Vonnegut’s stuff. I enjoyed his earlier books more than the later, more highly praised ones.

I loved Catch-22. I should probably read some Vonnegut, though. Is Slaughterhouse Five the place to start?

If you haven't read Crime and Punishment, I wouldn't bother. From reading it in high school, I mostly just remember endless agonizing by the main character about whether he should go in and confess that he killed two people. When I re-read part of it again a few years ago, I got the same impression so I just stopped.

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 4:53 pm I loved Catch-22. I should probably read some Vonnegut, though. Is Slaughterhouse Five the place to start?

If you haven't read Crime and Punishment, I wouldn't bother. From reading it in high school, I mostly just remember endless agonizing by the main character about whether he should go in and confess that he killed two people. When I re-read part of it again a few years ago, I got the same impression so I just stopped.

I'd think so. I remember liking Cat's Cradle and Breakfast of Champions as well. Great cameo in Back to School as well.

My favorites were Player Piano, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, Sirens of Titan, and especially, his short story collection, Welcome to the Monkey House.

Slaughterhouse 5 and Cats Cradle were a bit too sci-fi for my taste.

“I’d like to tame your shrew.”

Giff wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 5:07 pm “I’d like to tame your shrew.”

"English major? Why don't you help me straighten out my Longfellow"

Johnny Carwash wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 3:25 pm
This might be true for others, but the information age has shredded my attention span to the point where I can't read anything much longer than a couple hundred pages before wanting to move on to something else.

It is sad but true for me as well.

Especially with fiction.

The SwAARP

I lost an argument to name a pet cat, Kilgore Trout when I had a live-in girlfriend 25 or so years ago. She named it Bobby McGee. I retaliated by adopting a basset hound. A few days later, Mickey Mantle passed, so I named him Mickey instead of Trout.

EnochRoot wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 7:01 pm I lost an argument to name a pet cat, Kilgore Trout when I had a live-in girlfriend 25 or so years ago. She named it Bobby McGee. I retaliated by adopting a basset hound. A few days later, Mickey Mantle passed, so I named him Mickey instead of Trout.

I was on your team until you said Bobby McGee. Love that song, Grateful Dead version and Janis Joplin. Kilgore Trout is an awesome name, but Bobby McGee is better. I might use that big I ever get a dog.

Kilgore is a good name. Two word names are tough, because you'll end up only calling it by the first word in the name, anyway.

I agree re: a full name becoming reduced to one. He'd probably have been nicknamed Trout. FWIW, McGee (likely) got scooped by a fisher cat in a backyard in the foothills of Mount Monadnock in Jaffrey, NH in 1997.

He was a pretty cool (tuxedo) cat.

What is interesting is that year I spent in Jaffrey where she grew up, her parents' dog, Mulligan (cocker spaniel) and Mickey went off in the woods one day (they usually did this, and came back an hour or so later). Except that one day, Mickey came back like 4 hours later. Someone drove up to the house with the remnants of Mulligan (dog tag gave the home address). My guess is Mickey's loud-ass barking fended off a bear or something along the lines of a fisher cat / bobcat.

The Sybian wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 8:51 pm I was on your team until you said Bobby McGee. Love that song, Grateful Dead version and Janis Joplin.

... and Kristofferson who wrote the damn thing