tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post1277476071587920608..comments2024-03-20T19:40:58.078-05:00Comments on The OF Blog: January 2012 Book PornLarry Nolenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16001420558511460998noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-21469658839680328962012-01-11T14:15:24.384-06:002012-01-11T14:15:24.384-06:00The Quartet is a series of novels in a bubble - th...The Quartet is a series of novels in a bubble - the protagonists are privileged that live in a world that is not theirs and that seethes and will expel them soon as it happened after the war. Like the french novels of North Africa the permanence of the western aliens there turned out to be illusory.<br /><br />For me always reading these novels (and the novels of the Raj too for that matter) I kind of identified with the native servants and hated the "civilizing occupier" and that may be a reason no novel of the British or French Empire that did not have a significant native presence ranks very high on my list so to speak...Liviuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04615405766065227026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-7616964123743038292012-01-11T12:19:25.730-06:002012-01-11T12:19:25.730-06:00Liviu, my experience with Durrell is opposite : Th...Liviu, my experience with Durrell is opposite : The Quartet sticked with me, not the Quintet.<br /><br />The Niebelungenlied is a great text. I had a "phase" when I read many medieval books and this one is one of the best, with the Icelandic sagas.Hélènenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-2251005104497417402012-01-10T17:45:02.189-06:002012-01-10T17:45:02.189-06:00I read Alexandria a long time ago and mostly enjoy...I read Alexandria a long time ago and mostly enjoyed it and thought it good, but for some reason it did not stick that much with me. I started a year or so ago on the avignon quintet and read the first one (Monsieur) and started the second (livia) and i plan to read the books as time goes by; despite a twist which is of the kind I dislike, I think these books will stay with me more<br /><br />I read a bunch of G. greene from his easy thrillers to the more serious stuff like Heart of the Matter and again they were good but I cannot say they stayed with me that much<br /><br />Hesse - read both Steppenwolf and Glass Bead game and while I liked them I never got what the fuss was like for example compared to Canetti's autodafe or Mann's Dr faustus (arguably his best work) which are masterpeices of the 20th century imho<br /><br />I read some Andric including Drina but like the only USSR Nobwel prize (pasternak does not count as USSR), Quiet flows the Don, I liked it but was not impressed that much - maybe the Slavic sensibilities like the Latin American ones work less well for me compared to French, Hungarian or Japanese in addition of course to my native Romanian ones, while the German and English ones are in-between<br /><br />If you can read Romanian there is a new rom lang ebook store elefant.ro that sells ebooks at very reasonable prices (most are $5 or less through Paypal) and there are a few awesome ones I read recently, most notably Gabriela Adamesteanu's Opere I (Wasted Morning aka Dimineata peirduta, just translated well in english too but a bit pricey here in the US) and II (Intalnirea + ss) and ProvizoratLiviuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04615405766065227026noreply@blogger.com