(no subject)

[shadowkat]

Am in a mood...combination of training and commute to training, less said, the better.

1.Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t

How about half my bookshelves? I'm a moody reader. I can only read whatever fits my mood.
Top of the list :

* The Brother's Karamazov
* Les Miserables
* Cloud Atlas
* Don Quixote

And various others...including Foundation by Issac Asimov.

Currently reading of all things, Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts - which is about a female fire jumper (forest fire fighter) and a rookie on her jump team. There's a mystery about a vandal and arsonist, but mainly it's about fire jumping. Which I find interesting, plus banter, a tough woman who is 5'10, and an adult, along with a beta male who loves strong women with attitude. Very subversive. By the way? Nora Roberts and JD Robb are the same person.

Day 24 – A book that you wish more people have read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favorite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favorite book of all time


3. Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale

Eh...there's been a few:

* St. Elsewhere's ending where the entire series was an Autistic boy's fantasy.
* Newhart Show - where it turns out to be a dream that Bob Newhart had in the Bob Newhart Show.
* Quantum Leap - where he never returns home and ends up God knows where
* Lost - that they all left the island, then reunited in purgatory, and finally back on the island, which is a weird half-way station for the damned on the way to purgatory, after purgatory, they get to move on.
* BSG - they end up on a planet with a nicely mowed meadow and mountains, with no people, yet well-manicured and landscaped.

Let's face it tv writers suck at endings, sort of goes against the whole let's give the network unlimited episodes as long as we can.


Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death.

Comments

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I've read all those on your list, and recommend them all, but love Cloud Atlas most of all (and not just b/c I wrote my Yuletide gift on it! No, well...maybe.) Movie and book--both are fine, but I like the book best. Definitely read before viewing. I'd say that for all of them. The Brothers Karamazov is a bit more philosophical than the others, but so well worth the time.

[ponygirl2000.livejournal.com]

And the nice thing about Cloud Atlas is that if a particular storyline isn't working for you the novel completely shifts characters and writing styles. There were some sections I really did not like and others I loved to distraction (interestingly these were not necessarily the same as the movie) but overall it was so impressive.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Too late on Les Miz, seen all versions of that.

There's a movie version of Brothers Karamozov?

And too late on Don Quixote...I think I've seen the musical The Impossible Dream, can't remember.

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

There is at least one film version of BK, an awful movie, starring a very young William Shatner of all people and Richard (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) Baseheart.

Like you, most people have some familiarity with "Man of La Mancha." It's kind of the Cliff Notes for the Classics Illustrated Comic version of Don Quixote. I assure you, Cervantes does not make an appearance in the book. Musical - good. Don Quixote - better.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Oh, didn't read well! I thought you were looking at reading the books. There is a movie of The Brothers Karamazov (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051435/), but don't think I saw it.

ETA: Oh, duh, you mean about viewing before reading. I meant that mainly for Cloud Atlas.


'

My two cents

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

Brothers Karamazov is kind of overrated as far as I'm concerned. It was supposed to be the start of a grand cycle of "the life of a great sinner." Nineteenth Century Russian novelists seemingly all wanted to do this kind of thing to point Russia toward the future. Somehow none of them made it past one volume. BK is not as focused as Crime and Punishment if you want Dostoevsky, and if you're looking for a roaring start to one of these grand cycles, Gogol's Dead Souls is a lot more fun.

Les Miserables was pretty as far as I got, but it goes on and on, and other things intruded and it wasn't compeling enough to get back to it.

Don Quixote is another book that's very good, but longer than necessary. I've read all of it at least twice and I'd advise you, it is a lot of fun in long stretches, and it's also tedious at times. Ultimately the ending is pessimistic and you wouldn't miss the greatest thing in the world by not finishing it. Many of the most famous events happen early in the book.

I liked the end of Newhart. It really fit with the silliness of the show.

Re: My two cents

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

IDK, I read all of the main Dostoevsky novels in a semester of Russian lit, and the only one I've really revisited is C&P, but I thought that BK summed up themes and characters from all the others. I keep rereading "The Grand Inquisitor" (https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pol116/grand.htm)--and arguing with it. But true, C&P is the most succinctly literary and dramatic.

Re: My two cents

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Hell, I would say that all of Dostoevsky's Big Five (Idiot, C&P, The Adolescent, Demons and Brothers Karamazov) are essential reading. Just as long as you're prepared to, as you say, argue with him. I disagree with Dostoevsky on a number of issues, but he's rarely less than brilliant anyway.

Re: My two cents

[owenthurman.livejournal.com]

Karamazov was the most rollickingly fun of Dostoevsky's works. It's got the same deep and dark themes but there's comedy, too. That's one reason it's my favorite.

It did make me wish I spoke Russian so I'd get more of the jokes, though.

Re: My two cents

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

A lot of people don't know that Dostoevsky started out writing comedy. Yes, he's got humor in his later works, but a lot of people don't see it or believe it's there.

I do speak Russian. Not sure it helps with his humor. ;o)

Re: My two cents

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Humor...is a difficult thing. A lot of people don't see my humor - it's very dry, and sardonic. And humiliation humor - which is basically 99% of American sitcoms, sketch comedies, and reality series is lost me.

Humor like all things appears to be in the eye of the beholder.

Re: My two cents

[owenthurman.livejournal.com]

I really didn't know about Dostoevsky and comedy. That's interesting, considering where he ended up.

I speak only two languages fluently and they're pretty closely related, but there's no way I could ever translate the jokes I know in English to Spanish. It's not just the words that don't match but the cultural context that makes things funny instead of offensive is different. I love a particular joke about Barack Obama that's innocent in Spanish but makes me feel like a horrible racist in English. There's a few hilarious but meaningful pages in El Laberinto De La Soledad where Paz discourses on the uses of the obscene word 'ch_ngar' that would be near impossible to translate literally to any other language, much less to translate with humor intact.

For instance, there's an extended joke about Polish people trying to speak Russian in BK that the characters find entertaining but there's no way for me as a non-Russian non-Polish speaker to understand it. I think it must be uproariously hilarious but I will never get it.

Re: My two cents

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

I can tell you that part of the joke is that Dostoevsky is a Polish family name, and he was not above making fun of his Polish roots.

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

I've read the first two and I think "The Brother's Karamasow" (sorry I use the German spelling, I never remember the English)is very good, but there is even better stuff from Dostojewskij, "The Idiot" is my favorite and there is also a not so well known book called "Evil Spirits" which is absolutely brilliant.

Les Miserables is also good, but I found that the whole wandering off the plot thing sometimes really annoys me. I could live without the list of good deeds of Monsigneur Bienvenue in the beginning and definitely without the X chapters about the Parisian sewers. I was wondering if Hugo used the book to finally publish his shunned diploma thesis in construction engineering in the middle of it. But yeah, also, good book.

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

I like The Idiot best, too.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

So I guess, I can stop now, since the only one I read was The Idiot. Not that I remember it - I read it back in 1985. For some reason or other it just didn't stay with me. Don't know why. Possibly the translation.

Books that are translated in English are heavily dependent on the translator.
Bad translator - bad book. Actually this is also true of some of the books written by James Joyce...so not limited to works written in foreign languages apparently.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I do like The Idiot, too, very much. And Notes from Underground...

[kathyh]

I'm a moody reader. I can only read whatever fits my mood.

I'm the same and I also tend to get stuck in genres and find it hard to break out of them.

I'm ashamed to say I haven't read any of the books on your list.

St. Elsewhere's ending where the entire series was an Autistic boy's fantasy.

Even never having seen St Elsewhere I've heard about the ending. It sounds either completely mad or utterly brilliant.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I'm ashamed to say I haven't read any of the books on your list.

Hee..That makes two of us. And I must say, it's nice to know I'm not the only one. ;-)

I've read Dostevosky, but it was in 1985 - when all I had to do was well read Dostevosky and discuss Dosetevosky.

Ah...for the days when I had the head-space for these things. Not so much now...after the last few days, I barely have the head-space for the Nora Roberts novel I jumped over too, because GRR Martin was putting me to sleep...you know your brain is over-taxed when GRR Martin puts you to sleep.

Even never having seen St Elsewhere I've heard about the ending. It sounds either completely mad or utterly brilliant.

A little bit of both. Sort of similar to the Sopranos ending, people either loved it or hated it. Actually that's true with most tv serial endings.