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What Are You Reading, Part 2


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1 hour ago, Ammanas said:

Apologies if asked you this already. I can't remember if it was you or some ones else. Out of curiosity did you have to wait a long time for book 3? My idea on the fans that hate the book is: they waiting a long time and it couldn't live up to their lofty expectations. The fans, like me, that consider it a drop in quality, but still worthwhile are the ones that had a minimal or no wait.

Either way I still respect your opinion to feel however you want about any book.

Yep I waited. That book was bad and set me against buying the next in hardcover unless it's got 5 star reviews everywhere I look I ll just wait for the PB to come out. 

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I finished The Witchwood Crown! It was a good start to the new trilogy. Unsurprisingly, Tad started it off on a slow burn that won't really start becoming a raging fire until book 2. It was a good book, but not fantastic. It will probably feel more complete when the next book is done and some of the story arcs start to mature and or end. 

So next up I'm going to juggle reading Faust with trying to get back into Deadhouse Gates. 

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7 minutes ago, Left said:



So next up I'm going to juggle reading Faust with trying to get back into Deadhouse Gates. 

Are you reading Goethe's interpretation of Faust? Part 1 is pretty good. Part 2 is very strange and I personally was not a fan.

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2 hours ago, Ammanas said:

Are you reading Goethe's interpretation of Faust? Part 1 is pretty good. Part 2 is very strange and I personally was not a fan.

Yeppers. I'm not very far in yet, but it's good so far. 

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2 hours ago, Left said:

Yeppers. I'm not very far in yet, but it's good so far. 

Radiohead has a song that is inspired by part of Goethe's Faust story called "videotape." I don't know if its your style or not and I should of included this in my last post, but I forgot. Here is a youtube link:

 

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17 hours ago, Ammanas said:

Are you reading Goethe's interpretation of Faust? Part 1 is pretty good. Part 2 is very strange and I personally was not a fan.

Gasp! :o

Faust Part 2 is one of the best pieces of world literature out there! 

And, with easy access to the internet, it's more accessible nowadays then it ever has been! 

I do suggest the Martin Greenberg translations for both parts. It's a much more accessible translation than whatever old "let's force this into a Victorian poetic scheme" translation is in the public domain. 

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4 minutes ago, Orlion On a Cob said:

Gasp! :o

Faust Part 2 is one of the best pieces of world literature out there! 

And, with easy access to the internet, it's more accessible nowadays then it ever has been! 

I do suggest the Martin Greenberg translations for both parts. It's a much more accessible translation than whatever old "let's force this into a Victorian poetic scheme" translation is in the public domain. 

I read Part 2 at a fairly young age. Perhaps a more mature mind is needed to appreciate it? Thanks for the translation tip!

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1 hour ago, Ammanas said:

I read Part 2 at a fairly young age. Perhaps a more mature mind is needed to appreciate it? Thanks for the translation tip!

In my excitement in remembering how much I enjoyed it, I forgot a very important side note. 

Faust Part 2 should not be read while you are young. So even though I can not praise it enough, @Left, I'm not sure you are ready for it. The level needed to enjoy it is pretty high, though not prohibitively so if you pick the right moment. 

You do not want to conflate "not being ready" with "this is bad. " something youth are very much likely to commit. It's why youth hate required school reading a lot. The books are usually not bad, but the students are not ready for them. 

How do you know if you are ready? It's hard to say. But you have to be somewhat competent in research. You will be looking things up. You will need to decide what not to look up because researching this can bog you down something fierce. 

If you only read best-selling stuff, you are not ready. 

If you only or mostly read Sanderson esque stuff and think "world-building" is a very important component to prose, you are not ready. 

If you get too analytical when you read and find it hard to just go with the flow, you are not ready. 

If you are not willing to pay for a good, recent translation, you are not ready. 

If you have no concept of asceticism in prose (i.e. you care mostly for "plot" and "character development") you are not ready. 

If you think Harry Potter is a pinnacle or close to a pinnacle of good and subtle writing, you are definitely not ready. 

Sorry to be pedantic about it, but sometimes we are not ready for a book, and that is fine. One may never be ready, and that's fine, too! What you want to avoid is not enjoying a book simply because it's reading level is way beyond Joycean levels and smugly declare it "no good" and present it as evidence of your high culture. 

To be sure, @Ammanas did no such thing and has gained a reading level where he knows that a young reader is not a particularly good reader of high literature. And for that, I salute him! 

I can also provide a little bit of commentary of how to read Faust Part 2, but only if I deem you worthy ;)

I am still a pedantic fellow, after all! 

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@Orlion On a Cob You seem like a person that would enjoy War and Peace (one of my favorite books, but I always have a hard time getting people to give a try). I like the Briggs translation best of what I have tried (I believe it flows well and is the smoothest translation). Although most people recommend the Peaver/Volokhonsky translation (it is more literal translation that I think is a bit awkward at times).  

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Just now, Ammanas said:

@Orlion On a Cob You seem like a person that would enjoy War and Peace (one of my favorite books, but I always have a hard time getting people to give a try). I like the Briggs translation best of what I have tried (I believe it flows well and is the smoothest translation). Although most people recommend the Peaver/Volokhonsky translation (it is more literal translation that I think is a bit awkward at times).  

I do want to read that! The Peaver/Volokhonsky translation of Anna Karenina was great, I also enjoyed various Dostoevsky translations they have done. Part of my enjoyment, though, could be in due part because I studied Russian in college a little bit, and they definitely try to preserve as much Russisnness as possible! 

That can be a little much, though, so I could see an alternative translation being useful. 

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11 hours ago, Briar King said:

Finnnaallly finished HoC. Only took 45 days to do it. Fell so far behind my hoped for schedule on it. Man I forgot how good that last part of it was!

onto MT! Hopefully that goes much quicker! I'm excited!!

Nice! I really liked Midnight Tides. Keep me posted on your thoughts. 

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6 hours ago, Ammanas said:

@Orlion On a Cob You seem like a person that would enjoy War and Peace (one of my favorite books, but I always have a hard time getting people to give a try). I like the Briggs translation best of what I have tried (I believe it flows well and is the smoothest translation). Although most people recommend the Peaver/Volokhonsky translation (it is more literal translation that I think is a bit awkward at times).  

I love War and Peace, it's one of my favorite books as well. I don't remember what translation I read unfortunately :(

@Orlion On a Cob

I'm not entirely sure what's given you the impression I'd be too young for Faust:huh: Even if I am, isn't there still a lot to be gained by the attempt? For instance, I'm quite certain there are many layers to Paradise Lost that I didn't completely appreciate on my first read through, but I still got a lot out of it and am more prepared for future re-reads and other challenging works. 

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@Left Placing Faust Part 2 at such a low level as Paradise Lost proves you are too young to read it ;)

There's an edition of Faust Part 2 that cuts out all the wonderfully esoteric whimsy (so Act 2, 3 and parts of 1). That would be good for your "gain by attempting" and you would gain quite a bit! 

What you would not gain is a disdain for a piece of high art consequent to not being ready. THAT is key. 

 You do not simply try running a marathon on a whim without training because there are "gains to attempting". Scaling heights without sufficient preparation leads to a bad time. Same with reading certain works. 

Or, approach with caution! 

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1 hour ago, Orlion On a Cob said:

@Left Placing Faust Part 2 at such a low level as Paradise Lost proves you are too young to read it ;)

There's an edition of Faust Part 2 that cuts out all the wonderfully esoteric whimsy (so Act 2, 3 and parts of 1). That would be good for your "gain by attempting" and you would gain quite a bit! 

What you would not gain is a disdain for a piece of high art consequent to not being ready. THAT is key. 

 You do not simply try running a marathon on a whim without training because there are "gains to attempting". Scaling heights without sufficient preparation leads to a bad time. Same with reading certain works. 

Or, approach with caution! 

Given that I haven't even gotten very far into part 1, it seems pre-mature to judge my apparently ignorant comparison. I'm sure you don't mean to, but you're coming off incredibly condescending. There's a lot to be said about withholding your assessment of other people's abilities until you've had extensive first hand experience of those skills. I am glad you care enough about literature to try to help people read it when they can get the most out of it, but at least in this case it's really rather annoying. 

 

I've made good headway into Deadhouse Gates, hopefully I'll be able to finish it by the end of the week. It's been hard jumping back in right in the middle, but I'm managing better than I feared haha. 

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@Left It is always cool to come across another War and Peace fan! If you will allow me to geek out for a moment I would like to share one of my favorite parts. @Orlion On a Cob You may find this of interest.

Prince Andrei has returned from war and is having a difficult time of it; he is seeking a a old tree on his estates and has this epiphany (Briggs translation):

'That oak-tree, it was somewhere here in the forest. There was such an affinity between us,' he thought. 'But where was it?' As he wondered, he glanced across left and, unconsciously, without recognising it, began to admire the very tree he was looking for. The old oak was completely transformed, now spreading out a canopy of lush dark foliage and stirring gently as it wallowed in the evening sunshine. No trace now of the gnarled fingers, the scars, the old sadness and misgivings. Succulent young leaves with no twigs had burst straight through the hard bark of a hundred years; it was almost impossible that this old fellow should have grown them.''

Oh yes, that's the one,' thought the price, spontaneously overwhelmed by one of those surges of delight and renewal that belong to springtime. All the best times in his life came together sharply in his memory. The lofty sky at Austerlitz, the look of reproach on his dead wife's face*, Pierre on the ferry and that young girl who had been so enthralled by the night's beauty, the night itself and the moon... suddenly he remembered it all. 'No, life isn't over at thirty-one,' was his instant, final and irrevocable conclusion.

* I have my thoughts on why this is a "best" moment,but don't want to bore anyone so you can p.m. for my take

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@Ammanas I actually wonder if that passage is somewhat autobiographical. Tolstoy was quite the rabble rouser in his younger days, and though I don't remember the age, around 31 seems to be when he turned his life around. 

@Elenion Crime and Punishment was one of the books I read in a college Russian literature course. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's apparently his most tightly written work. 

I'm trying to remember whether or not he liked Charles Dickens... particularly the Pickwick Papers.

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I have just realized I was pass due giving an update on my reading of the Lightbringer's series.

So huh, since my last update, I have finished both The Black Prism and The Blinding Knife. I am one third into The Broken Eye. So huh the rest is within spoilers because I am mentioned huh well spoilers.

Spoiler

 

My last comments were about how much trouble I had with Kip within the first book. I have to admit I did question as to whether or not I would keep on reading the series as, sincerely, I couldn't stand the character within the first book. My reasons for disliking him were I felt he was annoying, constantly complaining over not being able to accomplish things he ought not to be able to do. I was seriously annoyed he got to, of course, be all powerful, smart and everything even if I didn't think his overall behavior spoke of smart. Still, I enjoyed Gavin and Karris and Liv and I kinda of wanted to see how it would end, so I finished the book, grind my teeth for the Kip chapters. The ending was good, very good. Gavin loosing colors was brilliant: it made me want to read the next book.

Which I did. I liked the second book much better and I even ended up enjoying Kip's story arc. The Blackguard training story arc was a good move: it put the character into a situation where he is not succeeding right away, where he has to work for something, accept failure and it made him so much more sympathetic then before. I was pleased the author resisted the temptation to make Kip the best fighter after 2 weeks of training as some authors would have done. I love he only got in because he won Cruxer's loyalty and respect. BTW, I really like Cruxer, too bad he's just a minor side character. The addition of Teia was well needed and harmonized herself well within the existing narrative. I like her character. Surprisingly, I found Gavin's early story arc quite boring, the whole Seer arc was... well... boring. It picked up afterwards, watching everything crumble apart around Gavin, having him get a bit of happiness by marrying Karris while knowing doom would hit was actually quite good. As for Liv, well, what a self-inflated idiot. Her story won't end well. To think I actually liked her within the first book. Ah the one part I disliked, being forced to read Gunner: I hated his POV. So boring, I understand why we needed it, but I cannot stand reading such characters.

I am now reading the third book. I love the slave story arc the author put Gavin into: powerless and forced to be a slave. I like how it is being processed, I might like it better than Kaladin as a slave. Of course, I am guessing Gavin will figure out the knife has something to do with him losing all his colors and I suspect he will get them back. In fact, I suspect he is the Lightbringer and not Kip, but we'll see. Liv is still an idiot. wow what a fool. As for the things I am disliking: the God's talk. This is beyond boring, all of those gods talking and reference to gods which I can't keep track of. I hope this does not get too important: I loved the idea the gods are made of mortal getting their hands on a bane when a Prism goes mad, I would hate if they start to walk the earth with their plot immunity. Ah well, I hate gods in stories, but I get the feeling this is where we are going. Gee, I hate gods. Such boring characters.

 

So this was it. I'll keep on reading and see where it goes.

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@maxal glad to see your enjoying Lightbringer! 

I've been reading a lot of uninspiring books. Needed a break from Sci-Fi/Fantasy so I read a bunch of Grisham novels. They past the time but that's about it. 

Decided to re-read Arcanum Unbounded. Just finished Mistborn Secret history. I really like all of Brandon's shorts. One thing I started thinking about. I know we will eventually get Hoid's  origen story. I wonder though if Brandon will ever do something similar to Mistoborn Seceret History. Like a Cosmere Secret History following Hoid from his POV as he travelled to the different worlds during the timelines. 

 

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1 hour ago, StormingTexan said:

@maxal glad to see your enjoying Lightbringer! 

I've been reading a lot of uninspiring books. Needed a break from Sci-Fi/Fantasy so I read a bunch of Grisham novels. They past the time but that's about it. 

Decided to re-read Arcanum Unbounded. Just finished Mistborn Secret history. I really like all of Brandon's shorts. One thing I started thinking about. I know we will eventually get Hoid's  origen story. I wonder though if Brandon will ever do something similar to Mistoborn Seceret History. Like a Cosmere Secret History following Hoid from his POV as he travelled to the different worlds during the timelines. 

 

He has mentioned possibly doing a book showing what Hoid was doing during Mistborn. I kind of wonder how a second Cosmere collection essay will work if we got new stories from Scandial and the rest already covered, new information or updated information about those planets?

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