Wednesday Reading Meme
Sep. 28th, 2016 07:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
I’ve already reviewed it all!
What I’m Reading Now
Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, which has just about broken me; it’s so sad I can’t even cry over it. Paul Baumer is an infantry soldier in the German army in World War II, who goes to the front, gets sent back from the front, loses this friend and that friend and a new recruit (the new recruits go down like mayflies), moves through the world like an exhausted ghost. It’s shell shock in novel form and I can only read a chapter at a time because it clings to me afterward.
I’ve also started reading Caroline Winterer’s American Enlightenments: Pursuing Happiness in the Age of Reason, which is about the various iterations of enlightenment in eighteenth-century America (and I think also by extension in Europe; the book is about the cross-pollination of ideas between the two continents). So far she has written about eighteenth-century library travelogues - surely the best kind of a travelogue - and learned letter-writing networks, which filled me with a certain epistolary covetousness.
What I Plan to Read Next
One of my friends from Captain America fandom sent me Norman Lindsay’s The Magic Pudding! Which is apparently quite famous in Australia. So probably that; anything called The Magic Pudding has to be a good antidote to All Quiet on the Western Front.
I’ve already reviewed it all!
What I’m Reading Now
Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, which has just about broken me; it’s so sad I can’t even cry over it. Paul Baumer is an infantry soldier in the German army in World War II, who goes to the front, gets sent back from the front, loses this friend and that friend and a new recruit (the new recruits go down like mayflies), moves through the world like an exhausted ghost. It’s shell shock in novel form and I can only read a chapter at a time because it clings to me afterward.
I’ve also started reading Caroline Winterer’s American Enlightenments: Pursuing Happiness in the Age of Reason, which is about the various iterations of enlightenment in eighteenth-century America (and I think also by extension in Europe; the book is about the cross-pollination of ideas between the two continents). So far she has written about eighteenth-century library travelogues - surely the best kind of a travelogue - and learned letter-writing networks, which filled me with a certain epistolary covetousness.
What I Plan to Read Next
One of my friends from Captain America fandom sent me Norman Lindsay’s The Magic Pudding! Which is apparently quite famous in Australia. So probably that; anything called The Magic Pudding has to be a good antidote to All Quiet on the Western Front.
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no subject
Date: 2016-09-28 02:02 pm (UTC)The Magic Pudding! I read it when I was ~10 and my memories of it are very vague. My sister has just interrupted me so I asked if she'd read it. "Yes," she said in a well, duh voice. "Multiple times."
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Date: 2016-09-29 12:47 am (UTC)I had never heard of The Magic Pudding. Do all countries have their own particular childhood books that don't get exported, even to other countries that share the same language? I seem to recall discussing this with someone from Great Britain recently - they had never heard of some book that in my mind was pretty famous - but I can't remember what the book was anymore, more's the pity.
no subject
Date: 2016-09-29 12:29 am (UTC)Poor Paul Baumer :( I was thinking about re-reading this one, too, but Count of Monte Cristo is probably better for my mood. But it sounds like All Quiet is accomplishing its literary goals for you, anyway! :(
no subject
Date: 2016-09-29 12:42 am (UTC)The Count of Monte Cristo is definitely better for your mood, which sounds sort of odd given that it is 100% high octane angst, but the angst in Monte Cristo is broadly drawn and delicious while the angst in All Quiet is specific and intense and crushing. And that ending! (I powered through the last few chapters today.) GAAAAAH.
The movie version is on the American Film Insitute's Top 100 list, which I am slowly watching my way through with a couple of friends. Now that I've read the book I've added the movie to my Netflix queue. Way down at the bottom. I need some recovery time before I go through that story again.
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Date: 2016-09-29 12:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-29 12:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-30 11:18 am (UTC)Snugglepot & Cuddlepie is v. twee fantasy ala The Water Babies. Sadly I cannot find it online...
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Date: 2016-09-30 01:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-30 01:14 pm (UTC)