Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

May Gibbs’ The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, which I didn’t like nearly as much as The Magic Pudding, unfortunately. I think perhaps you need to be introduced to Snugglepot and Cuddlepie at a tender age to appreciate them properly?

What I’m Reading Now

G. A. Bradshaw’s Carnivore Minds: Who These Fearsome Animals Really Are, which starts with an impassioned plea for humans to treat animals better. If you ever want to confirm your suspicions that humanity is actually kind of awful, read a book about animal intelligence.

What I Plan to Read Next

My first reading challenge for 2017 is “a book in translation,” and I spent some time whiffling between possibilities (more Zola? Dosteovsky? Perhaps I should try Balzac?) before realizing in a blaze of light that I have the perfect book already on my shelf: Stefan Zweig’s Beware of Pity, which I have intended to read for nearly a decade now without ever buckling down to it. The time has come!

Comments

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

If you ever want to confirm your suspicions that humanity is actually kind of awful, read a book about animal intelligence.

osprey_archer, that's exactly what I don't want! :(

I'll be reading a book in translation first thing in 2017, too! The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante.

Beware of Pity is an intriguing title! I'm afraid I don't know anything about Stefan Zweig.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

At least now you're forewarned? "This book has a cute puppy on the cover and it says it's about animal intelligence! CLEARLY IT WILL DESTROY MY FAITH IN HUMANITY."

I'm planning to read Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan quartet in 2017 too! Although probably not until later in the year. The covers are just so eye-catching, and everything I've heard about the books makes them sound interesting, although also maybe heartbreaking.

I probably wouldn't have heard of Beware of Pity at all, except a blog I read did a fascinating review (http://wrongquestions.blogspot.com/2008/11/beware-of-pity-by-stefan-zweig.html) of it a few years ago, and I've been meaning to read it ever since. I know so little about German and Austrian literature! Clearly this is step one toward correcting that gap.

[littlerhymes]

I haven't read Snugglepot & Cuddlepie in years but I am sure I would find it too twee. Oh well, at least now you know! A key touchstone in Australian children's literature! :)

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

Reread it recently and it is really just a vehicle for the illustrations.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I feel like I should do something with all my newfound knowledge of Australian children's literature. Write a heroine who has read a lot of Australian children's books because... hmmm... maybe she lived the only happy years of her childhood there before being forced to move back to the US? Under times of stress, she rereads The Magic Pudding.

[littlerhymes]

Would she then randomly stumble cross The Egypt Game in the library, and maybe also make a new friend, and then her growing love for US children's lit parallels her coming to love her new home? Or it set more in her adult days when she is thinking about going back to Aus for a visit? *thoughtful*

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I was thinking more her adult days, when she's thinking of going back. Probably she was staying with an aunt for a few years, reading books in the eucalyptus grove out behind her aunt's house, and when she was halfway through The Silver Brumby her parents arrived to take her away, and she never even got to finish the book... Maybe her parents disapproved of reading. Or horses. Or something.

Buuuuut there is also potential in the children's book version where she sulks her way through the American library, convinced that nothing can ever equal the magic of The Magic Pudding, only to discover other wonderful new books.

[littlerhymes]

Gasp, imagine never finishing The Silver Brumby! And that means she also never got to read the million sequels!!!

I would read both those books.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Clearly when she's in the US she'll discover The Black Stallion and its a million and one sequels, but it is Not The Same and she pines for the Silver Brumby. Why is life so cruel?