Jump to content

sirinrob

Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    912

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by sirinrob

    Mistakes in books. Have you ever found one?

    in General Book Discussions

    Posted · Edited by sirinrob

    I have a similar problem with English translations of German books, most but not all have a flatness to them and its noticeable. Whenever I can I read the German original, then at least I can judge the book on its merits as far as that's possible.

     

    To a certain extent I agree that English and German are fairly close grammatically, but there are subtle differences like the ability to swap subject and object, under certain conditions to change the emphasis in a sentence whilst retaining the semantics. You can do the same in English, but you change the semantics in doing so more often than not. Verb usage is distinctly different between the two languages, both tense usage and formation ( think separable prefixes in German;) ).

    Mistakes in books. Have you ever found one?

    in General Book Discussions

    Posted

    I'm currently reading Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury and there seems to be random apostrophes showing up at the end of sentences that aren't dialogue. I keep going back over it thinking that missed the start of a chunk of speech but it always turns out that there was just a random apostrophe/speech mark.

     

    I can't think of an example right now but I'll keep an eye out.

     

    That sounds a bit strange. Be interested if you can find an example.

    The Library

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    Heart of Darkness is one I enjoyed as well. As you say it is disturbing, but also haunting in it's beauty. I'm looking at getting a copy of The Shadow Line, one of his later works.

    Heresy by S J Parris

    in Historical Fiction

    Posted · Edited by sirinrob

    This novel is set in Renaissance Europe and is based on the life of Giordano Bruno. The prologue describes his escape from a Neapolitan Jesuit monastery, to escape the inquisition, for simply reading forbidden books. The remainder of the book relates to the period of his life spent at Oxford, as an undercover agent for Walsingham, Elizabeth the First's Spymaster. He spends his time in Lincoln college. Soon after his arrival a bloody murder is committed. He gets involved with tracking down the killer.

     

    The historical facts are accurate, but obviously what happens in Oxford is largely fiction. The historical Giordano Bruno was a heretic hated by both the Catholic, Lutheran and Calvinist churches for his radical ideas on cosmology, which were more radical than Copernicus's. These were in direct opposition to the established Aristotelian view. In fact his cosmology was not far removed from modern theories. None of the religious factions are shown in a favourable light. Their narrow minded thinking and vengeful actions are in stark contrast to Giardano Bruno's tolerant attitude.

     

    The novel is well written, with an eye for detail that draws the reader in right from the first page. The pace is on the slow side to start with but does pick up fairly quickly, the last chapters being somewhat hectic. The whodunnit aspects are well done, even if I did spot the culprits about halfway through.:lol: The author's irrepressible humour is never far below the surface and many of the sentences said by Giordano Bruno are hilarious.

     

    There are numerous clues scattered throughout the book relating to Giardano's later life which give a good indication where a sequel could well be set. I hope there is a sequel , as this is novel gripped me and I found it satisfying.

    Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

    in General Fiction

    Posted

    I read this with a load of Kafka short stories; the story itself is a long short story if I remember right. It's the weirdest of stories, too, like reading really well written horror.

     

    It goes back to Kafka's usual themes of helplessness and alienation.

     

    A long time since I read Kafka, though. I want to go back some time, after reading the suggestion (I think by Murukami) that Kafka is, in fact, just comedy. That it's not half as dark as it's portrayed and is effectively like reading PG Wodehouse, but without a Jeeves to get Wooster out of trouble. And perhaps my reading of Kafka is like when I used to listen to The Smiths as a 15 year old and think they were humourless miserable gits, where now I see all the humour.

     

    There is a lot of humour in Kafka, The Trial for instance is a riot, if you pick up on the dark humour.

    Favourite Books of this Millennium?

    in General Book Discussions

    Posted

    Here are my top 5 in no particular order:

     

    1: Heresy S J Parris

    2: Your Face Tomorrow 1: Fever and Spear Javier Marais

    3: The Book Thief Markus Zusak

    4: The Logogryph Thomas Wharton

    5: The Alchemaster's Apprentice Walter Moers.

     

    there were a number of that I could have included, but for various reasons didn't: Tn series by Jasper Fforde (include one and you have to include them all so list becomes skewed), Comrades Marco Antonio Flores (orig written 1976 written in spanish, trans in 2008).

    Abby's Reading Log (started 2009)

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted · Edited by sirinrob

    Small update, now read up to chapter four, and it just gets better. The historical detail is fascinating and the various themes that get explored are well done. Agree about the humour, many of Bruno's comments are very amusing. Back to reading it now .....:lol:

     

    How far have you read Abby?

×
×
  • Create New...