What are you reading tonight?

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William the White
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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by William the White » Fri Nov 27, 2015 11:49 am

TANGODANCER wrote:^ Not read the book, but have you seen Helen Mirren's Woman in Gold Will? Based on a true story of Gustav Klimt's iconic painting of her ( character's) aunt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, which was stolen from her relatives by the Nazis in Vienna just prior to World War II. It's an interesting tale.
Yes I have - and enjoyed it.

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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by William the White » Fri Nov 27, 2015 11:53 am

thebish wrote:
William the White wrote:Today I finished Michael Frayn’s novel Headlong.

This is a novel about an aspiring Art historian who thinks he has discovered a missing masterpiece from Pieter Bruegel’s series The Seasons that has been looted by a British officer after the second world war and whose family has possession of it, and other paintings, without any real sense of their worth, or any real interest in them as art.

Can he find a way of cheating them out of it – he wants the money and also the fame of the man who discovers the long lost and much-rumoured Bruegel. Can he get both? Can he get either? What price will he pay to do it, financially, emotionally, morally?

This is like a novel written exclusively for me! I’ve just concluded two courses (I loved them) on Art in the Northern Renaissance, finishing with a final essay on Bruegel (and Matthias Grunewald). The novel has lengthy diversions about Netherlandish Art 1440-1580, and the profession of art history. All the paintings he discusses I knew. I knew at least a little about all the artists he considers, and the disputes within Art history he engages with. Over the last 8 months I’d read a number of the historians he talks about. So I galloped through the book with a grin and real eagerness.

But, you know… If you had no interest in art history or the Northern Renaissance I don’t know what you’d make of this book. I think very few would stay with it. I may be wrong. I’d like to think I was. Because this is an intelligent novel with a gripping central story.
or maybe it's like when my missus likes to watch summat on telly because it it filmed in a place close to where she went to uni and she can spend the whole time saying - ooo look, that's such-and-such a place, I've been there!

you're reminding me of her because the focus of your review is the fact that you were knowledgeable enough to recognise all the paintings and the artists he talked about - and maybe that makes you feel like you belong to some kind of exclusive club of clever people who know this stuff - hence the idea that the book is somehow written for YOU... and the rest of us - probably most people, would have been lost after page seven as they haven't got the capacity, knowledge or experience to enjoy it... so the book makes you feel good about yourself? maybe?? (that's how your review comes across, anyway!) :wink:
Yes. I think I got real pleasure reading about things that I take pleasure from. :D

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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by bobo the clown » Fri Nov 27, 2015 12:56 pm

William the White wrote:
thebish wrote:
William the White wrote:Today I finished Michael Frayn’s novel Headlong.

This is a novel about an aspiring Art historian who thinks he has discovered a missing masterpiece from Pieter Bruegel’s series The Seasons that has been looted by a British officer after the second world war and whose family has possession of it, and other paintings, without any real sense of their worth, or any real interest in them as art.

Can he find a way of cheating them out of it – he wants the money and also the fame of the man who discovers the long lost and much-rumoured Bruegel. Can he get both? Can he get either? What price will he pay to do it, financially, emotionally, morally?

This is like a novel written exclusively for me! I’ve just concluded two courses (I loved them) on Art in the Northern Renaissance, finishing with a final essay on Bruegel (and Matthias Grunewald). The novel has lengthy diversions about Netherlandish Art 1440-1580, and the profession of art history. All the paintings he discusses I knew. I knew at least a little about all the artists he considers, and the disputes within Art history he engages with. Over the last 8 months I’d read a number of the historians he talks about. So I galloped through the book with a grin and real eagerness.

But, you know… If you had no interest in art history or the Northern Renaissance I don’t know what you’d make of this book. I think very few would stay with it. I may be wrong. I’d like to think I was. Because this is an intelligent novel with a gripping central story.
or maybe it's like when my missus likes to watch summat on telly because it it filmed in a place close to where she went to uni and she can spend the whole time saying - ooo look, that's such-and-such a place, I've been there!

you're reminding me of her because the focus of your review is the fact that you were knowledgeable enough to recognise all the paintings and the artists he talked about - and maybe that makes you feel like you belong to some kind of exclusive club of clever people who know this stuff - hence the idea that the book is somehow written for YOU... and the rest of us - probably most people, would have been lost after page seven as they haven't got the capacity, knowledge or experience to enjoy it... so the book makes you feel good about yourself? maybe?? (that's how your review comes across, anyway!) :wink:
Yes. I think I got real pleasure reading about things that I take pleasure from. :D
You may not have intended it Willy ... or maybe you did ... but that had the ring of "I really liked this but most of you wouldn't be up to it, but nonetheless I'm going to tell you about it."

Which may be correct. But had an air of it being written by
Mr. William Smug
Smug Cottage
Smug Rd.
Smugton
Smugshire

... & why not ?
Not advocating mass-murder as an entirely positive experience, of course, but it had its moments.
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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by Il Pirate » Fri Nov 27, 2015 7:19 pm

bobo the clown wrote:
William the White wrote:
thebish wrote:
William the White wrote:Today I finished Michael Frayn’s novel Headlong.

This is a novel about an aspiring Art historian who thinks he has discovered a missing masterpiece from Pieter Bruegel’s series The Seasons that has been looted by a British officer after the second world war and whose family has possession of it, and other paintings, without any real sense of their worth, or any real interest in them as art.

Can he find a way of cheating them out of it – he wants the money and also the fame of the man who discovers the long lost and much-rumoured Bruegel. Can he get both? Can he get either? What price will he pay to do it, financially, emotionally, morally?

This is like a novel written exclusively for me! I’ve just concluded two courses (I loved them) on Art in the Northern Renaissance, finishing with a final essay on Bruegel (and Matthias Grunewald). The novel has lengthy diversions about Netherlandish Art 1440-1580, and the profession of art history. All the paintings he discusses I knew. I knew at least a little about all the artists he considers, and the disputes within Art history he engages with. Over the last 8 months I’d read a number of the historians he talks about. So I galloped through the book with a grin and real eagerness.

But, you know… If you had no interest in art history or the Northern Renaissance I don’t know what you’d make of this book. I think very few would stay with it. I may be wrong. I’d like to think I was. Because this is an intelligent novel with a gripping central story.
or maybe it's like when my missus likes to watch summat on telly because it it filmed in a place close to where she went to uni and she can spend the whole time saying - ooo look, that's such-and-such a place, I've been there!

you're reminding me of her because the focus of your review is the fact that you were knowledgeable enough to recognise all the paintings and the artists he talked about - and maybe that makes you feel like you belong to some kind of exclusive club of clever people who know this stuff - hence the idea that the book is somehow written for YOU... and the rest of us - probably most people, would have been lost after page seven as they haven't got the capacity, knowledge or experience to enjoy it... so the book makes you feel good about yourself? maybe?? (that's how your review comes across, anyway!) :wink:
Yes. I think I got real pleasure reading about things that I take pleasure from. :D
You may not have intended it Willy ... or maybe you did ... but that had the ring of "I really liked this but most of you wouldn't be up to it, but nonetheless I'm going to tell you about it."

Which may be correct. But had an air of it being written by
Mr. William Smug
Smug Cottage
Smug Rd.
Smugton
Smugshire

... & why not ?

Best read whilst lying in a huge vat of Winsor & Newton oils, being tickled by an array of sable filbert brushes............. :wink:

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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by KeyserSoze » Thu Dec 03, 2015 4:34 pm

Racing through Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? at the moment.
Nero fiddles while Gordon Burns.

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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by clapton is god » Thu Dec 03, 2015 8:47 pm

I've really got into Bill Bryson recently and am currently reading Road To Little Dribbling following straight on from Notes From A Small Island. Enjoyed both so much so that I'm planning my own rail and bus trip around the UK for 2018 and currently making lists of 'must see' locations over maybe six weeks or so.

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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by Bruce Rioja » Thu Dec 03, 2015 8:58 pm

clapton is god wrote:I've really got into Bill Bryson recently and am currently reading Road To Little Dribbling following straight on from Notes From A Small Island. Enjoyed both so much so that I'm planning my own rail and bus trip around the UK for 2018 and currently making lists of 'must see' locations over maybe six weeks or so.
Get those horizons broadened, Clapton. I can lend you a copy of Neither Here nor There if you like. ;)
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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by bobo the clown » Thu Dec 03, 2015 9:19 pm

^^ Now, there's an opportunity to create a list of "must sees". A sort of anti-Dan not-a-shithole list.

I'll start off with Rye. The most fantastic place, in a wonderful county.
Not advocating mass-murder as an entirely positive experience, of course, but it had its moments.
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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by Il Pirate » Thu Dec 03, 2015 9:34 pm

bobo the clown wrote:^^ Now, there's an opportunity to create a list of "must sees". A sort of anti-Dan not-a-shithole list.

I'll start off with Rye. The most fantastic place, in a wonderful county.

I think you've missed a 'd' out of that Bobo............ :conf:

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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by bobo the clown » Thu Dec 03, 2015 10:03 pm

Add away Bluebeard.
Not advocating mass-murder as an entirely positive experience, of course, but it had its moments.
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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by TANGODANCER » Fri Dec 11, 2015 3:11 pm

Might not be tonight I'm reading it, but I just picked up a brand spanking hard back copy of Len Goodman's Dancing around Britain. Almost 300 pages of dance from the jazz age to the present around the ballrooms of Britain and their stories, and tons of photographs. A magnificently presented book from Trinity Mirror Media, put on sale in 2014 at £18:99. I bought it in Home Bargains today, when I saw three or four copies on sale, for £2:99 each. Right up my street. Christmas has come early. :oyea:
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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by TANGODANCER » Sun Dec 20, 2015 11:19 pm

Just finished a book I bought a while back and hadn't got around to reading. Kings of the Grail is a serious study, deeply researched and documented about the Grail legends. Margarita Torres Sevilla and Jose Miguel Ortega del Rio are the authors and it's an interesting work that doesn't play to sensation but does some serious homework on the topic complete with some fascinating camera work..
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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by TANGODANCER » Mon Dec 21, 2015 11:02 pm

Read a two part interview with Shane McGown : Might have to chase up his book, "Rake at the gates of hell. Shane MacGowan in context" somewhere along the line. A rare lad is Shane. I never knew that The Pogues kicked him out of the group for unprofessional behaviour before he rjoined them much later.
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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by Jugs » Wed Dec 23, 2015 6:23 pm

Got me some Samuel Beckett for over xmas. Anyone a fan?

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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by TANGODANCER » Wed Dec 23, 2015 8:46 pm

Just finished Michael Connelly's The Gods of Guilt. Only problem with his books are that when you start one you just can't put it down. Terrific stuff.
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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by Lost Leopard Spot » Mon Dec 28, 2015 7:20 pm

Ann Leckie is Iain M Banks reincarnated.
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頑張ってください

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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by Lost Leopard Spot » Mon Dec 28, 2015 7:22 pm

KeyserSoze wrote:Racing through Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? at the moment.
How can you be conscious and never read that?
That's not a leopard!
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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by KeyserSoze » Tue Dec 29, 2015 12:59 am

Lost Leopard Spot wrote:
KeyserSoze wrote:Racing through Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? at the moment.
How can you be conscious and never read that?
Have had my penfield mood organ set to 657 - 'cultural unawareness' for 28 years.
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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by Lost Leopard Spot » Tue Dec 29, 2015 10:28 am

KeyserSoze wrote:
Lost Leopard Spot wrote:
KeyserSoze wrote:Racing through Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? at the moment.
How can you be conscious and never read that?
Have had my penfield mood organ set to 657 - 'cultural unawareness' for 28 years.
I'm sending Deckard round to retire you. You're obviously a replicant.
That's not a leopard!
頑張ってください

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Re: What are you reading tonight?

Post by TANGODANCER » Tue Dec 29, 2015 1:37 pm

Book Hunt:

Acting on Bruce's reco, this morning I caught the Zanzibar Express (that's the 36 bus) and went in the Central Library in town to search for Wilbur Smith's The Eye of the Tiger. Despite the several dozen novels the said author has written, none were in open sight despite a careful scrutiny lying with binoculars on top of a sand dune in the section opposite "S". Undaunted I set out to find help. I was on a quest and had three days worth of salt and vinegar crisps, a small bottle of Lucozade and six mars bars in my trusty haversack. I would not be defeated.

Eventually, a rather rotund and jolly lady elf was located hiding behing a wheeled trolley, and told me the treasure was probably down in Lord Leverhulme's secret hidden chamber deep under Howell Croft diamond mines. The dear lady volunteered to decend into the bowels risking life and tights and explore. She told me she may be a short time as only she knew where the stale pasty thrower and the rocking manhole covers that brought the unwary up somewhere in Stretford, were located.

I waited....and waited...slept a while and waited some more. Eventually, breathless and exhausted, covered in dust and waving a Zulu assegai with a scarab beetle impaled on its tip, my intrepid explorer friend staggered across the M.F.I tiles and triumphantly held up a sand-covered copy of...The Eye of the Tiger.... :oyea:

The adventure commences tonight...... :D
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