Posted by Sterling on 28/7/2012, 11:41:55, in reply to "Re: recent reading"
99.42.132.179
Just a postscript to the above. Someone needs to correct Wikipedia's list. If they're going to include Chinese novels (Romance of the Three Kingdoms), surely Story of the Stone should be on the list. Maybe Outlaws of the Marsh and Journey to the West, too, but I can't say because I haven't read them. The Tale of Genji is very long, too, although I don't know if it is longer than the novels on the list.
--Previous Message--
: Nostromo is my favorite among the Conrad novels that I
: have read.
:
: Sentimental Education is on my list of Top Ten
: Favorite Novels Ever.
:
: Kalidasa is one of those writers that I intend to read
: but can never quite make myself try. (His works are
: free on the Kindle. I really should try sometime.)
:
: When The History of the Siege of Lisbon was
: scheduled by ReadLit last year, I purchased a copy and
: tried to read it. I don't give up on books a lot
: either, but I think Saramago is not for me. I didn't
: get very far before I realized I was just slogging
: along and not enjoying it at all. Partly, I tried to
: read it because it was your only nomination, Joffre,
: and I respect your taste. It just wasn't doing it for
: me. Too bad that I don't like his work. This is
: another place where the Kindle comes through--his
: collected novels (12), for $15.99.
:
: I have not tried The God of Small Things , and I have
: no idea what Cities of Salt is.
:
: Besides the Read Lit books, much of my year has been
: spent working my way through some vast novels:
: Romance of the Three Kingdoms , Les Miserables , and
: Shadow Country . The last is a reconceptualization by
: Peter Matthiessen of his trilogy of novels about Edgar
: Watson into one, long, dense novel. It won the
: National Book Award in 2008. Since I like
: Matthiessen, I've been trying to get through it, but
: I've stalled out on the last section. I hope to get
: back to it, though.
:
: Interestingly (to me at least), I have now made a
: sizeable dent in the list of longest novels on
: Wikipedia:
:
: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_novels
:
: It's a list of 11 novels. I have no intention of ever
: wasting my time on Ayn Rand. That leaves ten, three
: of which are out of print and forgotten (Herbert,
: Cooper, and, oddly perhaps, Sandburg). This leaves
: seven. When I finish Les Miserables (about 75%
: done), I will have read all but Richardson and David
: Foster Wallace. This amuses me a little since I had
: no intention of seeking out unusually long works.
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
: --Previous Message--
:
: I haven't been posting as much, but I've been reading
: as much as ever.
:
: In the last months, I've read:
: Sentimental Education,
: Sakuntula and The Cloud Messenger by Kalidasa,
: Cities of Salt,
: and The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis.
: I think TYotDoRR is probably my favorite Saramago
: novel now.
:
: I read Heart of Darkness for the first time in a long
: time and then read it agin.
:
: I was reading The God of Small Things, but I wasn't
: enjoying it at all and didn't force myself to finish.
: It's very rare for me to give up on a book, but I
: probably gave this one up sooner than I've done in the
: past. I was quite tired of it though.
:
: Right now, I'm reading Nostromo. I'm not very far into
: it, but I'm enjoying it well enough so far.
:
:
:
:
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