NOW READING

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Jeremy Fisk series (three so far published) by Dick Wolf (creator of Law & Order TV series). Interesting series about all the resources, organizations, technology, and people the NYPD have at their disposal to combat city wide threats.
 
Has anyone read Catch-22 without wanting to read other stuff in between? I find it so hard to get through since it doesn't have a particular story, but it's so easy to forget the characters that it will probably make me less likely to finish it if I put it down for other things. It's not boring at all, I enjoy it, but it demands some discipline from one.
 
Oh boy, how am I going to resist typing a four-page reply now... Catch-22 is my all-time favorite book, which basically means I want to read it any time. It's very important to get used to the idea that you're not supposed to remember the characters or easily follow the story. See, it's all stylistic devices that are intended to reveal how soldiers feel when thrown in with thousands of other men they're supposed to share what's left of their lives. At the same time, the book introduces characters out of the blue, without any hint, which symbolises the importance of those people for the main characters. They are all that the world consists of for them at that point. Everything in the book is intended to reveal the absurdity of war - the constant recycling of stories, the meaningless dialogues, etc... So I wouldn't say you need discipline to read Catch-22, but a certain mind set for sure.
 
I do like how the dialogue makes no sense and is repetitive, but I think this part:
See, it's all stylistic devices that are intended to reveal how soldiers feel when thrown in with thousands of other men they're supposed to share what's left of their lives. At the same time, the book introduces characters out of the blue, without any hint, which symbolises the importance of those people for the main characters. They are all that the world consists of for them at that point.​
kind of explains why the writing seemed "cold-hearted" to me, so to speak. I might have gotten attached to Yossarian since he is the first to be introduced but I guess that it wouldn't be focused on him since he's a part so small of the whole war that basically no one but him cares about whether he dies or not.
 
Desdemona said:
he's a part so small of the whole war that basically no one but him cares about whether he dies or not.
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And you've summed up Catch 22 in one sentence :) Well done. It's an excellent book. I also found it difficult when I first attempted it. When I came back in my mid-20s (after university-level English classes) I found it to be a much more accessible read.
 
I read Catch-22 about three years ago, and I felt it was almost impossible to figure out what was going on at first, but pretty soon accepted that this was intentional, and basically couldn't put it down afterwards. The sudden switch from its grotesque absurdity to dark seriousness towards the end hit me like a punch in the guts, and the panoramic stroll through Rome is one of the most memorable things I have ever read, perhaps not in detail, but in impact. A true masterpiece, and one of the defining novels of the 20th century.
 
Perun said:
I read Catch-22 about three years ago, and I felt it was almost impossible to figure out what was going on at first, but pretty soon accepted that this was intentional, and basically couldn't put it down afterwards. The sudden switch from its grotesque absurdity to dark seriousness towards the end hit me like a punch in the guts, and the panoramic stroll through Rome is one of the most memorable things I have ever read, perhaps not in detail, but in impact. A true masterpiece, and one of the defining novels of the 20th century.
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I'm intrigued about that near-ending now, and also that comment on impact. I think I'm gonna get myself to finish it in the next couple days.
 
Just finished reading A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and greatly enjoyed it. Simply could not stop reading after one point.

Trying to go through some classics this summer.
 
The Flash said:
Just finished reading A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and greatly enjoyed it. Simply could not stop reading after one point.

Trying to go through some classics this summer.
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If you like Dickens, my favorite is Bleak House. The lawyer Tulkinghorn is one of the great villains in literature.
 
Hey, all you fantasy/sci-fi fans: Anyone recommend the Broken Earth trilogy (The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky) by NK Jemisin? It got a good review in the NYTimes, but curious if any of you folks have read it. I have a long reading list and wondering whether to add this.
 
Next on my list:
Hydriotaphia, Urne-Buriall, or, A Diſcourſe of the Sepulchrall Urnes lately found in Norfolk Together with the Garden of Cyrus, or the Quincunciall Lozenge, or Net-work Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, Myſtically Conſidered; With Sundry Obſervations. By Thomas Browne.
Courtesy of William Alwyn.
 
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