I’m stimulating your inner bibliophile.
Do you always put the best spin on things? Or do you think it's a feminine trait? I try to avoid stereotypes, but I can't help my experiences. I grew up with 2 sisters and they, along with my mother, hate how competitive I and my father are. My wife also hates it, but my 2 boys are just as competitive. So, in my family competitiveness manifests as a gender thing.
Hopefully that doesn't put you off. I'm just curious about human behavior in all its different forms.
I enjoyed
The Death of Ivan Illych. War and Peace was epic but
Les Miserables had me in tears at the end. I’ve read a little Chekov and Shakespeare too. The challenge focuses on novels. But I’m doing
Harold Bloom’s simultaneously. It covers more mediums.
Impressive. You put me to shame. I love Shakespeare's histories the most, especially
Macbeth and
Henry V. I own 3 different versions of the movie, and love to compare how the different performances interpret the story: Robert Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hiddleston. I started that because I took a Shakespeare class and for each play we read, we also attended a live performance. It was my favorite lit class. I love Shakespeare's histories because I love history itself.
I read 200 books per year.
I'm not even close to that. You win.
I’m definitely a renaissance woman. My thirst for learning never leaves.
Me too. A kindred spirit. I was listening to a Lutheran pastor recently who made a comment that, for all its vices, the Internet is great for bringing together people with obscure interests who would otherwise have to go it alone.
I make room for extras like cozy mysteries (I’m nearly done with Christie’s works) and popular books (I’m reading the Crazy Rich Asians and Game of Thrones series now).
As far as Christie goes, I prefer Hercule Poirot over Miss Marple. But
Game of Thrones? Really. You have to tell me what you think of the writing. I thought it was awful. I only picked up the book because I was curious why it was so popular, and I couldn't get past the first few paragraphs. Atrocious. I guess that poison's the well, but you still have to tell me what you think of the quality.
That’s impeccable! As a decided Janeite with amusing similarities to Lizzy, I appreciate the gesture. Well done! Needless to say, I’ve been looking for Mr. Darcy for awhile! I think I’ve found him.
Very kind of you. Since I get to tell my own story, I get to put the best spin on it, but the truth is very different.
The thing about Bronte is this. All of Charlotte’s books relate to her desire to be loved. Each novel is her story in some way. When she married she stopped writing for a time. But her passion is hard to miss. Start with Jane Eyre.
I actually did start
Jane Eyre once, but never finished. I was in my teens and reading through my grandfather's library. I think I was too young for it, and then never went back. In college one of my girlfriends loved
Anna Karenina, so I tried to read it, but stopped after about 100 pages. I then concluded I hated Tolstoy. It was years later that I reluctantly read
Ivan Illych and was surprised by how much I liked it.
First impressions can be a problem. Or maybe it's the feminine voice, and it took some maturity before I could appreciate it. I remember once someone told me my own writing has a strong masculine voice. That intrigued me, so I interrogated them regarding what about my writing sounded masculine, and I then worked very hard at developing the right voice for my female characters. However, I don't think it was until we covered the idea of "agency" in my history classes that I realized my female characters often lacked agency. In other words, I was being a bit of a chauvinist. Some of the actresses I've worked with recently tell me they like my female characters, so hopefully that means I'm doing better.
My first Eliot was Silas Marner. I enjoyed The Mill on the Floss and Adam Bede. But I believe Daniel Deronda and Middlemarch were her best pieces. Do you like Woolf?
I really liked
Silas Marner. I've not read Woolf.
On the non-fiction end, that includes: business, finance, self-help, and religion. I enjoy philosophy, psychology, history and biographies. I cover personal subjects like health, fitness, fashion, beauty, food, travel, crafts, and decorating. I’m very diverse. If I’m ahead in my yearly challenge I expand my options.
And we finally come to it. Shouldn't all threads at CF gravitate to theology? I love to people watch. I love to tell stories. The spiderweb of natural conversation fascinates me.
My own theological search started when I found
Mere Christianity, but then I went down the rabbit hole and got into the obscure stuff. Augustine was great, as were Luther's works. I imagine the Christian world view implanted by my father had an effect, because people like Nietzsche and Spinoza seem oddly confused.
