In a slighly sarcastic but mostly happy way, I love when English speakers find out about translation - better late than never to discover what everyone else in the world has been up to these past centuries!
So I’ve gotten nowhere for a long time. But as so often happens, just as I ask for help, new ideas start popping into my head. I got a hold of a copy of his collected works and searched for ‘intelligence’ (not a difficult strategy to come up with one would think…). Found it in the essay on Henri Beyle in Books & Characters from 1922. Leaving this up in case there is any interest, but I won’t be offended if someone removes it.
Occasionally do some proof-reading for them here, if I’m having an off day it makes me feel like I’ve at least done something useful lol - pgdp.net/
Edit: They also have some interesting books up - particularly dated nonfiction where you probably wouldn’t want to read the entire thing but 5 pages is kinda cool.
I'm reading The Anglo-Saxons by Marc Morris. It's non-fiction. Morris' books have a good narrative, but they are scholarly works. I haven't gotten very far into The Anglo-Saxons yet, but one bit I greatly enjoyed was the author drawing parallels between Beowulf and Tolkien's Rohirrim, all while discussing the archaeological evidence for feasting halls and the zeitgeist of the people who'd built those halls.
I don’t think anyone ever mistook Beowulf (c. 700–1000 AD) for nonfiction, but just wanted to mention that if you’ve read it and enjoyed it, you might like Grendel, a modern retelling of Beowulf from the monster’s perspective.
Btw it’s really fun to get a side-by-side Modern English and Old English edition of Beowulf and compare them. Wild how much language can change in that time span.
Man, the Puppies’ anti-representation Hugo campaign backfiring into Internet fame for Chuck Tingle was one of the few highlights of 2016. I was at WorldCon that year and the number of people sporting " I Am Chuck Tingle" ribbons on their badges was amazing.
I’ve loved tingle, I’ve read most of his Asexual stories (which do a great job of both portraying ace and satirizing/joking around with it) and also Straight. I gotta say though, while Straight was an enjoyable read, it wasn’t really good as far as being a horror novel went. But that’s fair for the guys first try, and I’m interested to see what his next “serious” offering reads like
I am very, very excited for Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake. I don’t even know how to explain it but her novels are like some sort of mix of hypnosis and dopamine to my brain.
I read Bel Canto earlier this year and it was fantastic. I was hooked immediately and engrossed the whole way through! I’ll definitely have to pick up her new one!
That was a very good one. I also loved her last novel Dutch House. I read it when it came out and then listened to the audio read by Tom Hanks a couple times during the early days of the pandemic when all I could really do was go for long walks. It’s not exactly a cheerful book, but I found it very comforting.
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