Late-Night Reading?

[Sapha]

Indeed. I'm looking into it. It's tough though, lots of things to consider.

It is never easy changing careers and-or returning to study no matter your situation or circumstance. I do wish you well in your pursuit of your dream career.

But you have Tassie Devils (for the moment), that trumps anything we have on the mainland.

Yes, there is that.

I bet people stare at you like you have a single head

Lol, a funny one aren't you?

And for having the appearance and wherewithal of a time traveller from the future; clothes, ideas not of the 19th century.

Totally ruined the thread.

*points at Cayal* His fault. *slinks out*

 

[Cayal]

We didn't go over a page so I think we're ok.

It is never easy changing careers and-or returning to study no matter your situation or circumstance. I do wish you well in your pursuit of your dream career.

Why thank you.

 

[chongjasmine]

I seldom read at late nights. I need sleep, plenty, plenty of sleep.

 

[Connavar]

I like late night reading as long as I'm not too tired (or inebriated) because it is a time usually most free from unwanted noise and distraction.

Personally, I like a bit of weird horror to read at that time.

I have been saving my new Robert Aickman collection specially for late night reads. To get me in the best possible imaginative state for his fantasticl weird stories.

After that and Hodgson sea monster stories, i need to refill on my weird fiction,horror authors like that

 

[Randy M.]

I have been saving my new Robert Aickman collection specially for late night reads. To get me in the best possible imaginative state for his fantasticl weird stories.

After that and Hodgson sea monster stories, i need to refill on my weird fiction,horror authors like that

I can see Hodgson -- and if you haven't read "The Voice in the Night" you're in for a treat -- but most of what I've read by Aickman (Walter de la Mare, too, for that matter) requires too much attention for bed-time reading. I think both were influenced by Henry James and so attention to nuance is important to a full reading of their work.

Ramsey Campbell and Caitlin Kiernan aren't quite as demanding at shorter lengths, and Fredric Brown or Eric Frank Russell or Robert Bloch or Carl Jacobi or Fritz Leiber or Henry Kuttner and/or C. L. Moore I don't find demanding at all, just entertaining.


Randy M.

 

[Steve S]

I always try to read a few pages before sleep (nice way to unwind) but after a long day, it's not easy. I'm reading 'The Name of the Rose' at the moment, and although it's a wonderful book, it is perhaps a bit too demanding to read at that time!

 

[Allegra]

For me anything reads better at night - early or late, and that's my quality time. Besides I don't have much time to read during the day anyway.

I like the title of this thread.

 

[GOLLUM]

I always try to read a few pages before sleep (nice way to unwind) but after a long day, it's not easy. I'm reading 'The Name of the Rose' at the moment, and although it's a wonderful book, it is perhaps a bit too demanding to read at that time!

Yeh I find any of Umberto Eco's books are fairly demanding affairs. Hugely rewarding of course as you say with respect to Name of the Rose but definitely demanding. I'm not a night person really. I function best during the daylight hours or best of all early morning....

P.S. Make sure you see the film, if you've not already, starring Sean Connery. It's quite well made actually.

 

[manephelien]

I get most of my reading done at night, and it's just about any book I happen to be reading anyway. I often re-read in bed, because then it's easier for me to put the book away and start sleeping. Reading a book for the first time in bed can be risky, I'm too old to realize it's 3 AM and I have to get up in three hours!

 

[io_anonimus]

Yeh I find any of Umberto Eco's books are fairly demanding affairs. Hugely rewarding of course as you say with respect to Name of the Rose but definitely demanding. I'm not a night person really. I function best during the daylight hours or best of all early morning....

P.S. Make sure you see the film, if you've not already, starring Sean Connery. It's quite well made actually.

If you say that The Name of the Rose is demanding, what you can say about
The Island of the Day Before or Foucault's Pendulum?

 

[GOLLUM]

If you say that The Name of the Rose is demanding, what you can say about
The Island of the Day Before or Foucault's Pendulum?

To clarify I was making a general statement regarding Umberto. Certainly Name of The Rose is not a light read and it is a multithemed book but if as you appear to be implying, Island of Day Before and Foucault's Pendulum are more demanding, perhaps his most demanding novels (Focault receives the blue ribbon on that score), I would concur with you on that assessment.

The Mysterious Flame of Queen Iona, dealing with different forms of memory and loss, is another book I enjoyed although I did not find it as well bound in terms of a coherent whole as those already mentioned. An earlier novel Baudolino is probably my least favourite of Umberto's novels. I have picked up a copy of Prague Cemetery but have not read it yet though the premise is intriguing.

If you are a fan of Umberto and you have not yet had the chance to do so, I would suggest you get hold of some of his literary essays to stretch the little grey cells even further...

Happy reading.

 

[io_anonimus]

I have a long list of very good books to be used for stretching exercises. The Prague Cemetery is one of them but I will add now that mysterious queen. I am already afraid of those essays The only problem, that list is getting longer and the time shorter - this can be the reason for enjoying time traveling books - each time I read one I add at least two new entries. I am struggling now with The Egyptian by Mika Waltari and already added The Pharaoh by Prus. I have some mixed info about The Etruscan, also by Waltari, some inputs about this will be appreciated.

 

[GOLLUM]

I have a long list of very good books to be used for stretching exercises. The Prague Cemetery is one of them but I will add now that mysterious queen. I am already afraid of those essays The only problem, that list is getting longer and the time shorter - this can be the reason for enjoying time traveling books - each time I read one I add at least two new entries. I am struggling now with The Egyptian by Mika Waltari and already added The Pharaoh by Prus. I have some mixed info about The Etruscan, also by Waltari, some inputs about this will be appreciated.

The essays are brilliant. On a par with the likes of W.G. Sebald, Gunter Grass, George Orwell, Virginia Wolf and Jorge Luis Borges.

Funny you should mention Prus. I bought a newly translated copy of his masterwork The Doll form the excellent folk at NYRB not long ago. I am still to read it but when someone of the likes of Czeslaw Milosz no less declare The Doll to be amongst the greatest Polish novels ever written and likely the best European novel demonstrating realism in the whole of the 19th Century I tend to take notice. The Pharaoh is not a novel I can shed any light on however.


The Finnish writer Waltari is someone whose work I'm not at all familiar with. I shall read with interest your impressions of his work. What is The Egyptian like?

Cheers.

 

[Extollager]

Thoreau's Cape Cod. Also tried a ghost story or two by Mary Wilkins Freeman. "The Shadows on the Wall" and the first part of "Luella Miller" were mild enough as not to be unsuitable for late-night reading. Peter Ackroyd's London.