What are you currently reading?

Started by Francisco Suárez, December 26, 2012, 09:48:56 PM

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LausTibiChriste

Lord Jesus Christ, Son Of God, Have Mercy On Me A Sinner

"Nobody is under any moral obligation of duty or loyalty to a state run by sexual perverts who are trying to destroy public morals."
- MaximGun

"Not trusting your government doesn't make you a conspiracy theorist, it means you're a history buff"

Communism is as American as Apple Pie

Clare

Motes 'n' Beams blog

Feel free to play the Trivia Quiz!

O Mary, Immaculate Mother of Jesus, offer, we beseech thee, to the Eternal Father, the Precious Blood of thy Divine Son to prevent at least one mortal sin from being committed somewhere in the world this day.

"It is a much less work to have won the battle of Waterloo, or to have invented the steam-engine, than to have freed one soul from Purgatory." - Fr Faber

"When faced by our limitations, we must have recourse to the practice of offering to God the good works of others." - St Therese of Lisieux

red solo cup

Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger. A German soldier's WWI account of trench warfare. Very good.
non impediti ratione cogitationis

Revixit

Quote from: Lynne on May 24, 2015, 04:43:12 AM
Quote from: Revixit on May 23, 2015, 10:47:41 PM

Thanks for the tip.  The book is available at Amazon for $5.99 for the Kindle book, and their affiliated sellers have one new hardcover edition for $57.56 plus used hardcovers priced higher than the new one. (What?!)  I've already downloaded a free Sample of it, am about to go to bed and read it until I fall asleep and my Kindle shuts off.

European royalty was indeed a very tangled weave. On my Kindle Paperwhite, during the past few days I've read Samples (a great Kindle feature) of Eleanor of Castile:The Shadow Queen; Joan of Kent, the First Princess of Wales; and A Reed in the Wind: Joanna Plantagenet, all of which promise to be very good reads.  Each one is a web of complicated relationships between royal families.

If you don't have a Kindle, you can read the Kindle books on a Kindle app, which I'm fairly certain is a free download.

Kindle samples are like crack.  ::)

:rofl:  Isn't that the truth?  Now, in addition to the three or four I mentioned wanting to read, I'm also really excited about reading Queen Isabella by William Thomas Walsh, having read the entire Sample.

I've also downloaded Samples of four of his other books:

Philip II (1527-1598);
St. Teresa of Avila;
Characters of the Inquisition;
Moses

But there's bad news: I was just over at Amazon and saw that
Philip II (1527-1598) is now only available in hardcover @ $46.95, though it was available on Kindle just a couple of days ago, probably for $9.99, and I have been reading the Sample on my Kindle!  Also, the Sample of Moses seems to have disappeared from my Kindle. I'll be calling Amazon later to ask them what the hell they're doing, will let you guys know what I learn, if anything. 

I did manage to download Queen Isabella for $5.99 just now, thought I'd better get it quick before the Kindle edition vanished like Philip II (1527-1598) did!  It's great reading.  Get it while you can!

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have Mercy On Us

Bernadette

That's weird. It showed up when I searched just now.  :shrug: Do you back up your kindle library to Calibre?
My Lord and my God.

Lynne

I just ordered the sample of the Queen Isabella book. 
In conclusion, I can leave you with no better advice than that given after every sermon by Msgr Vincent Giammarino, who was pastor of St Michael's Church in Atlantic City in the 1950s:

    "My dear good people: Do what you have to do, When you're supposed to do it, The best way you can do it,   For the Love of God. Amen"

Molly Grue

I'm reading Those Terrible Middle Ages by Pauline Reage, and The Witches by Roald Dahl (daughter's bedtime book).
It would be the last unicorn in the world who came to Molly Grue.

MilesChristi

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
    It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
    It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
    And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
    And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
    There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
    Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
    World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

OCLittleFlower

-- currently writing a Trad romance entitled Flirting with Sedevacantism --

???? ?? ?????? ????????? ???, ?? ?????.

Baldrick


LausTibiChriste

Quote from: Bernadette on May 27, 2015, 10:32:58 AM
That's weird. It showed up when I searched just now.  :shrug: Do you back up your kindle library to Calibre?

Calibre is an awesome program. My eReader isn't a Kindle (it's a Kobo) and I have no idea how to add PDF books and what not through the native software (pretty sure it's impossible)...Calibre saved my butt.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son Of God, Have Mercy On Me A Sinner

"Nobody is under any moral obligation of duty or loyalty to a state run by sexual perverts who are trying to destroy public morals."
- MaximGun

"Not trusting your government doesn't make you a conspiracy theorist, it means you're a history buff"

Communism is as American as Apple Pie

MilesChristi

Quote from: Baldrick on May 27, 2015, 06:43:48 PM
Quote from: MilesChristi on May 27, 2015, 02:56:47 PM
Purgatorio

Which translation do u prefer?

I'm finishing what I started with Esolen, I like his notes, and the fact that he actually tries to put it in verse.
Plus; it actually comes with the Italian for when I get ambitious enough to improve mine.
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
    It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
    It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
    And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
    And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
    There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
    Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
    World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Baldrick

Quote from: MilesChristi on May 28, 2015, 02:07:31 AM
Quote from: Baldrick on May 27, 2015, 06:43:48 PM
Quote from: MilesChristi on May 27, 2015, 02:56:47 PM
Purgatorio

Which translation do u prefer?

I'm finishing what I started with Esolen, I like his notes, and the fact that he actually tries to put it in verse.
Plus; it actually comes with the Italian for when I get ambitious enough to improve mine.

Yes, his translation certainly has its merits; his notes are good too.  He's a very good and interesting person, have spoken with and corresponded with him about Dante, among other things.  He also has quite a few audio lectures on Dante. 

Personally, however, for my purposes, I prefer to keep to translations that don't try to "put it in verse" - because doing so requires all kinds of acrobatics and embellishments that really aren't there. 

When I consult a translation for an idiomatic rendering of the text, there is no question that Durling's is the superior translation for this, as it's a very literal translation.  His notes are also good. 

Incidentally, the Dante project at Dartmouth has all of the major commentaries (digital).  It's quite useful. 

Happy reading!  :) 

MilesChristi

If I want the real meaning, I'll go to the Italian.
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
    It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
    It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
    And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
    And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
    There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
    Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
    World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Baldrick

Quote from: MilesChristi on May 28, 2015, 02:32:51 PM
If I want the real meaning, I'll go to the Italian.

LOL, well of course!   ;D   And presumably you are seeking the "real meaning"! 

However, literal translations assist (and I should say invaluably so) with the teasing out of an idiomatic rendering from the medieval Tuscan.  Dante's syntax in particular can be quite crabbed; and that's an understatement.  Even the best Dante readers with excellent Italian need that on occasion.   8)   As with middle English for most modern English readers, even many generally-educated Italians can't read Dante.

With Esolen one is reading mostly Mr. Esolen.  This is true of Durling too, of course - just less so.