What Are You Reading 2013 - Page 99

On August 19 2013 03:12 corumjhaelen wrote:
Finished reading after a productive two week in Bavaria :
Thus spoke Zarathoustra (Nietzsche)
Very well-written, interesting, but really hard to decipher. Hence...

Nietzsche and philosophy (Deleuze)
The first 2/5th was barely comprehensible to me. A sort of theorisation of will of power that didn't seem to lead anywhere imo. The rest seemed like a pretty good summary of Nietzsche's criticism and moral philosophy, and the shorter form and the fact that it wasn't written to be as persuasive as Nietzsche's work made it imo easier to see its underlying contradiction and weakness in argumentation. A bit disappointing overall.
Also, please, Gilles, when you quote something that says truth has never hurt anyone in power in 1962, making a comment about it couldn't hurt...

La Chartreuse de Parme (Stendhal)
Aweeeeeesome. Fucking awesome. Fabrice annoyed me a bit in the beginning, but after that it was simply perfect. Super easy to read, but characters and situations you just can't forget...
To the happy few, as Stendhal says himself

The Quest of the Absolute (Balzac)
Rather good. The protagonist, Claës, is much more relevant that what I thought before starting to read the novel. He's obviously exagerated, but his motivations aren't that much different than the one some physicists still have today.. *ahem* string theory *ahem*

Essai, book I (Montaigne)
I have plenty of philosophical disagreements with Michel Eyquem, but he's a pretty cool guy, who knows many thingsd and can think pretty well. He talks to you like you're his best friend and you're sitting in front of the chimney in his castle. Will have to continue that later

Twelfth Night (Shakespeare)
Funny enough actually.

De Rerum Natura (Lucrece)
Not that much to say, but it was a fun read at least.

Now... I'm not sure. Tacitus, Aragon, Saint-Simon or Joyce (Ulysses) are what is left of my huge pile. That's still a lot, because those are huge books (and Saint-Simon is just one out of eight...). I do need to buy some more stuff though.

On August 19 2013 04:34 packrat386 wrote:


I envy you and your weekend in bavaria. My own reading vacation just ended, so now I'm busy again . I haven't even found time yet to finish the silly spy novel that I started over a week ago. Once I get back to michigan I might start reading some more academic pursuits though. Also twelfth night sounds good, what language did you read it in?

On August 19 2013 05:07 corumjhaelen wrote:

I think it's the first time in ten years I can say I've read to my heart content's, it felt awesome Still have two weeks before uni starts again, even though I'll have more to do, but I'll try to keep a good pace.
I read it in a English/French bilingual edition, but I must admit I paid closer attention to the French^^

On August 19 2013 05:29 packrat386 wrote:


I sort of wish I knew another language well enough to really read literature in it. I think it would be really interesting to see how well the translators represent the style and phrasing. Also, where/what are you studying?

On August 19 2013 05:49 corumjhaelen wrote:

Well yeah, you should work on another language, it's well worth it. Shakespeare is a bit above my level of english to really get it though, but it's still a very interesting experience. I also would like to read a French novel in English one of these days.
I'm studying maths at the Ecole Polytechnique and Pierre and Marie Curie university.

On August 19 2013 17:06 123Gurke wrote:


Whenever I think I have finally understood the French education system something new comes up and confuses me again. Why are you studying at Ecole Polytechnique and Paris 6 at the same time? Do you study at Eole Polytechnique and spend your stage at Paris 6? Or is there something I still don't understand?

On August 19 2013 17:54 corumjhaelen wrote:
it's just that Polytechnique doesn't make any sense whatsoever

On August 20 2013 02:27 corumjhaelen wrote:
^ That's not the imgae you want, that's one of an essay on L'Etranger.
Also I hate José Corti with a passion for holding the rights to Julien Gracq's books for another 65 years, and selling them at a mere 20€ each -_-

On August 20 2013 02:29 packrat386 wrote:

Wait, do you think he ought to be charging more or less?

On August 20 2013 02:27 corumjhaelen wrote:
^ That's not the imgae you want, that's one of an essay on L'Etranger.
Also I hate José Corti with a passion for holding the rights to Julien Gracq's books for another 65 years, and selling them at a mere 20€ each -_-

On August 20 2013 02:32 corumjhaelen wrote:

20€ for a 50+-yo 200-page book sounds like a lot to me :/
Especially since I can't find one of those I bought...
And yeah, sorry for my english^^

On August 20 2013 02:35 Rizare wrote:

Oh, sorry then. I was trying to find an image but they were too big. This one had a better size and I chose it without thinking about it thoroughly.

On August 20 2013 02:36 packrat386 wrote:

Your english is fine, its just that text based conversation can be ambiguous at times. Also yeah that does seem a bit excessive. Perhaps it might be cheaper as an ebook?

On August 19 2013 17:34 TOCHMY wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +