I actually found a copy of Ten Little N*ggers at a used book store and I bought it out of sheer vintage-tude; I've already got And Then There Were None hardcover.

My grandmother gave me a copy of Little Black Sambo when I was a kid. The weird thing is, for all the racism it implies, Little Black Sambo was from India, not Africa. The original illustrations make it very, very clear.

The encyclopedia....almost done.

Ghost King. Hopefully it will be better than the pirate and orc kings.

Just finished The Fountainhead a couple days ago. Haven't decided what to read next, but am leaning toward Soul Survivor

I just finished Use of Weapons, by Iain M. Banks. It was fantastic, my favourite of his so far. The twist at the end was a complete surprise, and I could only see it coming a few paragraphs before it happened. I had to keep myself from looking ahead by covering the offending passages with my hands. I kept saying to myself in my head "no, no no! Don't let THAT be the case!" Right up to the end.

Have now started his most recent sci fi The Algebraist. It's great so far. Some nut on the bus last night noticed I was reading his favourite author and proceded to annoy me with his views on metaphysics and Socrates. This is the second time this has happened.

Right now I'm reading two books currently. Right now I'm reading "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" and as well "Marshal Zhukov's Greatest Battles". Really enjoying the book by Ken Kesey and also really fond of Georgy Zhukov's book. A very interesting point of view of the battle of Stalingrad from the words the most decorated man in Soviet history (not just the battle of Stalingrad I might add).

Working on The Picture of Dorian Gray, Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland, and Dracula concurrently. It's amusing to see writers of the same era all referencing each other and using similar "in" words, like "picturesque".

You haven't read those 3 yet? Interesting. I'm in need of a big book. Maybe tales of 2 cities.

A Tale of Two Cities was interesting, but it was hard for me to stay with it because of the style. I hope you enjoy it :D (If you haven't read it already, I suggest The Count of Monte Cristo, if our tastes are by any chance similar.)

Ah! I haven't. Let's say I enjoyed reading Don Quixote, but can't get into Poe or Shakespeare. It's not the style that hurts me, it's my lack of comprehension.

Oh, okay. Yeah, with some authors... I'd imagine it's something like I don't mind reading them, but since they take more studying, so to say, than reading, that I need to be in the mood for it. It takes more effort.

So, on that front, I would heavily agree with Shakespeare, especially since his work is in middle English and requires knowing the time period to understand a lot of the moral (or immoral) and historical backing of some stuff.

For instance, Macbeth took a lot out of me because, although it is beautifully written, you cannot appreciate its intrinsic power until you understand the time frame it was written in and who it was targeted at. Needless to say I now love it now that I've already studied it and read it, and now when I re-read it I can enjoy it more than study it.

Poe, well... :D He more often takes a kind of... I want to say fantastical and romantic mindset, although romantic not being used in its current-day slaughtered definition. Does that kind of make sense? I felt that he isn't so much about context, as Shakespeare is, as style and approach, itself. It's kind of hard to explain.

Anyway, your avy is full of win. I thought I would share that.

I really shouldn't have gotten the unabridged version of Don Quixote. :(

I'm going to buy One-upmanship, I've decided. :posh

I tried really hard to read Macbeth. It came with all kinds of wonderful notes and explanations. I used to read it on the beach all day, but it really was taxing on me. I might try Poe again if it was on my girlfriends coffee table and she was in the shower.

Dante's Divine Comedy was a great read too. I also think I will be hard pressed to find a better Avatar.

you can always just watch throne of blood instead :O

i'm reading Warped Passages by Lisa Randall
she's so great :)

I am currently using this:


to get to this:

Catcher In The Rye.

I never had much trouble with Shakespeare but then I only really read it in my Lit classes with teachers who took time to point out the various dirty little jokes the Bard put in there (like the rape threats in Midsummer Night's Dream).

On the other hand, I really can't get into the historic Shakespeare stuff.

@ sspadowsky - If you finish that, you should consider Sense and Sensibility and Sea Serpents.

Thanks for the tip, ZQ. By the bye, I would like to state that I will gouge out my own eyes, stuff the sockets with hand grenades, and detonate them simultaneously before I EVER read another Jane Austen book.

The television adaptations of Jane Austen are always superior, I think.

http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazi...cusack?cnn=yes

:lol Who cares?

No problem. I'm surprised there aren't more like that written. It's inspired me to work on Hamlet and Werewolves.

But like Zhukov said, the movie and TV adaptations tend to be easier to follow.

About to start 69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess by Stewart Home and Samuel Beckett's Trilogy.