Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Dmitry]

`The Catcher In The Rye' is in my list of books to read.

I wanted to ask you about books you read in 2015. Which of them not only impressed you much but also affected your world?

I read much. Most of all I was impressed by Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov", Dante's "The Divine Comedy" and Homer's "Iliad". These are great works that I will re-read in the future.

[Normandie]

I have to admit that I did not read anything of real substance this past year, except for Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, for about the 100th time. It's a favorite.

I do have Madame Bovary on my list, and my girls have to read George Orwell's 1984 for school. I actually was assigned to read that one in 1984.

[Dmitry]

Great books, these `Madame Bovary' and `1984'. I read Flaubert in Russian translation, but American and English books I prefer to read in English. Have to admit that, for example, Orwell, Herbert George Wells, Mark Twain are easy to read, but I can't read Shakespeare or Dickens. Very complicated! You know, my English is not so good.

[zipp]

Great books, these `Madame Bovary' and `1984'. I read Flaubert in Russian translation, but American and English books I prefer to read in English. Have to admit that, for example, Orwell, Herbert George Wells, Mark Twain are easy to read, but I can't read Shakespeare or Dickens. Very complicated! You know, my English is not so good.

Don't worry Dimitri. A lot of English people can't understand Shakespeare and even experts sometimes disagree about the meaning of certain lines. I'm a native English speaker and I watch my Shakespeare DVDs with the English subtitles. I sometimes pause the DVD to make sure I've understood!

Dickens is easier but his languagae is a bit old-fashioned.

Happy new year for 2016.

[Normandie]

. . . I can't read Shakespeare or Dickens. Very complicated! You know, my English is not so good.

I have never been able to make sense of Shakespeare because I have always had to constantly check the footnotes to figure out what is being said, or what is happening. It was distracting. I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it would be to attempt to learn Shakespeare in my nonnative language. P.S. I think your English is excellent, Dmitry!

I just finished The Swans of Fifth Avenue, which I found fascinating. I tend to stick to "fluffier" reads because my daily editorial work is so sobering.

[KelMar]

I have never been able to make sense of Shakespeare because I have always had to constantly check the footnotes to figure out what is being said, or what is happening. It was distracting.

I was Cliff Notes' best customer! I did read the assignments but I really enjoyed Shakespeare when I actually understood it! I loved Romeo and Juliet. The local theater got the movie in for us and that was great too. Imagine a theater full of ninth graders, especially the boys, during the wedding night scene!

[Normandie]

You're better than I am, Kelley; I've never cared for Shakespeare, not even Romeo and Juliet (sacrilege, I know!). I don't think I ever even finished MacBeth in high school; I just fudged my way through my paper. My girls are currently struggling through Hamlet, which I detested, because I had to rewrite my first paper, so I did, but on the same topic, and my teacher told me to do it again on a different topic -- so I ended up doing three Hamlet papers; boo!

I had to laugh at your comment about the ninth-graders tittering throughout the wedding night scene; my class had the same experience. Gotta love those middle-schoolers and their raging hormones.

I read somewhere that Paul was approached to play Romeo but that he was too busy to accept. Now that would have made the movie infinitely more interesting to me.

[Hello Goodbye]

I have never been able to make sense of Shakespeare because I have always had to constantly check the footnotes to figure out what is being said, or what is happening. It was distracting.

Try it again, Kathleen, and this time forget the footnotes and concentrate on the iambic pentameter.

I read somewhere that Paul was approached to play Romeo but that he was too busy to accept. Now that would have made the movie infinitely more interesting to me.

It's too bad Paul didn't have the time to play Romeo.  He sure made a fine Pyramus...


A Midsummer Night's Dream    Act V.  Scene I.

http://youtu.be/Vo8qpZ-rl0o










        If we shadows have offended, 
        Think but this, and all is mended, 
        That you have but slumber’d here 
        While these visions did appear. 
        And this weak and idle theme,         
        No more yielding but a dream, 
        Gentles, do not reprehend: 
        If you pardon, we will mend. 
        And, as I’m an honest Puck, 
        If we have unearned luck         
        Now to ’scape the serpent’s tongue, 
        We will make amends ere long; 
        Else the Puck a liar call: 
        So, good night unto you all. 
        Give me your hands, if we be friends,         
        And Robin shall restore amends.

[Normandie]

Try it again, Kathleen, and this time forget the footnotes and concentrate on the iambic pentameter.

I don't know, Barry; I think I killed too many brain cells drinking beer in college. 

[Hello Goodbye]

Kathleen, one of the advantages of going to the New York City Public School System were school trips to Stratford Connecticut where they had a recreation of the Globe Theater.  It was the home of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and I saw several plays performed pretty much the same way they performed them in Shakespeare's time...











I used to go up to girls and tell them, in iambic pentameter, how they reminded me of Juliet.



If we went on a trip to The Cloisters...




...I'd tell them they reminded me of Guinevere.   

[Hello Goodbye]

You're better than I am, Kelley; I've never cared for Shakespeare, not even Romeo and Juliet (sacrilege, I know!). I don't think I ever even finished MacBeth in high school; I just fudged my way through my paper. My girls are currently struggling through Hamlet, which I detested, because I had to rewrite my first paper, so I did, but on the same topic, and my teacher told me to do it again on a different topic -- so I ended up doing three Hamlet papers; boo!

But Hamlet is a great play!


http://youtu.be/_bXAj_-LAK4

You've got to hand it to that Laurence Harvey.  He really knows his job.

[Hello Goodbye]

Laurence Harvey played a great Romeo in the 1954 movie...


http://youtu.be/zI_TcI0ewcg

[Hello Goodbye]

So you see that Shakespeare can be a blast!!!   

[Klang]

Very recently watched Harvey in another classic, also based on a rather famous book...

! No longer available

A great player.

 

[Hello Goodbye]

A great player.

 

One of the best.


http://youtu.be/wmthl1hAdFA

[Klang]

Oh yea. And how about this little number...

! No longer available

 

[Hello Goodbye]

[Klang]

Why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?

 

[Normandie]

One of the best.
http://youtu.be/wmthl1hAdFA

Of Human Bondage is a favorite of mine! I've never seen the film, though. I'll have to track it down. Same for An American Tragedy-- a longtime favorite but have never seen the film.

[Normandie]

^^^^

Same for Sister Carrie, which is such a fave that I used "George Hurstwood" (whose fictitious life seems to be paralleling my own) as part of an email contact name, and my elder daughter got completely confused. It was pretty funny, actually. So now she's going to read it as her independent AP English assignment, so some good came out of it.   

As for Shakespeare, I think I'm just a lost cause.