Which book are you reading currently? #7

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Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

 

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, again.

It's one of those books I have to read again from time to time.

I just finished The Invinsible Man by H.G. Wells before that.

 

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson, I'm really enjoying it so far.

 

So what *is* the name of the rose? Do they reveal that at the end?

 

*whispering* Rosebud...


Wow, the double irony there is so incredible I may just soil myself.

 

Too much info!

 

I'm still reading Dracula by Bram Stoker. I took a little break from reading in general, but am now back into the swing. It is an epistolary novel (all letters, journal entries, documents, etc..). It is an interesting style as it tends to mask the author. There is no narrator, so that voice is absent, and since there are a number of different "authors" within the book, each having an individual, unique voice, this again masks the voice of the actual author (in this case, Bram). It's a good book though. Dr. Van Helsing had an interesting thing to say in the chapter I just finished:

...'To believe in things that you cannot. Let me illustrate. I heard once of an American who so defined faith: "that which enables us to believe things which we know to be untrue." For one, I follow that man. He meant that we shall have an open mind, and not let a little bit of truth check the rush of a big truth, like a small rock does a railway truck. We get the small truth first. Good! We keep him, and we value him; but all the same we must not let him think himself all the truth in the universe.'

For a split second there, I believed in vampires. Was fun.

 

Just finished "The Prodigal Mage" by Karen Miller. It was absolutely terrible. I hated every single character (since when are arrogant, ignorant, spineless, stupid characters supposed to be relatable or likable, particularly if ALL of the characters are the same?), nothing happened for the first 150 pages, there were only two moments in which there was any action, and there was no climax of the story. Just a cliffhanger to get you to buy the next one. My suggestion: avoid this book at all costs (and the author, if this is any hint of what she has to offer).

 

I read Ender's Game, which was really good. Now I'm reading ... I think it's called Threshold by Ursula K. Le Guin. Not really digging it so far.

 

Card is a strange author he has written some really good stuff and some really bad stuff and I am seriously opposed to his political views.

Ender's game should be required reading for anyone interested in SF or even just literature in general, it is very thought provoking. I would also recommend "Ender's Shadow" which is the same story told from the perspective of Bean. The sequels to both "game" and "shadow" are less good although in different ways. Card also wrote a book called "Enchantment" which is a truly, wait for it, enchanting bit of time travel romance.

 

No. The books last line is "Stat rosa pristina nomine, nomina nuda tenemus" and it translates to something like "Yesterday's rose endures in its name, we hold empty names".

Eco doesn't state what the rose is, but hints in the person gallery first in the book, that the girl the novice Adso encounters might be the rose.

And Adso, who is the story teller, says in the book and in the movie: "She was the only earthly love in my life, yet I never knew, nor ever learned, her name. "

 

lol, thanks! Though I was kidding. I was making a joke like the book was a whodunnit teenage slasher film. But your answer is pretty good...

 

Heheh! Thanks.

Sorry to ruin your joke though. I'm a little dense at times.

 

I'm a couple of hundred pages into "The Gathering Storm" by Robert Jordan (as written by Brandon Sanderson.

So far, I'm really enjoying it.

 

Glad to see that I am not the only one with perseverance and hope Snook. I think Sanderson did a great job, dont know how much he actually wrote but if I hadn't known that he was involved I could have believed Jordan wrote the entire thing himself, during one of his good periods when he isnt fascinated by lace or scented baths.

 

Oh it was her, I thought it was about something Aristotle-related :/

 

Well, Eco left it open for interpretation.

What he has stated he meant with the title was, that from the beauty of the past, now disappeared, we hold only the name.

In this novel, the lost "rose" could be seen as Aristotle's book on comedy (now forever lost), the exquisite library now destroyed, or the beautiful peasant girl now dead.

The novel is a telling of stories within stories.

Which is why I find it so fascinating that I have to read it again from time to time.

 

My understanding is that Sanderson wrote the entire thing based on notes and meetings with Jordan before he died.

 

I've been looking for this series over and over. I don't think it's in conventional bookshops over here, but I haven't even seen a single book in second-hand bookstores!

I purchased the Three Musketeers today because I was in the mood for some high swashbucklin' adventure. Looking forward to reading it.

 

If you like swashbucklin' adventures, you might want look up Arturo Pérez-Reverte's Captain Alatriste series.

I think you'll find it interesting.