books - an agreement

[peaccenicked]

Take a piece of fiction preferably a classic, maybe
a short classic , with some humour, put in a list,
buy it read and talk about it.
Gullivers Travels Swift
Candide Voltaire
or/and lets tell each other our fav shakespeare
quotes.
just an idea.

[Son of Scargill]

Sounds like a good idea peacenicked,although I have not read any Shakespeare since school(in a galaxy,far,far away)But I do remember that I didn't hate "The Merchant of Venice"so maybe I should pick up a copy and try again.
I received 3 books at Christmas,a collection of Icelandic Sagas(I don't know why but I've always been fascinated by Iceland since I was a kid)Crime and Punishment,Dostoevsky and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.I'm halfway through the Sagas,but not knowing the other authors,am wondering if you or any one else recommends one over the other,or neither.Heart of Darkness is looking like the next one to me.

[peaccenicked]

Definitely the Heart of Darkness but I better not say too
much I have friend who wrote a book on Dostoevsky.
At the moment he is researching the correspondance between Shakespeares play's and the politics of the court and all the skulldugery at the palace at that time.
all good stuff.
The Merchant of Venice is good, my favourite is Hamlet.
If you ever come accross Derrida, the deconstrutionist,
He has a book 'Spectres of Marx' . I read it by missing out the gobbleygook, too much jargon but most of it was
at least bearable. It was fascinating. He gets to the influence of shakespeare on Marx. Also to do with shakespeare and marx is the constant if not daily referral to him in the Marx household.
The idea of the play within the play in hamlet is also something that fascinates me. Ah I could go off in tangents forever. The trouble I found with Crime and Punishment is the lack of sympathy I felt for his characters. Though I seem to be quite alone on this one and perhaps I need to tackle it again.
If you read the Heart of Darkness, you might be further interested to read Edward Said's criticism in 'culture and Imperialism'. I suppose a book worth reading is a book worth criticizing. A superb book also is the'Iron Heel'
By Jack London. There is superb critical appreciation of it,
in Trotsky somewhere. Also Shakspeare sonnets with a good set of footnotes is indispensable in any selection of good reading.

[Moskitto]

I used to be fascinated by Iceland a few years ago as well.

Then I liked Scandinavia in general.

And now I like South America or posibly Asia.

[I Will Deny You]

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

[the_one]

"God is dead, and we have buried him."