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John Girardeau's avatar

Maybe late getting this to you but I joined A Public Space (APS) Together to read War and Peace with Yiyun Li. It was the encore reading of it that had first taken place at the beginning of COVID. They created a book from the first go round which I used in my reading , Tolstoy Together -85 days of War and Peace. It includes the reading schedule , Yiyun's comments and of the facing page the readers in the group's comments. You may just enjoy doing it on your own but I found this a fun alternative. BTW. APS Together is still doing virtual bookgroups and they have an archive (many of which I've been a part of ) that is fun to browse. https://apublicspace.org/aps-together

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GWF's avatar
Jun 15Edited

My friend the English Lit major said his mentor told him, when he opined that War and Peace was the greatest book he’d read: “Les Miserables is better.” My friend read it, and agreed.

Marva Barnett (Victor Hugo Specialist): “Which translation of Les Miserables do you recommend?”

Barnett says Christine Donougher’s translation, her top recommendation, is “engaging, modern, and accurate”, and “[her] detailed historical, cultural, and literary notes greatly help readers understand Hugo’s many references.”

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Joycelyn Campbell's avatar

Ah, that Hunter Thompson quote is one of my favorites. The going certainly has gotten weird. Thank you.

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Peggy Ludwick's avatar

Are you still doing customized inscriptions in your books? You did your 3 for me personally - I'd like to give your books to a few friends/family members. NOT giving them MY copies.

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Austin Kleon's avatar

Yes! i offer this through bookpeople here in Austin — just be sure to follow the directions (fill out who you’d like each book made out to in the comments) https://bookpeople.com/catalog/bookpeoples-local-signing-authors/signed-books-austin-kleon

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Frances O'Roark Dowell's avatar

Are you familiar with Eleanor Robins? Last year she wrote a brilliant post entitled "This Moment Needs Your Deep Weirdness and Your Intellectual Rigor," and this is just one of the best things that has been said about the times we live in.

(https://eleanorrobins.substack.com/p/this-moment-needs-your-deepest-weirdness)

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Austin Kleon's avatar

I’m not! Will read

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Shawn Overos's avatar

I love today’s newsletter My son is an obsessed Melville scholar and besides Moby Dick he recommends Melvilles poem Clarel . It’s long poem but Melville and Mark Twain both visited the ‘Holy Land ‘ and their observations can give insight into the current ongoing conflicts in Israel/Palestine. Also the disappointment of the ‘Tourism ‘ trap. Also my sons are depressed as many of us are at losing favorite brilliant Musicians.

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Christine Havens's avatar

“Keep Austin weird’ is why I fell in love with with this city in 2012. There are times I felt the need to apologize for who I am in being weird. But that’s largely in the past. Being weird helped me in the process of making my zine and the zine helps me love being weird.

There’s a lovely contemporary iconographer, Kelly Latimore, who’s written an icon of St. Francis as troubadour, with his fiddlesticks: https://kellylatimoreicons.com/products/st-francis-troubadour. He doesn’t look self-conscious about saying yes to his call or appearing as weird.

Thanks for today’s points and for the note on your board, which might get printed, if that’s ok, for my own board.

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Kate's avatar

Moby-Dick is probably my favorite book, I pick it up every year or so, even just to read a few of the first chapters. I remember when I first decided to take the plunge, so to speak, I was so shocked at how modern it felt - soooo much homoerotica and religious freedom and spiritual wisdom about the human condition.

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Shawn Overos's avatar

Yep!

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Joyce Sullivan's avatar

This > The problem is: Where is the audience? Where is the audience that is hungry for the human?”

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Marcus Goodyear's avatar

As I read this, I'm literally sipping coffee from my Twin Peaks mug. It's a damn fine cup of coffee.

My favorite classic is probably Shakespeare's 12th Night, which never gets old.

In my family Twin Peaks has become a kind of classic, and we have regular viewings of favorite episodes, film spin offs, or sometimes an October rewatching of all three seasons. It also never gets old.

(Also, THANK YOU for the podcast shout out! It was so much fun talking with you.)

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Ann's avatar

It's not like me to brag, but in college, in the mid 1970's , one of my professor's used to call me Weird and Wonderful Waddell. Of course, we were all weird back then. But the expression Be the weird... really means something to me!

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Marcus Goodyear's avatar

The Weird and Wonderful Waddell sounds like a perfect children's book.

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