What are you reading - 2021

I noticed there were 2020 & 2019 threads, but none for 2021 that I could find, so I thought I'd start one.

I'm currently reading the HP edition of Sense & Sensibility - my first Macy Companies acquisition from a month ago (along with Bleak House) that started me down this path. I had never gotten around to reading Austen & this seemed a good place to start. About half way in & am enjoying it more than I expected to. It's a bit out of my usual fare - which is a good thing!

Next I plan to dive into my new LECs, starting with Carmen.

Sense and Sensibility was the first Austen I ever read. I enjoyed it far more than I expected I would. Laughed my butt off, in fact. Went on to read more of her work. The copy I read was a Penguin paperback, but have since acquired her work in several editions, one of which is a multi-volume edition limited to 250 copies (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1892). I also have the Folio Society edition of her letters, a rather nice production.

The wife just finished reading Pride and Prejudice from that set, and I am about to take it up myself.

>2 Glacierman: I found a couple of listings on Abebooks for that set - looks like a real prize!

I'm currently into volume 2 of the Life of Samuel Johnson. I think my thoughts echo those of most who have read it - it's enjoyable and interesting but, while Johnson's life is worthy of a biographical treatment, it's not worthy of a War and Peace-style treatment. Still, Boswell's fanboy-ness is strangely endearing to me, and I respect the book's influence on the biography genre. I'm also reading Quarto-Millenary as a break in between volumes of The Flounder. The QM essays are disappointing in their dryness, though they do offer interesting tidbits. I reckon the real treat for me will be when I get to Macy's comments, several of which I've already enjoyed in recent months. As for Flounder, it happily reminds me of Tristram Shandy. It's not always an easy read in that there are many allusions that go over my Americanized head. But there is much humor and wittiness and I love when books challenge my brain and really make me pay attention. And the book's production values are top-notch.

>3 ChrisG1: My set is not in a fancy binding, but a plain brown cloth, gilt. They always offered a few sets in a "deluxe" binding, usually quarter leather.

I just finished Pygmalion which is combined with Candida (haven't read yet). Found a like new LEC, even to the glassine wrapper, for $29.95. This is from the Cardavon era but is well-made and strikes me as a real bargain. Shaw's commentary is all there and the text is an expanded version apparently made for the film treatment of the play. I then watched the Leslie Howard-Wendy Hiller film from 1938 which is very well-done and a delight to watch. Shaw co-wrote the screenplay. It is deservedly his most popular play, IMO.
Those who only know the musical will find the similarities and differences quite interesting and will admire how Lerner was able to to make a different masterpiece with great respect for his source material.

I am wrapping up The Last of the Mohicans and am really surprised that the 1992 movie directed by Michael Mann is so loosely related to the story. A couple of years ago I was lucky to come across a virtually mint copy of this early LEC. Such a beautiful binding! I wish the monotype Goudy Modern was of larder size. However the Linweave paper is thick and nice, so perhaps larger type would have made the book unwieldy. Regretfully at the time I acquired this one I also passes on a mint copy of The Chimes for a little under $300. That proved to be a mistake I regret to this day.

I’ve been reading selections from The Poems of Longfellow (LEC 1944) in between a couple of novels (almost finished with HP The Brothers Karamazov). I just read part V of The Song of Hiawatha, in which corn was granted to the people. I’m really impressed with the Boyd Hanna illustrations and they are printed so beautifully in this volume. Anyone know anything about this artist?

>8 BionicJim: I wish this forum had a "like" button. Wow - that's simply a gorgeous print!

>8 BionicJim:

https://booksandvines.com/2014/08/21/leaves-of-grass-by-walt-whitman-limited-edi...

Scroll down to the Peter Pauper Press edition of 'Leaves of Grass' which is illustrated by Boyd Hanna.

I finished reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and though I enjoyed it as I do all of the Bronte books. I don’t think it made as much of an impact on me as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights but most books do not match up well with those two.

Just finished the first of my new LEC acquisitions - Carmen, by Prosper Merimee. While it's referred to as a novel, I would really describe it as a short story, or perhaps a novella. It was my first reading of the story, which is even better known as an opera, and I found it enjoyable. And the lithographic illustrations by Jean Charlot were a special treat. For more details, I recommend the Books and Vines review here: https://booksandvines.com/2017/02/06/carmen-by-prosper-merimee-limited-editions-...

My copy's only significant flaw is the sunning of the spine, otherwise the spine & boards are solid & clean. It's a pleasing addition to my new collection.

Next on the list is the HP edition of Billy Budd/Benito Cereno by Herman Melville

I was forced to read Billy Budd in 10th grade and I remember it being practically unintelligible. Now 30+ years later, I decided to give it another try. Like you, I had the HP edition, which definitely is an inspiration to continue through it. This time, I was actually able to follow the story and the themes, but I wonder how it was on the high school curriculum at the time. Was it because it is the only short Melville work and Moby Dick has such high praise? I don’t think the themes are relevant to a 10th grader and the writing style is the opposite of what a modern teenager would be used to. In my case, and those of my friends, Billy Budd was a failure in that it didn’t interest us and didn’t inspire us to read additional Melville or anything else, for that matter. Was I just a slow starter or does anyone have a case for this being taught to 15 and 16 year-olds general education?

>13 BionicJim: I missed that when I was in Jr. High/HS. Did read Thomas Hardy's Return of the Native and Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter among other things. I remember in particular The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder. Needless to say, we also dipped into Shakespeare. No Melville, though.

>13 BionicJim:

Billy Budd is hardly a work I would have assigned to 10th grade students. You are totally correct in saying the themes are not relevant to a 10th grader: the conflict between what is justice and what is right, the demands made by duty and procedure in a situation such as the military--these are matters that one needs to have much greater life experience to appreciate than any 10th grader would have had.

I think you are right that the story was chosen because it was short: a perfect example of how uninformed are those who choose curricula for the schools today. Melville did other short works much better suited, and which are on a par with, and some would say superior in execution to, Moby-Dick.

"Bartleby the Scrivener" is much more apropos: as a teenager there were plenty of times I chose not to do things, even when it would have been in my own best interest to do them, just because it was my own way of asserting I had control of my life. And for a hair-raising story with pertinent commentary on racial issues, "Benito Cereno" is something which I would think high school students would appreciate. Both are long stories, but about the same length as "Billy Budd."

"Billy Budd" is a wonderful story, but even for the average adult reader it requires a lot of critical support: Melville never finished a final version in his life: the fragments were found years after his death in a trunk and pieced together, not always judiciously, by his
heirs and editors. It is brilliant even in this state, but it's a shame the author wasn't able to put the finishing touches on the work.

I finished the HP Billy Budd/Benito Cerano book. Both stimulating stories in different ways. It's funny what gets you interested in a book sometimes. I had a vague recollection of a sermon the Associate Pastor of the United Methodist Church I grew up in gave in my early teens, using Billy Budd as his primary text. He was prone to unorthodox (both stylistically and theologically) semons. Other than the book, I have little recollection of it, but I'm glad to have read it.

Next is Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" - also in the HP edition. I'm embarrassed to admit that "A Christmas Carol" is the only Dickens I've read before. You might say, I just now (at the age of 62) getting around to catching up with classics. In addition, I've been reading Walter Isaacson's "Leonardo Da Vinci" biography, which I've been stringing out along with the fiction.

>16 ChrisG1: What did you think of the Robert Shore illustrations? I have to admit that at first I was not sure about them, but this amazing kinetic illustration of Billy Budd’s single punch to the Master-at-arms changed my mind. I love his illustrations in the Verne Moon LEC, too.

>17 BionicJim: Definitely not in the more usual mode, right? But I thought it fit the mood of the story.

>17 BionicJim:
>18 ChrisG1:

I'm very much a fan of his illustrations here, but his real masterpieces in the Macy canon are the ones for Heart of Darkness. His use of the highly-figured grain of the plywood sheets he painted his illustrations on, using semi-transparent inks so the grain shows through as a visual element creating heat waves, the moiré of a silk dress, the swirls in the wake of Marlow's boat on the river--I think it is sheer genius.

His illustrations for the Conrad Three Tale are less successful for me, and I think his illustrations for the two Verne novels are very clever--but not what I want for Verne; Ed Wilson should have had the assignment.

>19 Django6924: Yet another book to add to my list....

The Moonstone (HP) by Wilkie Collins is my book of the week. I'm enjoying the technique of individual sections being related by one of seven characters. I didn't expect to encounter humor in this whodunnit, but it's there!

The paper is pleasantly thick and heavy, and the color reminds me of vanilla ice cream. Chapter headings are strangely small, in 8-point font.

The title page credits the illustrations (which do add to the pleasure of the reading experience) to "Dignimont." Was the last name so unusual or was the artist so well-known that he could drop his first name?

>21 maisiedotes: After a little googling, I found this about the illustrator:

https://www.artsper.com/us/contemporary-artists/france/68871/andre-dignimont

It doesn't sound like he was extraordinarily famous, so I assume it's simply how he wanted to be known.

I am reading Grapes of Wrath in LEC version, and I am enjoying the paper and illustrations. This is the first time that I am reading any work by Steinbeck (to my shame), and I find his prose very poetic. Also, I have been to Oklahoma many times, and it is very easy for me to visualize everything that the author describes. Steinbeck's writing is extremely realistic, at least in this work. I am completely "hooked".

>22 ChrisG1: Thank you! I found this interesting: "André Dignimont devoted himself solely to works on paper, disdaining, with rare exceptions, painting on canvas. . . He renewed the art of illustration, by the use of vaporous colors highlighted by a skillful use of white paper."

I'm guessing at the meaning of "vaporous" but I would agree that the adjective aptly describes the illustrations in The Moonstone.

>23 booksforreading: I'm jealous! It looks like a gorgeous volume. It's been years since I've read the book - I have read a few of his shorter novels in the last year. One of my favorite writers of that era.

Finished Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities - and I'll be darned if he doesn't spin a fine yarn! Obviously waited too long to start reading him. On to Joy In The Morning by PG Wodehouse - not part of the HP or LEC collection, but I've enjoyed his writing.

>26 ChrisG1: I did not wait so long as you did to catch up on Dickens and I also started with A Christmas Carol. I read David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and A Tales of Two Cities so far. This is also the order in which I liked them. Around the time I read A Tale of Two Cities I also read Anatole France's The Gods Are Athirst. I think the action in these two tales develops roughly around the same time in history and in Paris. I liked France's tale much better.

>27 BuzzBuzzard: Thanks - it seems every time I post here, someone adds to my "must read list."

>26 ChrisG1:

The Folio sets of Jeeves and Blandings take up one entire shelf in my library. Every so often I will be reading a long, very serious book (>27 BuzzBuzzard: wait until you get to Bleak House and Barnaby Rudge) and I will take down a Wodehouse volume.

I just read Goethe's Faust. In the beginning, the Almighty asks Mephistopheles, "Do you know Faust?" That line hit me between the eyes. The scene is lifted straight out of the Book of Job!

More déja vu: "Death is never quite a welcome guest."

In the opera Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell (1659-1695), Dido sings, "Death is now a welcome guest." I wonder if Alice Raphael had the Purcell in the back of her mind when she translated the Goethe.

(I am reminded of my experience watching a movie version of Hamlet. I had never read the play, but I must have said at least ten times to myself, "I know that line!")

>30 maisiedotes: “ I am reminded of my experience watching a movie version of Hamlet. I had never read the play, but I must have said at least ten times to myself, "I know that line!"

Isn’t there an old joke where a theater-goer leaves a performance of Hamlet and says, “I don’t know what all the hype is for, it’s just a bunch of famous sayings strung together.”

>31 BionicJim: Good one!

>30 maisiedotes:
It's even more impressive in the original German: "Kennst du den Faust?" And after The Lord gives Mephistopheles power to try to turn Faust away from the true path of always striving, the glee in Mephistopheles' line "Staub soll er fressen, und mit Lust" (Dirt shall he gobble, and with relish) is palpable.

>33 Django6924: "Kennst du den Faust?" -- I looked up the use of the definite article with the last name. I suppose it's just one of those linguistic quirks -- or does it imply anything about Faust?

"Staub soll er fressen, und mit Lust" -- I'm glad you provided the translation -- what a great line!

>34 maisiedotes:
The use of the definite article before Faust's name may be an emphasis marker, to denote one specific Faust rather than any random Faust; it might also be specific to a particular regional manner of speaking (I've been told by my friend Lilo it is more common in southern Germany--though that might have no significance back whn Goethe was writing); most persuasive for me is that it is very common for parents to use this formation when addressing children, which to me seems fitting in the context of the conversation between The Lord and Mephistopheles.

Another thought came to me: because the definite article was used, the specificity provides a lead-in to Mephistopheles' reply: "Den Doctor?"

>23 booksforreading: Great gateway book to a giant of 20th century literature.

>36 Sport1963:
Agreed! And although I have both the Limited Editions Club and HP Grapes of Wrath, when I want to go back and reread parts (which I have been doing often as it seems as pertinent now as it did then), my reading preference is for the HP version: great paper, great letterpress, and original lithograph prints from the stone, not half-tone offset. The book produced exactly like this today by the Arion Press would easily cost over $1000, and other fine presses even more more.

(I'm not bagging on the AP, though I am often tempted to; economics of fine press publishing are very different today, 80 years later, and I'm sure the prices they need to charge barely pay expenses; I'm stating it to show what a bargain many of these HP books are.)

After a frolic with Wodehouse's "Joy in the Morning," I've started on the HP Edition of "Kim" with illustrations by Robin Jacques. It's a later edition from the Connecticut days, but in like new condition.

>38 ChrisG1: I just read the LEC Kim and I was surprised by how much I liked it. India was exquisitely rendered and I don’t know if the turns of language Kipling used when ‘translating’ Urdu was accurate to the feel of the language but it felt authentic at least and certainly gave it a lovely flavor. The Arab “horse trader”, Buddhist lama, Indian babu, and old Indian grandmother are so wonderfully portrayed that it seems Kipling must have known and loved people who he based those characters on. The LEC production was also surprisingly great—I loved the paper, loved the illustrations, and really liked the binding. I've been thinking it might be fun to do a 'pleasant surprises' thread to discuss books that you liked much better than you thought you would. I mean, obviously I thought I would enjoy this or I wouldn't have bought it at all but I liked everything about it so much better than I expected to. I also thought the book smelled slightly of incense and spices which seemed appropriate although my wife thinks that's just my imagination.

Wodehouse is always a treat and I wish the LEC had done one of his books. The Folio Society ones are nice and the Everyman editions are surprisingly nice as well but the LEC would probably be at a whole other level (maybe something like their Zuleika Dobson which I thought was a quirky and fun production).

Right now I'm finishing up the LEC Westward Ho! which I think I bought based on Django6924's recommendation. So far it's fun—a swashbuckling, lusty, merry old rambling novel written by Elizabethan England’s biggest fan (and Spain and Catholicism’s biggest enemy).

>37 Django6924:
Are you saying that the quality of the illustrations in Grapes of Wrath is better in the Heritage Press edition than in the LEC version? This is very interesting and a little surprising!

I am in the middle of the second volume now, and I agree that this work is as pertinent today as it was when it was written! I think that it is important that everyone reads this novel.

>39 JedediahG: I'm about halfway in to Kim now & it's a great read. I'll have to check out Westward Ho! It looks to be one of the less expensive LECs - not seeing any with the ML, though.

>41 ChrisG1: do you care about the monthly letter for physical collecting reasons? If not, some members here maintain a Google drive folder with pdf scans of most monthly letters. It don’t think it’s 100% complete, but it’s not that far off. I think ironjaw is the top level admin of that resource, but there may be a few co-admins now as well that can give you access.

Edit: see here:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/317015#7176902

(Or search the group for “Google drive” for more topics that explain things.)

>42 abysswalker: Everything else being equal, I'll go for a book with the ML, but it's not a deal breaker. I've seen references to the Google Drive file in this forum & expect I'll seek it out - thanks!

>40 booksforreading:. "Are you saying that the quality of the illustrations in Grapes of Wrath is better in the Heritage Press edition than in the LEC version?"

No--as far as I can tell, they seem identical.

>39 JedediahG:. "I've been thinking it might be fun to do a 'pleasant surprises' thread to discuss books that you liked much better than you thought you would."

Great idea! Make it so! (as Captain Picard would say.)

>45 Django6924: I could never refuse an order from the captain. Engage!

>35 Django6924: Thanks for the observation re: "Den Doctor." It's probably something that I would have scratched my head over.

Finished Kim and am now well into Jane Eyre, continuing my foray into heretofore avoided classics. No special edition, just from the local library. A funny thought about the opening - a 10 year old orphan child despised by the relations forced to take her in, then sent to a boarding school....I thought - just like Harry Potter!

>48 ChrisG1: Haha, we’re leading parallel lives. I read Jane Eyre for the first time this year too. It’s my favorite read of the year so far. I got the Random House edition with the Eichenberg illustrations, which was nice and fairly cheap if you decide to purchase it at some point. The Heritage Press version looks nice too, at least from pictures I’ve seen.

>48 ChrisG1:

My book club just finished Jane Eyre, which I had taught in an Introduction to English Literature course 50 years ago. This was my third read and I was struck how much is going on beneath the surface of this most influential novel--some of which we are only realizing today.

I was reading the HP exclusive edition with Barnett Freedman's skillful multi-color lithographs, while my wife was reading our copy of the Random House 2-volume Brontë set with Fritz Eichenberg's dramatic woodcuts.

After you have finished, you might want to look up the 1940s film adaptation with Joan Fontaine as Jane and Orson Welles as Rochester. The film strips away subplots, especially in the last third of the book, but catches the atmosphere most successfully.

Well, I finished Jane Eyre & must say it richly deserves it's popularity. My foray into classics has been richly rewarded - none of them has been a waste of my time or a drudgery. Next is a reread of Dune, which I last read over 40 years ago.

I'll avoid the off-topic books in the future (oops)

Just received and started reading the LEC edition of The Possessed by Dostoevsky - not exactly light reading, but I'm excited for it. I've not read any Dostoevsky yet. The Fritz Eichenberg illustrations are excellent.

>52 ChrisG1: The story is perfect madness! To quote the ML at the end the definitive casualty list stands at six murders, two subsides, and three natural deaths.

>53 BuzzBuzzard: Speaking of casualties, for some reason I had the urge to read the LEC Shakespeare Titus Andronicus again today. While the edition is wonderful with gorgeous watercolors by Russian artist Nikolai Fyodorovitch Lapshin (who also did the LEC Marco Polo), the plot would fit in at the Grand Guignol. There are sixteen gruesome deaths by my count, usually spelled-out in the most horrific manner.

I’d have to put myself in the (quite large) camp of not liking this one. I also re-watched the 1999 movie starring Anthony Hopkins and it was just as bizarre and disgusting as I remembered it. Why did I bother? In my defense, I have a much better knowledge of Shakespeare now and that is why I decided to revisit it, but it’s just not for me.

I love the full title from the First Folio listed as “The Lamentable Tragedie of Titus Andronicus.” That is the word.

Finished "The Possessed" by Dostoevsky - definitely not a light read, but worth the effort. Russian prose takes some getting used to. Dostoevsky clearly had a low view of those socialist radicals of his day that embraced nihilism.

The Eichenberg woodcut illustrations fit the dark & dramatic tone of the text perfectly. The two volumes were certainly built to last, with thick, strong boards and a durable coated cloth cover.

Among other reading, I've started in on the HP Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, which I'll spread out over about 3 months. Much has been said of Gibbon's prose style & I do find it rewarding. And Giovanni Battista Piranesi's etchings are just stunning.

>56 ChrisG1:

A very fascinating book, and considering when it was written, amazing in its historical methodology.

Gibbon was apparently not well-liked by his contemporaries. There is the famous quote from the Duke of Gloucester when Gibbon presented him a copy of Decline and Fall:

“Another damn'd thick, square book! Always, scribble, scribble, scribble! Eh! Mr. Gibbon?"

The Decline and Fall makes me tremble... My decision to buy the three Gibbon volumes separately and not as a set was a huge mistake. I ordered the second volume first and it was very good. It even came with a Sanglass. Then I ordered the third volume and received the first one instead. And it also had a different spine design than my second volume. I tried to get the third volume for two more times and both times received the first volume. Now I have three first volumes and one second volume. How about that? :D

>58 Lukas1990: So sorry to hear this! How frustrating!

>58 Lukas1990: So sorry to hear that. It's one the reasons I try to buy a complete set.
And off topic example I can share is that I made one mistake in buying a 10 vol brown/tan version of Britannica's Great Ideas Programme (to match with my GBWW set) excluding volumes 1, 8 and 10. It was local set here in the UK so I didn't have to worry about shipping from the US. I have been trying to find these but have nearly proved difficult. Upon receiving it I ordered the missing volumes, a brown vol 8 and it turned up a cloth buckram version instead. Then I ordered a brown vol 10 and it turned up a brown vol 8 instead. I still don't have brown vol 1 and its just so disheartening that I regret my purchase.

Finished the HP Edition of David Copperfield last week & have started on the LEC of Fables of La Fontaine, which will probably my bedtime reading over the next several nights. This was one of my first LEC acquisitions & I've been meaning to get to it. It's interesting to see how French verse is translated into English - how that's done & made to rhyme must be quite a skill.

Thoroughly enjoyed the LEC edition of Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen. It truly improves the aesthetic experience to read a work in a fine edition. Everything from the quality of the typography, paper, cover & illustrations adds to it.

>62 ChrisG1: I have an order in for this book. I hope it will look as good as your copy, Chris!
I'm reading Rob Roy now (the Folio Standard Edition, which in my mind is far superior to the new LE they've just published) and I agree wholeheartedly with you on the aesthetic experience.

I started with LEC & HP, but got my first FS book recently (I, Claudius), and will add more, as there are many titles I'd like in a quality edition that aren't available from the Macy Companies. Good luck with your Northanger Abbey order!

>64 ChrisG1: Happy to say I got it and it is as fine a copy as yours.

>65 laotzu225: Excellent!

Started reading the LEC “Utopia”. I’m puzzled by the choice of H.G. Wells’ snarky pan of the book as an introduction. The ML claims that Wells was selected after the President of the USA declined to write an introduction — so I assume there was something tongue-in-cheek afoot in Macy’s mind….

>67 kermaier:
I have happy memories of reading it and several other utopian texts at university. Though I found to my horror there were no questions on utopian thoughts in the final exam I have no regrets nearly two decades on!

(I also have a copy inbound!)

Just finished with the Fables of La Fontaine LEC. I've been reading a few per day over the last few months. I'll confess it got a bit repetitive after awhile, but overall I enjoyed this little dip into the past.

I'm over half-way into the LEC of Winesburg Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson. Illustrations by Ben F. Stahl. While 1978 is not considered a premium period for the LEC, I find this volume to be highly satisfactory & a great value.

>70 ChrisG1:
Not only an unjustly underrated Limited Editions Club but a strangely underrated work of American fiction. One of the best portraits of small-town America in the period before WWI. It was an influence on both early Hemingway and Faulkner, both of whom he helped to get published for the first time (and who when they achieved success, lampooned him, damaging his reputation as a writer).

My book club just finished reading Rebecca, which is quite a good page-turner (though I slightly prefer Hitchcock's film version). Despite the original lack of success with my prior club recommendation, Dead Souls (for some reason they didn't get the humor at all), I have decided not to go for a comfortable suggestion, but proposed something that none of them have read, and none of them had ever heard of, but which I believe they should read: Melville's "Benito Cereno." They looked nervous when I suggested it, but I convinced them that at least it's very short. Hopefully they will get the suspense, which Melville achieves solely (up until the denouement) with atmosphere. (The LEC/HP edition which couples this story with Billy Budd is one of my favorite from the later NY period; the production values aren't as high as others from this period, and Shore's illustrations are perhaps too moody, especially for "Benito" and lack the brilliance of his work in "Heart of Darkness," but I'm delighted to have the Macys showcase these masterpieces by Melville--if only they had included "Bartleby the Scrivener" as well! ).

>71 Django6924: I read the HP Billy Budd/Benito Cereno this summer, first time for me and a very worthwhile read!

I picked up A Woman's Life (Une Vie). The only other thing I've read by Maupassant is the short story "The Necklace."

A Woman's Life was unput-downable till the book was over. But I will confess I didn't start at the beginning! I was looking through all the artwork when I started reading in the middle of the book and was compelled to keep moving forward.

Edy Legrand's paintings were highly evocative of the environs and the era. It would make sense for me to continue with Don Quixote but the prospect is daunting.

Currently reading Tales of East and West, a compilation of Rudyard Kipling short stories. I've not read much Kipling, but read his novel Kim a few months ago & found it excellent.

>74 ChrisG1:
Many brilliant stories by an author who has sadly gone out of fashion. Though his intelligence and talent for characterization were first-rate, his romance with imperialism has probably doomed his relevancy in our age.

>75 Django6924: I don't need to agree with a writer's flaws in order to read him/her, although I suppose some flaws can easily pollute the story to an extent to make it too objectionable to read. I've found Kipling's fiction excellent, but I suppose I'd avoid any political writing.

Just finished the LEC of Tono-Bungay by H.G. Wells. The title is the name of a patent medicine, the development and promotion of which makes the initial fortunes of the main characters. Published in 1960, illustrated by Lynton Lamb.

>77 ChrisG1: I own a copy of Tono-Bungay (HP) but haven't read it. Thanks for explaining the title. It has always puzzled me but I hadn't got around to looking it up.

Along the line of H.G. Wells, I'm a quarter way into The Invisible Man (HP). I bought it mainly for the blindstamped "Invisible" on the title page. It really is a gorgeous book with a gold "ribbon" running down the front cover. This is my first Wells. I'm not a sci-fi person, but I have forbidden myself from returning to the bookstore until I finish this (I already broke my promise, but at least I didn't buy anything).

I've also just read "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and thumbed through the rest of my HP Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. This is one of my smallest HPs, and quite lovely. At 8" tall, it's very manageable in my small hands! That said, I do wish some of the illustrations were bigger. I don't have the Sandglass, but Gordon Ross's watercolors (?) are appropriately light-hearted.

>78 maisiedotes:

The LEC Invisible Man is a wonderful production. But if you don't love H. G. Wells after reading it I would still read War of the Worlds, Tono Bungay or the Time Machine. They seemed to have more to say.

>79 Jobasha: Invisible Man is the only one of the above I've not read. I'll add it to my (long & ever growing) to-read list.

>79 Jobasha: Thanks for the counsel that this title doesn’t have to be the “end of the road.”

I read Tono-Bungay a couple of months back and I enjoyed it far better that The Time Machine or War of the Worlds.

Does anyone have the Arion Press edition of Tono-Bungay?

>82 BuzzBuzzard: Good to know. I'll tackle that after The Invisible Man, which is pretty engaging. I like how Wells makes even the actions "invisible." They just "happen."

>83 Glacierman:
I used to have Arion Press's Tono-Bungay, but I found that I liked the Limited Editions Club's edition a lot better, and I sold the AP one. In fact, I thought that AP "stole" many design ideas from LEC, and the illustrations there were (in my opinion) inferior to the LEC.
The most appealing to me feature of Arion Press's edition was the commentaries; however, I purchased a very cheap paperback copy of the novel that had exactly the same commentaries and used it while reading my LEC copy.

>85 booksforreading: I've seen pictures of the LEC but not seen one in the wild, I agree it looks nice. I have the AP edition and I like it better than booksforreading. Rounded spine, letterpress has a nice bite and Hoyem worked in 20 pages of advertisements that I thought were a nice touch. I agree the art (drawings) are not my favorite ever but they suffice. Solid AP book that is well executed.

Currently reading the HP edition of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. The Thomas Hart Benton illustrations are excellent and it's letterpress printed. I've read Steinbeck's short novels (really novellas) and was curious how he would be in a longer work & so far, it's just excellent.

Not currently reading any George Macy books at the moments, but... in September I read the LEC edition of Carlyle's _The French Revolution_ (1956). Quarter bound in red leather, luxurious paper, and fantastic illustrations by Bernard Lemotte. The high-quality materials came at a cost, however: the book is incredibly heavy. This was my first time reading Carlyle, and his skillful tonal shifts between humor and horror really impressed me.

In the near future (cheating, yes) I plan to read the LEC _Extant Works of Epicurus_ (1947). Bound in black leather and impressed with a Greek key design on the cover. Deckled page edges, facing page Greek and English translation (by Cyril Bailey). The book is so physically beautiful that I hesitate to actually handle it, but will no doubt steel myself to the task of reading.

>6 laotzu225:
Shaw co-wrote the screenplay - and won an Oscar, as did his collaborators. Unlike them he did not attend the ceremony, and took or feigned to take his nomination as an insult. However this did not prevent his having it quietly shipped over to England (Mary Pickford saw it on a mantelpiece in his cottage). He had the last laugh, however: he refused to have it regularly cleaned and by the time he died it was so tarnished it was being used as a door-stop.

>89 featherwate: Thanks for that additional anecdote!

I finished recently London's The Sea Wolf and enjoyed it thoroughly. Then moved on to Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year, which has plenty parallels to present day. Of special interest was how quarantining whole houses was of little to no use for stopping the plague.

>91 BuzzBuzzard: "...quarantining whole houses was of little to no use for stopping the plague." They couldn't quarantine the rats nor the fleas. The plague spread.

I am ending the year in a mountain hotel skiing by day and enjoying George Macy by night - in the form of A Soldier’s Reader, a copy rather worse for wear. Macy’s little introductions to the texts are interesting, his voice certainly familiar from the MLs.