• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

What'cha Reading?

Joined
Jul 3, 2008
Messages
1,858
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
54
Instinctual Variant
so/sp
"Porphyria's Lover"
-Robert Browning

The rain set early in to-night,
The sullen wind was soon awake,
It tore the elm-tops down for spite,
And did its worst to vex the lake:
I listened with heart fit to break.
When glided in Porphyria; straight
She shut the cold out and the storm,
And kneeled and made the cheerless grate
Blaze up, and all the cottage warm;
Which done, she rose, and from her form
Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl,
And laid her soiled gloves by, untied
Her hat and let the damp hair fall,
And, last, she sat down by my side
And called me. When no voice replied,
She put my arm about her waist,
And made her smooth white shoulder bare
And all her yellow hair displaced,
And, stooping, made my cheek lie there,
And spread, o'er all, her yellow hair,
Murmuring how she loved me – she
Too weak, for all her heart's endeavour,
To set its struggling passion free
From pride, and vainer ties dissever,
And give herself to me forever.
But passion sometimes would prevail,
Nor could to-night's gay feast restrain
A sudden thought of one so pale
For love of her, and all in vain:
So, she was come through wind and rain
Be sure I looked up at her eyes
Happy and proud; at last I knew
Porphyria worshiped me; surprise
Made my heart swell, and still it grew
While I debated what to do.
That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
Perfectly pure and good: I found
A thing to do, and all her hair
In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around,
And strangled her. No pain felt she;
I am quite sure she felt no pain.
As a shut bud that holds a bee,
I warily oped her lids: again
Laughed the blue eyes without a stain.
And I untightened next the tress
About her neck; her cheek once more
Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss:
I propped her head up as before,
Only, this time my shoulder bore
Her head, which droops upon it still:
The smiling rosy little head,
So glad it has its utmost will,
That all it scorned at once is fled,
And I, its love, am gained instead!
Porphyria's love: she guessed not how
Her darling one wish would be heard.
And thus we sit together now,
And all night long we have not stirred,
And yet God has not said a word!
 

OrangeAppled

Sugar Hiccup
Joined
Mar 20, 2009
Messages
7,626
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
4w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and American Gods is next. I'm liking the Hedgehog so far...
 

Tamske

Writing...
Joined
Oct 22, 2009
Messages
1,764
MBTI Type
ENTP
"The private life of Mao", by his doctor Li Zhisui. Very interesting read, especially in combination with "Mao, the true story" by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. A result from some cross-seeding with history freak husband. I read a history book now and then, he sometimes reads fantasy fiction.
 

INTP

Active member
Joined
Jul 31, 2009
Messages
7,803
MBTI Type
intp
Enneagram
5w4
Instinctual Variant
sx
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

have to read it for school entrance test.
 

Snoopy22

New member
Joined
Dec 29, 2008
Messages
355
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
9w1
Instinctual Variant
so/sp
A Comprehensive Guide to Modern Warfare How to Make War – James F Dunnigan/1982 and very out of date, but an enjoyable non-technical read.
 

Synarch

Once Was
Joined
Oct 14, 2008
Messages
8,445
MBTI Type
ENTP
Yesterday I finished "Surface Detail" by Iain M. Banks. Now I'm reading "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen.
 
N

NPcomplete

Guest
I'm starting Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel (by Susanna Clarke) for the 3rd time. Hopefully, I'll read it to the end this time.
 

Salomé

meh
Joined
Sep 25, 2008
Messages
10,527
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w4
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
I finally got around to reading Camus's L’Étranger.
I HATED everything about it.
 

Qlip

Post Human Post
Joined
Jul 30, 2010
Messages
8,464
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
4w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
I'm starting Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel (by Susanna Clarke) for the 3rd time. Hopefully, I'll read it to the end this time.

I really liked this book, how come you couldn't get through it? And who's forcing you to read it?
 

Lark

Active member
Joined
Jun 21, 2009
Messages
29,569
I'm reading K Pax, a book on exorcism called The Rite and another book called the Moveable Feast from Lonely Planet.
 

Aquarelle

Starcrossed Seafarer
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
Messages
3,144
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
4w5
Instinctual Variant
so/sp
I'm starting Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel (by Susanna Clarke) for the 3rd time. Hopefully, I'll read it to the end this time.

I really liked this book, how come you couldn't get through it? And who's forcing you to read it?

It took me a couple tries to get into that book as well, but once I did, I really liked it. It has kind of a slow start, I think, and it's a long book.


Last night I started reading Lady of Avalon, one of the prequels to The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley (one of my favorite books ever), but I realized I need to read the other prequel, The Forest House first. So I have to go find that book somewhere. In the meantime, I'll probably read The Book of Mordred, even though I read some reviews that said it wasn't that great. It's young adult fiction, so I'll probably get through it quickly.

Just finished the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I did after the first book.
 

Patches

Klingon Warrior Princess
Joined
Aug 4, 2010
Messages
5,505
I went through the free books available for my kindle, and found a couple classics that I feel like I should have read by now. They include Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Farenheit 451, A Clockwork Orange... And some books that I haven't read in many, many years like The Scarlet Letter and The Picture of Dorian Gray. I think I'm going to start with Dorian Gray first... I do love Oscar Wilde.
 

LEGERdeMAIN

New member
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Messages
2,516
Farenheit was a quick read and anything involving mythology is fascinating to me <3333 I never read dorian grray :(

I'm reading several books on economics, art, interpersonal communication, ancient southern europe, islam and ancient cults. Some of these, I admit, are for classes but still interesting and the one about ancient cults is personal research. I plan on starting a cult one day that doesn't involve human sacrifice or sex with children. gross :(
 

mmhmm

meinmeinmein!
Joined
Jul 6, 2010
Messages
2,280
in the mood for a play, re reading stairs to the roof.
am just a sucker for vignettes. and william's youthful imperfection
in his writing just makes me love it even more.

"he's blind with something--the same as i"
 
N

NPcomplete

Guest
I really liked this book, how come you couldn't get through it? And who's forcing you to read it?


It took me a couple tries to get into that book as well, but once I did, I really liked it. It has kind of a slow start, I think, and it's a long book.

Ha no one is forcing me to read it but the start is painfully slow and I can't find myself liking Mr Norrell. I guess I was too impatient for Jonathan Strange to show himself. He still hasn't and I've forgotten parts of what I had initially read a few months ago, so I have to go through the dreary parts again. As Aquarelle said, it's a long book which means it's huge so I don't carry it everywhere with me which makes it an even slower read. In a few weeks when assignments will start piling up, I'll probably pick it up and read from start to finish. I need enough incentives.

More on topic, I found a book called "The last house in the galaxy" by Andy Secombe last week. I may start it this evening. (I hope it's not a rip-off of the Hitchhiker's Guide.)
 

Retmeishka

New member
Joined
Jan 13, 2011
Messages
239
MBTI Type
ISTP
I love the Harry Potter books and movies, and I've read them all twice (I've just started again and I think it will be the third time), and watched the movies many times over the years.

I've been trying to figure out why these books are so popular, and why I like them so much, and how they compare to other fantasy books I've read. The books meet some kind of need, giving me something I don't have in real life.

I love the idea of a school where you learn how to DO things, instead of just memorizing names and dates from a book. I made it partway through college and dropped out because I wasn't doing my homework and couldn't make myself believe that college had anything to do with the jobs I would have in the future.

I also love the huge number of warm, likeable characters. I've read some other books where there were few characters, and I didn't enjoy them as much. For instance I read the 'His Dark Materials' series and finished them, but I found them cold and depressing and didn't like the ending. The 'Twilight' series also felt cold and empty, and I didn't finish it. I like to be surrounded by dozens of friendly people in a community environment, because that's very different from how I feel in the real world. I have felt like an outsider for a very long time, always different from the people around me. So the Harry Potter books meet that need. And I enjoy the movies, even though they chopped out parts of the books, because I like to see the familiar faces.

('Azkaban' was different from all the other movies, a totally different universe, because it was directed by some other guy named Alfonso Cuaron, or something like that. That one is my favorite.)

I was reading on another website that said they thought JK Rowling was an NF. That's probably true. When I think about the Harry Potter world, I wonder about things like 'Why don't they make magical factories, and what would they produce?' 'Wouldn't there be a lot more magical programming - complex spells like computer programs?' She wrote the books without going into details about a lot of those things, and I am able to imagine 'spell programming' and 'magical factories,' but the books weren't about things like that. They are mostly about the interactions and relationships between various characters - lovable characters. That is why they are so interesting to me. And I think that is probably because she is an NF, a type of person who pays a lot of attention to human beings and their relationships with each other.

One reason why I want to know 'how she did it' is because I used to write fantasy stories when I was a teenager (but never finished them), and I might want to write fiction again someday. I would want to make my readers feel the way these books make me feel - comforted, entertained, amused, amazed by wonderful things that I don't see in the real world.
 
Top