Damsel in dis Dress wrote:
>
> Kate Connally >, if that's their real name, wrote:
>
> >BTW, I just started reading One Flew Over the
> >Cuckoo's Nest. I have never seen the movie except for
> >parts of it here and there. Anyway, I came across the
> >book while browsing in the library so decided to read it.
> >It may be affecting my mood. ;-)
>
> I've never seen the movie, but I read the book (of my own volition) when I
> was in high school. For some reason, I had a real fascination with mental
> illness. Go figure.
>
> >(I trying to read all the classics I never read when I
> >should have - Hemingway stuff, Twain stuff, ancient
> >Greek stuff, etc. I've been working on For Whom the
> >Bell tolls for about 6 or 7 years now. Even longer for
> >The Innocents Abroad. I just can't seem to get interested
> >enough to keep reading. Although the Twain is definitely
> >good, so I don't know what my problem is. Probably that
> >it's not a mystery novel - that's my latest thing. And
> >Hemingway is just plain boring. Somebody please explain
> >to me how this stuff got to be a classic? There are classics
> >that I have read and really enjoyed - Catch 22 for one (read
> >it at least 3 times over the years) and The Great Gatsby for
> >another - but other stuff is deadly boring. Oh, well, I'll
> >probably never be well-rounded enough.) But I've heard
> >enough quotes from them that I can answer all the Jeopardy
> >questions. ;-)
>
> Have you read any Ray Bradbury? Great stuff! I guess I'd call it sci-fi.
> I haven't read any of his work in decades. I'd love to go back and read
> them again.

Yes, I recently reread a bunch of his short stories.
There was a collection that was recently put out. I was
sorely disappointed. I remembered thinking he was a good
writer but some of the stories I didn't care for at all.
I thought the writing was just plain bad.

I read most of his stuff 25-30 years ago. Either my tastes
have changed or I was not nearly as discriminating back then.
Of course Farenheit 451 is still a classic, as is
The Illustrated Man and The Martian Chronicles.

I've also recently been reading some Fritz Leiber that
I had never read. One of my all time favorite pieces of
literature, by any author is Leiber's short story Space-Time
for Springers. It is still as good as I remember it except
for one tiny flaw (grammar) I found. But some of the
other stories in the same collection were just awful.
Although there was one I really liked in addition to
S-TFS.

I've been on a rereading binge and I've recently reread
many of the books I read years ago and consider classics.
(Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Dune Trilogy, Catch-22, etc.)
One of them was Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.
It made me cringe. I had to force myself to finish it -
I wanted to see how it ended as I had forgotten after all
these years. I remember really liking Heinlein back in
my late teens and early 20's. (I used to use the work "grok"
a lot. ;-)) But later on I started to find his work very
juvenile and trite and disgustingly saccharine.

> My current fascination is with books by Sylvia Browne (a psychic).

Hmmm. Not sure if I'd like that too much. Although I'm
surprised that I really like that new tv show "Medium".
In general I don't care for books involving the supernatural
or paranormal or magic, etc. There, of course, are exceptions.
One of my favorite SF book series The Ozark Trilogy by
Suzette Haden Elgin.

My latest craze is reading all the Terry Pratchett I can
find. Also Kinky Friedman and Carl Hiaasen. Are you familiar
with any of these writers? They are all hilarious.

Kate

--
Kate Connally
“If I were as old as I feel, I’d be dead already.”
Goldfish: “The wholesome snack that smiles back,
Until you bite their heads off.”
What if the hokey pokey really *is* what it's all about?