Welcome to Litsy!

This is my #doublespin for September, but I think I‘m going to bail. Got this on sale a few months ago after confusing it with All the President‘s Men (oops). It won the Pulitzer Prize, and so far there‘s some interesting writing, but no plot, the overtly racist depictions of Black people you‘d expect in 1930s Louisiana, and it sounds like all there is to look forward to is increasing levels of political corruption and criminality. Not into it.

I'm giving this book a pick rating despite it's length and the fact that I'm actually not sure what it is about. The high rating is for the shockingly true insights on love and human nature peppered unexpectedly throughout the too-long text that would knock my feet out from under me and demand that I stop, re-read, ponder and share.

"And as for penance, there had been no crime for which I should do it. My only crime was being a man and living in the world of men, and you don't have to do special penance for that. The crime and the penance, in that case, coincide perfectly. They are identical."

". . . So you create yourself by creating another person, who, however, has also created you. . ."

"But I knew how the play would come out. This was like a dress rehearsal after the show had closed down. I stood there and felt like God-Almighty brooding on History."

"And if that is the case, then their life history is a process of discovering what they really are, and not as for you and me, sons of luck, a process of becoming what luck makes us."

"He was just another fellow, made in God's image and wearing a white shirt with a ready-tied black now tie and jean pants held up with web calluses. Town from the waist up, country from the waist down. Get both votes."

"You and your conscience could just go off arm in arm and have a fine time telling each other how much you think of each other."

". . . in the middle of the day maybe with the sunshine bright and the air so still it aches like the place where the tooth was on the morning after you've been to the dentist or aches like your heart in the bosom when you stand on the street corner waiting for the light to change and happen to recollect how things once were and how they might have been yet if what happened had not happened."

2.5 ⭐️ I had mixed feelings about this #classic #pulitzer winner about the rise of a southern politician in the 1930s. Some of the language was beautiful while at other times it dragged. The voice of the narrator was unique and well done. But the portrayal of characters of color was jarring to say the least, even keeping in mind when the book was written. Women didn‘t fair much better. By the end I was skimming, although the story was interesting.

Done. New least favorite book. To-read of 15+ years completed.

I need (and should) be respectful of others reading choices even if I don't like the books. Other people have different experiences and are in different stages of their lives - they see things differently and are not wrong.

But with this one, it is hard. How can someone read this and not be repelled? The wealth of 5 star reviews, the critical acclaim - this is a beloved book. Why?

On chapter 10/10. 402/438.

Almost done.

Definitely my least favorite book but blurred for spoilers anyway even if I don't think it could be any more rotten. -_-

355/338

Chapter 9/10.

I can see the end...

Chapter 7 was especially painful but forcing my way through it. 312/438

Think reading a deeply awful book every once in a while is good for you. Makes decent books seem better.

Doing that thing where I cut a particularly tedious book with something more pleasant.

I've been cutting bible chapters with fiction books (like the stories but the rituals/laws are boring).

Yet Numbers, even with its repetitive ritual descriptions and an entire chapter that just lists offerings each person gave an altar dedication, is many times less tedious than All the King's Men.

I have a new least favorite book.

I hate this book. Hate.

But I've been trying to get through it since highschool and it's on a bunch of "must read" lists I feel I need to finish.

Included a bit of the ever so charming (/s) first page. (Profanity warning.) Spreading the suffering around, I guess.

Warren fills the holes where the women should be by making a Very Big Deal of biological paternity, and how one‘s father affects one‘s sense of identity and morality. It‘s central to every plot-line and character arc; the book would perhaps be more accurately called All The King‘s Daddy Issues. But there's a surprisingly happy ending, all things considered. Full review here: http://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/all-the-kings-men-robert-penn-warren/

Looked like fun, so I figured I‘d start at the beginning and work my way through. @RealLifeReading #Alphabetbookishquiz

How appropriate driving through Louisiana in this downpour ( I‘m the passenger) and reading a story about ex governor of this state 😆

Going on a road trip! I won‘t be driving so I am bringing along a few books! Hopefully finishing #therobe and starting #allthekingsmen

Eye of the March Madness storm. 🏀📚🍷

This weekend we finish up the run of this show. I have spent the past week sick and unable to confirm that I got my book back on this last round of #lmpbc so here is a picture of Little Ian that I took last weekend. @bookandcat and @Schlinkles do we want to work on picking books for the next round?

Robert Penn Warren's classic novel of ambition, corruption, betrayal, remorse, and love. Willie Stark is a politician resembling Huey Long for whom the emds justify the means. Jack Burden, Willie's friend, is a jaded reporter and a highly memorable narrator.

#manicmonday (a day late) @JoScho

📚 All The King's Men (tagged)
📚 Isabel Allende
📚 All in the Family
📚 Apple pie (pie in general, but that doesn't start with A 😂)

My meager haul is all I can manage. I‘m on the hunt for a handful of hard to find books in local used stores but found these instead. I don‘t like ordering online-would rather support our mom & pop.

Why haven‘t I heard more about ATKM? It won the Pulitzer for crying out loud and gets great reviews. Tempted to put it high on my TBR to wake up you guys 😁

I am starting another #Pulitzer winner. Have any of you read it?

Friday night plans. Hoping to finally finish All The King‘s Men.

I should have started with a shorter book. #litsyclassics

My first read for the #LitsyClassics challenge. So far so good.

A big chunky novel about a populist politician and the reporter who follows him from the idealistic beginning to the corrupt end. I enjoyed it more than I expected: steady pace and vivid characters kept things interesting. OTOH it‘s not exactly modern when it comes to some of its depictions of women. Don‘t really care much about American politics and this didn‘t change my mind.

#litsyclassics #litsyclassicsmatches

@RestlessFickleBookSlut @Bookwormjillk @leslieseidel

Somewhere between a pick and a so-so for me, don't think it was the book, I just think it was bad timing for me.🤷‍♀️

Finally got a handle on the narrator of this book (150 pages in) after reading this passage.

Spent my lunch hour prepping for the #Litsyclassics challenge. Can't wait! Thanks @Sarah83

Well it's official. I filled out my #litsyclassics form! Like all the other challenges I join, this may end up being a two or three year project, but I'll still have fun! Thanks for organizing it @Sarah83!

Ugh. I can't get a good picture. I haven't officially signed up, but I'm working on my list for #litsyclassics that @Sarah83 is organizing. I was already planning to read more Newbery winners next year, so I've tried to populate my list with as many as I could. I'm also trying to stick to books I already have. I'm undecided or stumped on several letters.

Sitting in a courthouse right now... people watching. Normally I don't mind that kind of thing but they have the heat cranked up in here and I'm falling asleep.😴😴😴 Also I don't know if it's frowned upon to read in a courtroom.... I guess I'll find out.😎

“...by the time we understand the pattern we are in, the definition we are making for ourselves, it's too late to break out of the box. We can only live in terms of the definition, like the prisoner in the cage in which he cannot lie or stand or sit, hung up in justice to be viewed by the populace. Yet the definition we have made of ourselves is ourselves. To break out of it, we must make a new self."

#TBRtemptation post 9! #PhillyMeetUp edition! From my book haul ☺️. The 1946 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, considered one of the greatest American political novels, can fetch $2-7,000 for a first edition now!!! In the Depression-era South, Willie Stark (a version of Huey Long) begins as a representative of the people and ends as murderous populist demagogue. #blameLitsy #blameMrBook 😎

@Liberty #birthdayspace my current read today, different from everything else I've been reading lately and so far I love it!

Starting this next. Has anyone read it?

Reading Warren's prose is a constant reminder that he was primarily a poet. He writes with a mesmerizing grace and clarity that proves beautiful and meaningful through the entire read. It is not difficult to see how this became one of America's great novels and it goes without saying that it is well worth reading. The only question is which version? That one is up to you.

so i think that i know that we can all find much so interesting how very so long this book's number of pages can be at times as it lasts indubitably forever and tries to make me much think about some wack moral relativity and the joys of very much drowning

My God I love this book: "I tried to tell her how if you could not accept the past and its burden there was no future, for without one there cannot be the other, and how if you could accept the past you might hope for the future, for only out of the past can you make the future." Please read everything he wrote: http://bookriot.com/2016/08/30/reading-pathways-robert-penn-warren/

I read this once a couple of years ago and just reread it for book club. The writing is beautiful. The story intense;however, it is all politics and I have just about reached my fill if that topic.

Yep

My "I Voted" sticker was cropped. ? Anywhoo, this is one of the first #politicalnovels I ever read. And I still really love it to this day. Nothing like a good Southern-baked, scandal-fueled read to get me going. Happy Election Day! #imwithher #getoutandvote