Litsy

llwheeler

Native Tongues | Charles Berlitz

Shades of #Genji, anyone?

Lindy Shades of Genji. Definitely. 🌸😕 5y

batsy Oh, yes 👀 5y

llwheeler @Lindy @batsy I can just imagine it being sent off to someone with a spray of flowers attached... 5y

33 likes3 comments

Daisey

1001: Books You Must Read Before You Die: You Must Read Before You Die | Peter Boxall

Finally, as part of my year end wrap up, here are the 30 books I read from the #1001books list in 2019. It‘s not quite as many as I was hoping for, but I did manage to read my #Reading1001 #TBRTakedown book every month, a few of the books of the month for that group, a few with Litsy readalongs, and a few random choices.

#1001Discoveries #Genji #Hugonuts #ReadColdBlood
#2019Stats #ReadingStats

Scochrane26 I would try some of the list or other lists, but there‘s just some books I‘m never going to be willing to read. It‘s a great goal though, & I have worked on more classics. 5y

Cinfhen 🙌🏻❣️#TBRtakedown 😁 5y

Daisey @Scochrane26 Thanks, and I completely understand. I will never get through all of these, and there are some I have no desire to read. I like that it gives me a wide variety of books to read and an interesting group of people with whom to discuss those books. 5y

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CafeMom Great graphic. I wish I could do that. 5y

Daisey @CafeMom This is actually just a screenshot of my bookshelf on Goodreads in cover grid format on a square background. I lucked out that I read 30 books and it came out in even rows. 5y

Daisey #DaiseysReadingSummary 11mo

61 likes6 comments

Daisey

A Year in Books: 52 Weeks : 52 Books | Lyall F. Harris

#MyYearInBooks from Goodreads plus a few other details. The two books that have stuck with me throughout this year were The Tale of #Genji and The History of the Hobbit, both read with fantastic Litsy readalong groups.

#HobbitHistory #FellowshipofTolkien
#ReadingStats #2019Stats

Texreader Congratulations!! 5y

Lindy Well done! I have fond memories of reading Genji, even though it sometimes felt more like a slog. 😊 5y

Daisey @Texreader Thank you! 5y

Daisey @Lindy Thanks! Yes, I can‘t really list it as a favorite, but it is a book that I continually remember or want to mention when I consider my reading for the past year. So glad to have read it. 5y

71 likes4 comments

Lindy

The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories | Jay Rubin

If we looked at everything with an eye to its utility there would be nothing left to value in the world, he said. What is more, he immediately kindled a piece of the wood I had brought back. It was of rare quality and he named it ‘Hatsune,‘ or first song, from the ancient verse ‘Each time we hear the cuckoo cry it sounds so new, always singing its first song.‘
—Ōgai Mori
[The sentiment is reminiscent of The Tale of #Genji, don‘t you think?]

Daisey, SoniaC, mhillis, saresmoore, batsy, CindyMyLifeIsLit

Daisey Very reminiscent. Thanks for sharing. 5y

batsy Yes, very Genji-esque 🙂 5y

Lindy @Daisey @batsy The Tale of Genji will likely be a touchstone whenever I read something by a Japanese author. 5y

34 likes3 comments

MrBook

The Book of Questions: Business, Politics and Ethics | Gregory Stock

Time for the bookish discussion question of the day 😁👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻! Here it is: Does buddy-reading make a difference for you when reading a book? #BookTalk

Bookwormjillk I‘m more likely to finish a book I don‘t like. Sometimes that‘s good sometimes that‘s bad. 5y

Amiable I‘m currently reading “Alexander Hamilton” by Ron Chernow with a friend. We hit certain page counts and then get together and talk about what we‘ve read so far. Reading it together is helping us get through the 800-page book. 5y

Billypar Yes- I'm more likely to stop and analyze what I've been reading so I can discuss it with the group. I struggle with sticking to that normally- I'm tempted to just move onto the next book, instead of doing much thinking about the one I just read. 5y

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Lcsmcat Yes. I‘ll read things I‘ve always meant to read but never got around to, and I read more attentively. And after the discussions start I sometimes anticipate what others might say about the book, or notice things differently: prose style, symbolism, or just character traits. 5y

Karkar It depends, sometimes it makes it feel like homework but other times it makes me read things that I would not otherwise pick up. 5y

Lindy Yes. Knowing I had reading buddies helped keep me on track when I was reading a chapter a day of The Tale of #Genji. 😊 5y

Abailliekaras Yes, love it! I couldn‘t have read Infinite Jest without our Litsy buddy read. ☺️ 5y

Hooked_on_books Yes! Like @Abailliekaras I would not have gotten through Infinite Jest without the buddy read. Or Gone With the Wind, for that matter. 5y

Gissy Well, is to share your opinion with someone. I liked it. 5y

TEArificbooks I love buddy reading with my kids. Experiencing books with others is wonderful but I especially like doing it with my kids We are currently listening to The Skeleton Tree on audio in car and comparing it to Hatchet. Our bedtime book is Little House in the Big Wood and it makes us hungry. 5y

meagankc21 Oh heck yes. It gives me an outlet for my feelings when I need to yell about my favorite characters lol 5y

46 likes11 comments

mhillis

Toxic Flora: Poems | Kimiko Hahn

Read an old issue of Granta by the lake today and found The Japanese Firefly Squid by Kimiko Hahn
#poetry #genji

55 likes

bromeliad

Tale of Genji | Murasaki Shikibu

It's been about 6 months since I slogged through a long book, and I wouldn't mind settling in with one for the rest of the summer...do any of these seem like particularly good choices?

1) Underworld by Don DeLillo
2) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
3) 2666 by Roberto Bolano
4) Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
5) Jerusalem by Alan Moore
6) The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu

Graywacke Welcome to Litsy. I would recommend one if I had read any. 5y

bromeliad @Graywacke thanks! Haha well I appreciate the honesty! 😊 5y

BarbaraBB No real easy summer reads among them but I loved the upper three! 5y

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sudi Welcome To Litsy 💜. I would recommend you a book but i've only read one of them which is War And Peace. It was pretty good though 😊 5y

Billypar I vote for the Bolaño because I just finished The Savage Detectives and am looking forward to 2666. 5y

bromeliad @BarbaraBB yeah, I've always had a weird definition of "summer read"...usually, because I have more down time, I like to find longer books, since during the fall/winter I don't pick them up regularly and then I forget everything lol. 5y

bromeliad @sudi thank you! 😊 5y

bromeliad @Billypar how was Savage detectives? 5y

Billypar I liked it- long and slow in spots, but it really rewards you for sticking with it. I finished it on Saturday and am still thinking about it- philosophical but also kind of playful in a weird way. I should be posting a review soon. 5y

bromeliad @Billypar sounds good! Looking forward to your review! 5y

CrowCAH Welcome to the Litsy family!!! 📚 5y

rretzler Never read any of them but War and Peace and Don Quixote have been in my TBR forever. 🤣 5y

bromeliad @CrowCAH thank you!! 5y

bromeliad @rretzler right?? Same here! 5y

Emilymdxn I loved Don Quixote it‘s an absolute scream! 5y

Lcsmcat I haven‘t read any of these 6, but I‘m the same way with tackling the chunksters over the summer. I‘m reading The Magic Mountain and Of Human Bondage this summer. Previous summer hits for me include Anna Karenina and Les Misérables. 5y

bromeliad @Lcsmcat Anna Karenina and Les Mis were the same for me! Loved both of them. 5y

saresmoore I‘m a big fan of Quixote. I recently read all of Genji—ALL OF IT—and it was pretty brutal. So much misogyny for so many pages. But, still, an impressive feat of storytelling and the history is amazing, so I‘m glad I read it. 5y

Daisey I also read Genji earlier this year and although it was often tough, I truly enjoyed the overall experience. If you decide to read it, I would definitely recommend going back through the hashtag #Genji here on Litsy, and you can even look at posts made in reference to specific chapters. 5y

ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled Of these I‘ve only read War and Peace (and I don‘t recommend that you waste your time with it 😆) 5y

Becker I vote for Don Quixote 5y

Andrea4 D.Q. 5y

CoffeeNBooks I vote for Don Quixote. Welcome to Litsy! @LitsyWelcomeWagon #LitsyWelcomeWagon 5y

bromeliad @CoffeeNBooks thank you! 5y

62 likes24 comments

Daisey

The Tale of Genji | Murasaki Shikibu

Today I visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and enjoyed seeing these screens depicting The Tale of Genji. The book was often a tough read, but it‘s also one of the most impactful that I‘ve read this year.

#Genji #LiteraryTourism

Megabooks Cool! 5y

Daisey @Megabooks It really was! The whole museum was amazing, and I‘m so glad I got to visit. 5y

Megabooks @Daisey did you see the empty spaces from the theft? 5y

Daisey @Megabooks I did! I found the whole story of how the museum was set up and the reasoning behind the empty frames fascinating. I also think sharing that information is an interesting way to keep people aware about the stolen artwork. 5y

60 likes4 comments

Lindy

Sakura Obsession: The Incredible Story of the Plant Hunter Who Saved Japan's Cherry Blossoms | Naoko Abe

In The Tale of Genji, cherries were portrayed as symbols of youth, love, romance and contentment, even as the novel‘s main characters lamented the flowers‘ ephemeral beauty. #Genji

Tanisha_A This photograph! 😍 5y

Lindy @Tanisha_A Thank you! Taken in Kamakura, Japan in March. 5y

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Lindy

The Tale of Genji | Murasaki Shikibu

“To me, what is just as remarkable is Murasaki‘s ability to represent, from the inside, the way men think—in particular, the way men justify to themselves actions whose motives they know to be ignoble and self-serving. She takes a scalpel to the male ego, even as she creates one of the great male characters in world literature.” -Louis Menand #Genji
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-radiant-prince-comes-to-f...

batsy I'd bookmarked this earlier! Need to read it 😁 6y

37 likes1 comment

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