Went to a country fair today and picked up some good books for a pittance at the bric-a-brac stall, all in great condition:
The Savage Garden by Mark Mills
The Cone-Gatherers by Robin jenkins
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
and a lovely fabric hardback copy of The Book of Kells
You may have noticed from the side-bar that I've been trying to get into Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose for a while but finding it a bit dry. Has anyone else read it, is it worth persevering?
8 comments:
I agree. I got so far and foundered. Glad it wasn't just me!
i think eco (fiction wise at least)is one of those people you're either into or not. name of the rose isn't that bad, at least in the context of what's to come. the mysterious flame of queen loana - now there's a book worth putting down!
non-fiction he's a bit more interesting i think. but again only if you can get through the layers of flummery, self aggrandisment and wilful obscurantism. he's like one of those guys you meet who's so desperate to show you how bright, how well read, how interesting he is you can't help but suspect it's a complete sham.
he's no calvino that's for certain. and he knows it!
I've not read any of his other works, I think I'll put it aside for now and try again at some future point now that I've got all these other exciting books to get into!
I think 'the name of the rose' is interesting and not at all boring if you like the mystery/detective genre. and you can take a bit of erudition display :-) it is the kind of book one writes if one is clever, witty and well cultivated but not really talented :-) a solid book, not at all bad, but something is missing. still, the best of his novels, the others are impossible!
but I love his semiotics works, yes I agree with swiss re those layers, but I like the way he does his show, because he's got irony and fine humour, he doesn't write like any other boring 'scholar'. and brilliant ideas he's got, swiss, come on, he can't be a 'complete sham' :-) his Opera Aperta and Limits of Interpretation are crucial in their field and still among the best.
I do like the mystery genre and I've probably not given it enough of a go but will go back to it at some point.
complete sham! lol i'm just still irate about queen leona. but of course you're right, he'snot boring!
I tried reading it long ago and gave up, too. I was later told that most people found it very hard to get into, but that once you got back page 86 or something, you were rewarded a thousand-fold. I felt like a wimp after that, but still never picked it up again.
It's good to hear other folk struggled as well! I read about 40 pages into it, so another 40 odd pages you say
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