books written well over 100 years ago

[Lacessit]

The translations of Guy de Maupassant and Alexandre Dumas are good reads, particularly The Count of Monte Cristo. Steinbeck's classic East of Eden is getting there, nearly 70 years old.

When I was a kid, I devoured Charles Dickens' books. Still go back occasionally. IMO the original historical fiction novel was The Cloister and the Hearth, by Charles Reade. Another good book is Hereward the Wake, by Charles Kingsley.

About 60 yo, Maurice Druon's series The Accursed Kings inspired George R R Martin's Game of Thrones.

[Lacessit]

3 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

 

and as to my kindle, I spent lots of time in customer service chats trying to find out how to get a new battery for my kindle... it took so long because they never told me they would rather I just buy a new kindle... I think I can get a battery on lazada... 

You can download books from Amazon to your smartphone. My elderly Oppo A37 has about 200 books on it, you can nominate the delivery or redeliver on the Amazon website.

My Kindle gets hardly any use at all now, it's more convenient to read on the Oppo.

[OneMoreFarang]

2 hours ago, BananaBandit said:

 

I think I will add a few works of his to my Kindle. 

 

Assuming you are reading an English translation instead of the French original....Was your Verne translation rendered within the last century or so?

 

There is a Russian novel I like, Fathers and Sons, which first appeared in 1862.  I reckon the English translation I enjoyed was rendered far more recently than 1862.  I wonder
if that makes a difference.

From my version of Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea:

The present translation is a faithful yet communicative rendering of the original French texts published in Paris by J. Hetzel et Cie.—the hardcover first edition issued in the autumn of 1871, collated with the softcover editions of the First and Second Parts issued separately in the autumn of 1869 and the summer of 1870. Although prior English versions have often been heavily abridged, this new translation is complete to the smallest substantive detail.

[1FinickyOne]

16 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

You can download books from Amazon to your smartphone. My elderly Oppo A37 has about 200 books on it, you can nominate the delivery or redeliver on the Amazon website.

My Kindle gets hardly any use at all now, it's more convenient to read on the Oppo.

Thanks but I just can't imagine reading anything on my smartphone - - I do on occasion read emails and messages but mostly wait until I get home... 

[OneMoreFarang]

30 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

49 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

You can download books from Amazon to your smartphone. My elderly Oppo A37 has about 200 books on it, you can nominate the delivery or redeliver on the Amazon website.

My Kindle gets hardly any use at all now, it's more convenient to read on the Oppo.

Thanks but I just can't imagine reading anything on my smartphone - - I do on occasion read emails and messages but mostly wait until I get home... 

 

I agree. I would never read a book on my mobile phone or any other "computer" monitor.

Book readers use e-ink screens which pretty much "feel" like real books. No light is shining out of that screen.

 

 

[AnnaBanana]

1 hour ago, BananaBandit said:

 

Sometimes a work, or even a single sentence, stimulates a vague emotional reaction within me.  But by and large, I read for entertainment.

 

What reasons do you have?

For entertainment I prefer films, mostly classic but some modern.

   I read mostly for information.

[Lacessit]

9 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

 

I agree. I would never read a book on my mobile phone or any other "computer" monitor.

Book readers use e-ink screens which pretty much "feel" like real books. No light is shining out of that screen.

 

 

Each to his own, I find the phone is just as easy to read, and less bulky to cart around. The Kindle is now just a backup in case the phone carks it.

Admittedly I can't change the font size on the screen, but I'm not Mr. Magoo - yet.

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, Lacessit said:

Each to his own, I find the phone is just as easy to read, and less bulky to cart around. The Kindle is now just a backup in case the phone carks it.

Admittedly I can't change the font size on the screen, but I'm not Mr. Magoo - yet.

I am surprised that you tried both and still like the phone.

May I ask if you read books on the phone for hours? I am pretty sure I wouldn't want that. Hours on my eBook reader, an old SONY, are fine.

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, Lacessit said:

Each to his own, I find the phone is just as easy to read, and less bulky to cart around. The Kindle is now just a backup in case the phone carks it.

Admittedly I can't change the font size on the screen, but I'm not Mr. Magoo - yet.

Lithium reader app ......... easy to change the font size.

 

Did everyone forget Shakespeare?

Julius Caesar, Richard 3rd, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Anthony and Cleopatra.

All written well over 100 years ago and still entertaining.

 

Charles Dickens,

David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations.

All still worth a read.

 

Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights

Jane Austin wrote loads, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, all 200 years old.

Then Mary Shelly with Frankenstein over 170 years old.

Edited May 10, 2021 by BritManToo

[sanuk711]

17 hours ago, phetphet said:

There is a book that I wish would be available on Kindle: Whispering Wind: Adventures in Arnhem Land by Syd Kyle- Little.

He was some sort of policeman, patrol officer in Arnhem Land in the earlier part of the last century.

 

The book is out of print, but is for sale on Amazon at £180 for a paperback.

its on Kindle phetphet------ and don't make Jeff Bezos any richer its free....

.

Edited May 10, 2021 by sanuk711

[sanuk711]

13 hours ago, Gecko123 said:

Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsk

Thought you would be more into Arthur Conan Doyle Gecko123.......????

[Lacessit]

2 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I am surprised that you tried both and still like the phone.

May I ask if you read books on the phone for hours? I am pretty sure I wouldn't want that. Hours on my eBook reader, an old SONY, are fine.

I read books over lunch and dinner, probably three quarters of an hour each. I'm a natural speed reader, 900 wpm. On average, a book lasts me 3-4 hours. Something like "Pillars of the Earth" a lot longer.

My ex-wife used to hate it. My Thai GF doesn't mind at all, she's busy on Facebook with her ten thousand contacts and one million photos.

[OneMoreFarang]

5 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

I read books over lunch and dinner, probably three quarters of an hour each. I'm a natural speed reader, 900 wpm. On average, a book lasts me 3-4 hours. Something like "Pillars of the Earth" a lot longer.

My ex-wife used to hate it. My Thai GF doesn't mind at all, she's busy on Facebook with her ten thousand contacts and one million photos.

I also needed a little longer for Pillars of the Earth. It is one of my favorite books.

[Lacessit]

1 minute ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I also needed a little longer for Pillars of the Earth. It is one of my favorite books.

The followup "World without End" was pretty good too, perhaps a bit close to home with the current pandemic.

[lazygourmet]

Project Gutenberg is an online library of free eBooks focusing on literature classics and old works for which copyright has expired. 

[BritManToo]

24 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I also needed a little longer for Pillars of the Earth. It is one of my favorite books.

I found it too long, the other 2 books in the series were almost unreadable.

I might give them another go, and try his Century series as well.

 

I read for hours every day on my phone, no problems.

 

I did have a Kindle, but

1) they don't last long enough (fat battery) and

2) I can't be bothered to carry it around.

Edited May 11, 2021 by BritManToo

[BananaBandit]

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights

Jane Austin wrote loads, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, all 200 years old.

Then Mary Shelly with Frankenstein over 170 years old.

 

What an enlightened feminist reading list you have, BritMan! 

 

I'd love to observe you negotiate with the Bronte sisters.

[BritManToo]

Just now, BananaBandit said:

What an enlightened feminist reading list you have, BritMan! 

I'd love to observe you negotiate with the Bronte sisters.

I just work my way through most of the English language fiction.

Most of those I read in my teens, over 40 years ago.

[BananaBandit]

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Did everyone forget Shakespeare?

 

I actually had him first in mind when I made the original post. 

 

Requires far too much effort for what I get out of it. 

 

I find the vast lot of TV threads more entertaining, informative, and spiritually edifying. Also better for relationship advice.

[OneMoreFarang]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I found it too long, the other 2 books in the series were almost unreadable.

I might give them another go, and try his Century series as well.

 

I read for hours every day on my phone, no problems.

 

I did have a Kindle, but

1) they don't last long enough (fat battery) and

2) I can't be bothered to carry it around.

I read all of the books you mention and I liked them all.

In general I like long books.

[blazes]

On 5/10/2021 at 12:26 AM, RichardColeman said:

As Shelley lived in my home town of Marlow in 1817, and my house is in Shelley Road, I vote Frankenstein 

 

That was Shelley's missis,  (Mary), wasn't it?

[blazes]

Starting in the 14th century:

 

Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (for fun, try the Miller's Tale)

Shakespeare, Macbeth and King Lear  (Shake at the height of his powers)

Swift, Gulliver's Travels

Austen (my Thai wife likes them all)

Dickens, Bleak House

Flaubert, Madame Bovary (adultery)

Dumas, THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO  (for me, the absolute best book of the 19th C)

Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, (unbelievably sad) and Mayor of Casterbridge (tragic)

1898 Conrad, Heart of Darkness (set in the Belgian Congo, terrible conditions of the slaves, "Mistah Kurtz, he dead" - a must read in order to appreciate Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now as Captain Kurtz (who, like Conrad's Kurtz, has gone mad in the jungle).

 

[Lacessit]

20 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I read all of the books you mention and I liked them all.

In general I like long books.

You probably like Lee Child and Tom Clancy, then?

[Lacessit]

23 hours ago, BritManToo said:

 

I did have a Kindle, but

1) they don't last long enough (fat battery) and

2) I can't be bothered to carry it around.

Unreadable is Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum. An author proving to the proles how much smarter he is than them.

I have harbored the suspicion for some time Kindles are planned obsolence in action, the battery is impossible for a layman to replace. I had one fail under warranty, it was also more expensive to send it to the USA from Thailand than its cost.

My current Kindle is my fourth one, it will also be my last.

[Lacessit]

21 hours ago, BananaBandit said:

 

What an enlightened feminist reading list you have, BritMan! 

 

I'd love to observe you negotiate with the Bronte sisters.

I was surprised BMT omitted Henry Fielding.

[OneMoreFarang]

20 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

You probably like Lee Child and Tom Clancy, then?

Yes, or at least I liked them.

I read all the "old" Jack Ryan books and I really enjoyed them, including the prequel Without Remorse. I gave up with the series when, at least it seems, repetition started with his son.

And I liked almost all Reacher books, except the last one. I am not sure if I will read another one if there will be another one in that series. 

[maxcorrigan]

On 5/10/2021 at 1:25 PM, Surelynot said:

Huge fan....not sure why though?......only one I struggled with was "Jude the obscure".

 

Have you read Anthony Trollope?

Yes i agree Thomas Hardy books are well written but also a bit of a downer no seemingly happy endings, all the main characters seem to be losers, in Jude the Obscure the only winner (if i remember from a long time ago) was the woman who prostituted herself or was a prostitute can't remember which!

[maxcorrigan]

On 5/10/2021 at 6:38 PM, 1FinickyOne said:

Thanks but I just can't imagine reading anything on my smartphone - - I do on occasion read emails and messages but mostly wait until I get home... 

Agreed looking at a smart phone for any length of time does my old 82 yr old eyes in, much prefer my old Kindle "paperwhite" 

[Denim]

47 minutes ago, blazes said:

1898 Conrad, Heart of Darkness (set in the Belgian Congo, terrible conditions of the slaves, "Mistah Kurtz, he dead" - a must read in order to appreciate Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now as Captain Kurtz (who, like Conrad's Kurtz, has gone mad in the jungle).

 

Yes. First mention of Conrad. I have read all his books and my 2 favorites are ' <deleted> of the Narcissus and Nostromo.

 

Considering he was Polish and that English was his second language his writing is very fluent and at first I needed a dictionary to look up some of the words he was throwing out.

[maxcorrigan]

On 5/10/2021 at 5:40 PM, Gecko123 said:

Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Yes i agree finished recently "Crime and Punishment" brilliant book hard to put down, Russian books can be hard going though with the unfamiliar names which seem about 2" long then they all have a nickname about the same length then a family nickname all these these names for one person can be used in a couple of paragraphs so can be a bit daunting, am reading "The Idiot" at the moment not as gripping as "Chrime and Punishment" so far that is!