Cool! He was on my list of writers to look into, along with Calvino and some others.
Did you see the movie with Sean Connery?
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F. Murray Abraham too, looks interesting.
hahaha i made it mayb halfway thru “tha izland of tha day befo” by eco aftah attemptin it maybe 3 tymz
it wuz juz too much detail and too “academic” (i think iz tha ryt word) but alzo very well done n interezting n i probably vil go back to it one day 
anotha zimilah novl i ztartd wit that ztyle of overly dezcriptive, evry zingle detail iz 2666 by roberto bolano which i am ztill readin n tiz interezting enough 
can’t recommnd tha 3 body problem trilogy enuff, tru thiz wuz zum of tha moz mindblowin zcifi i’ve evah read 
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DAYUM a zepp chick from a while back told moi I haff to read diz trilogy
Now wiz da ROBBAH recummendation I vil finally do it, pozz 
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Yeah, it was pretty decent. There’s a recent TV Miniseries of The Name of the Rose that I’ve been meaning to check out. Though it’s such a complex book that it would be impossible to do it justice in any format.
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hahahaha TRU
tha girth of tha ztoryline iz tha moz inzane ive read 
tha mofo writez about vaztnezz in a mindblowin way but ztill gud enuff fo tha human brain to zumwhut comprehend pozz 
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Has anyone read anything by Primo Levi?
If you liked the TV show (I haven’t seen it), you probably should read the real thing. It’s no mystery why she won the Nobel Prize – she puts together overwhelming collections.
Next up for me, her latest book (2013), Second-hand Time, about the fall of the SU and the new Russia. Interviews from 1991 - 2012. At 700 pages this is her longest book.
I’m back from Italy with 3 books; Eco’s il pendolo di Foucault (couldn’t find il nome della rosa), and Calvino’s Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore and Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno. I’m starting with the latter because it’s the shortest. 
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I used to want to read Calvino…I’ll be interested in what you think
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Ah, that is an interesting read. Absolutely incredible use of 2nd person and frame narrative. If you’re reading it for the first time, your mind will be blown.
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Any of you have read or can recommend a Prokofiev bio?
You’re in luck. I very recently bought this new bio, which people are saying is the best one out there:
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That’s great! Will definetly buy!
For some reason I have suddenly begun reading books again.
If this is of any interest, someone sent me Czerny’s autobio in 88st. Czerny’s Autobiography
I know people look qt Czerny as kind of boring, but there are still interesting tidbits there, like how he got to know about Beethoven, growing up poor, etc.
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Oh, thanks! I always have something like this running. von Lenz currently, but he’s kind of rambling.
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Prokofievs own diaries - translated and annotated by Anthony Phillips, in three parts - are a MUST, they are most revealing and great fun to read.
Who?
Wilhelm von Lenz (born 20 May 1809 in Riga - died 7 January 1883 in Saint Petersburg) was a Baltic German Russian official and writer. Wilhelm von Lenz was a friend and student of many mid-century Romantic composers, including Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin and Hector Berlioz, Lenz’s most important and influential work was an early biography of the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, entitled Beethoven et ses trois styles (1855), written in response to the disparagement of Beethoven by Alexander Ulybyshev in his Nouvelle biographie de Mozart (1843). Lenz promoted the idea (already suggested by earlier figures such as François-Joseph Fétis) that Beethoven’s musical style be divided into three characteristic periods. Lenz’s periodisation, with minor changes, is still widely used today by musicologists in discussing Beethoven’s compositions.[1]
Yes that’s him. In addition to the Beethoven biography mentioned there he wrote a memoir of sorts about his encounters with Chopin, Liszt, Tausig, Henselt, Cramer, etc. I don’t know exactly what his musical aspirations were, but he was a pianophile second to none and sought many of these people out - Liszt already as early as in the 1820s when he was still living with his mom in Paris. He’s a spirited writer and his text contains a lot of great memories, impressions and character sketches, but you also get tired of him pretty quickly since he’s not very organized, and there’s plenty of fluff along the way. My favourite part so far is when he tried to compare Chopin’s and Liszt’s playing styles, and after a long and abstract monologue concluded that Chopin is Liszt’s wife. 
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