I'm surprised none of the major gas chains around here offer full service considering how cold our winters are - plenty of people would pay an extra buck to sit in their warm cars and play on their phones when it's -25C out.

my father found it very irritating to have to pump his own gas--especially when he noticed it was often more expensive than full-service in NJ.

i don't think he got the concept that distance to refineries was a factor in pricing.

I "read" The Inferno (first book) 10th grade year of high school because I thought I was so smart and understood literature. I was so lost. The copy I had was two pages. One with the English translation, one with a break down of what that page meant. I was still lost. Some of the themes were cool and to a 14/15 year old reading the gory, gruesome depictions was edgy enough to keep me entertained.

From what I understand, the enjoyment of the book can vary based on what translation you are reading.

I think you need to keep a few pragmatic ideas in mind when tackling works of literature like Divine Comedy. Even if you are reading in the native Italian there has very likely been interpretations done on the original to modernize it. Add a layer of English language translation, some style revisions, attempts at including obscure references, etc. You'd be better off spending your time looking into what it is supposed to symbolize and why it stood through the ages instead of slipping into anonymity.

Printing was a considerable task in Dante's time. It was uncommon for the printer not to make changes as they saw fit. By printer you can assume person who was copying it by hand in many instances. Over time the collection of attributed notes and manuscripts remaining are all culled to fill in bits to the best of scholars ability with an eye towards creating a reference copy. Expect the entire history of any notable literary work to be overly complicated with human error.

Basically I've never considered reading it or numerous others like it. A two second search on Netflix would access any story line of that nature I cared to take into my home. Which might be what lead you to it in the first place.

Taht's why you read ancient literature. And that's coming from someone who hasn't read but 15 books since I graduated high school 4 years ago and not a single lick of literature. Not bragging here, it's something I've been actively working on in my life.

Oddly enough I know you understand the merit of a restricted diet. You might benefit from considering applying that principled direct correlation with results towards your mental diet.

It isn't by chance GC, and numerous others here, is so witty and widely versed about the ways he enjoys life. Someone guides every young mind in the right direction or it wanders.

The biggest hassle with having your gas pumped for you is it takes longer. Especially at a busy station. We have a quiet little one in our neighborhood that we go to.

Everyone within spitting distance of NJ crosses the border for gas. It's much cheaper than the bordering states.

I've read it a bunch of times. I was always a fan, but I'm probably not a very good barometer of such things.

The original by Dante, or a newer version by someone else? If the original, some translations are harder to read than others. That's a general statement, I haven't read it either...but it's now on my radar. ;)

Reading pre-20th Century lit can be hard because what was considered "an education" then is much different from what it is now. Back in that day, an educated person would be familiar with pre-Christian Greek literature and Judeo-Christian scripture and would recognize allusions to them in contemporary writing. Even when I was an undergrad ('69-'73), such stuff was considered irrelevant.

I've bounced up against this recently myself. I've been reading a collection of essays by C. S. Lewis written in the 1930's and -40's, and he was comfortable inserting quotes from Greek authors in the original Greek, with the then-reasonable expectation that his readers didn't need a translation. It sure made me feel like a dumbass.

Dante. No recollection which translation(s) I've read. We're talking a span of time now that dates back starting 30 something years.

I didn't see your response before I typed, my response was to @Flatballer.

What revchuck mentioned about accepting as fact that anyone who can read is a polyglot, and familiar with the canon of history and human knowledge, is exactly why I own essentially the same reference books 70-100 years removed from each other.

English is essentially a bunch of mispronounced words that found religion in diction and direct phonetic spellings from the romantic languages. In some cases the exact carryover is hilarious, add accent or subtract a heavy tongue. I'd bet a few of you are old enough to remember at least an older sibling learning Latin in school.

Like I said, working on it. For now just reading for enjoyment again is helping me sleep better and stimulate the mind. I finished Phil gaimons first book last night.

Back to my sci-fi space opera now. If you've watched The Expanse on TV, I'm reading that series and greatly enjoy the drama and way it is written. It's no Dante, but it is fun to read.

Haute route will be in Utah next year for those of you with the money to enter. I can't justify 800$ for three days. But if you need a Swanny I'll come play.

https://www.hauteroute.org/events/overview/utah-2018

Read the series pre show, book 6 may be the best.

I have a weakness for sci fi and I read basically all of it. As in, I'll scour amazon looking for stuff I haven't yet read. I enjoyed this series and am looking forward to the next one which is due out in a month or so.

The Bobiverse series is pretty good as well.

I didn't love the show -- found it shallow and a bit silly, and badly miscast. Mike from Breaking Bad, who was in the first episode for about 20 seconds, would have been a great Detective Miller. Tom Jane did OK in the role but he's too young and not beaten down enough. The actor who played Holden was way too lightweight and the character of Bobbie was just completely misinterpreted IMO.

Read em :) Light fare, but I enjoyed how the author didn't really seem to care about tying all of the narratives together, it was like 20 short stories all told a chapter at a time.

My all-time fav is Iain Banks. I hope against hope to someday come across an author whose work I enjoy as much as I loved the Culture series.

Just for fun, here's every book I have read so far in 2017.

https://goo.gl/Nv3QXc

I've read several of the Le Carre books, though I have not read that one. I enjoy them, but I do find I sometimes have trouble keeping track of all the characters.

I tend to shuttle back and forth between creative nonfiction and pulp fiction work. I've been going through a bunch of Jack Reacher novels - they are quick and easy reads. I'm now trying out Jo Nesbo now, reading one of his Harry Hole novels. They are making one into a movie. My wife found it a bit disturbing that I found Gone Girl to be pretty funny. In my mind, it was a great black comedy. The Girl on the Train was also a pretty good page turner.

For nonfiction, I've read most of Erik Larson's stuff. I couldn't put the Devil in the White City down. The Lost City of Z was also quite engaging. I've tried David McCullough to learn more about U.S. history, and some of it is good, but I honestly didn't need to read a hundred pages about how Teddy Roosevelt spent his time traveling Europe with his rich parents when he was 5.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, I just finished The Grapes of Wrath. I think I tried to read it in High School, but never really did. I read Of Mice and Men a few months ago, which I enjoyed and was a very quick read, so I thought I'd give Grapes a go.

I think half his novels are brilliant and the other half are annoying. The new one starts out brilliant and then becomes annoying. Recommendation: pass.

His son, Nick Harkaway, is pretty good and I'll read anything he writes.

Honestly expected you to reply last night so I could tell you I was just giving you a hard time. Nowhere near what Mikey saw here years ago but similar in lording something with no real response possible over the recipient. My intent was to let you off the hook right away before there was no chance of it exhibiting a sense of humor.

If after working 8 hours and riding another 3 you want to recover in front of the tv. There is nothing I or anyone else can say. It is called the idiot box for a reason though.


I've been devouring state historical society books the last year or so. Especially those on architecturally prominent structures that are no more. This has started to transition toward Indian uses for the same land.

Numerous years ago I gave all of my Beckey guides and other sought after books on the mountains to a friend. I've also restarted building a collection of these back up.

My favorite author right now is someone whose published works are simply unreadable, but is brilliant at being a public speaker. I'm sure some of you will get a riot out of this given his relevance to issues raised towards my own writing. His name is Martin Amis.

We used to have a book thread.