Do not, I repeat, do not read the eBook Vegas satire, Bonjour Amigos-an intellectually pretentious rush to anger.

Agreed, just downloaded some Faulkner on the strength of that post.

Can anyone tell me if reading Paradise Lost would be wasteful without having read the Bible?

You'll be fine but read Genesis anyway.

Although I plan to soon, I have not read Paradise Lost from start to finish. I have read some of the books in depth. Also, I have not read the Bible, although I am familiar with alot of parables within it.
None of which really answers your question.

The only recommendation I would make is the power of guided readings of 'Great Works'. I found the lecture series by Prof. John Rogers from Yale on Milton and Paradise Lost as invaluable for a first time look at the poem.

link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H62G9yIN5Wk

Thanks a lot, guys.

I just finished the Mitch rapp series by Vince Flynn. If you like spy novels this is one of the best series ever.

Are there any other characters like Mitch Rapp out there?

Started Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea. I am 6 chapters in and it's pretty good so far. I wonder how much a non-Mexican would miss from this book. The author's first language is English (which is evident by the dialogue) but the book does have a lot of bits that I would think would be missed by non-Mexicans.

I just reread The Art of Fielding, liked it even better than the first time.

Currently reading The Outpost by jake tapper. It's over 600 pages but I'm breezing through it. Highly recommend.

Reading Genesis is a great background for literature in general. All the good stories are there (except the Exodus narrative and the life of Jesus, but pretty much everyone knows those anyway). But for PL, reading the first four chapters is enough. Use the King James Version, of course.

And the Milton Reading Room site is a fabulous resourece. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/rea..._1/index.shtml
You'll find the whole text of the poem there -- with great footnotes.

These are damn good

This recent discussion is tempting me to go out and buy Paradise Lost and reading it.

I'm going to read Paradise Lost as soon as I'm finished with DeLillo's Underworld. On p.400 right now.

Doing a little lite reading, huh?

Now I'm on the Alex Berenson series but I don't think it will be quite the same.

Yeah, the plan is to formulate some very strict reading habits asap to compensate for how much time I've spent playing poker recently. I'm trying to read everything that I feel would be specifically crucial to me as a writer so that writing doesn't feel like shooting three pointers with my left hand anymore. After Underworld And Paradise Lost is Moby-Dick, The Brothers Karamazov, and probably a third trial of Blood Meridian.

Look into authors Brad Thor, Ben Coes, and Mark Greaney.

Going to start my third attempt soon here as well.

I'm thinking of reading it a 3rd time as well after I finish "On Being Blue" by Gass which puts me into a reading trance. Its wonderful.

I bought nightwatch on kindle. Dialogue wasn't great but it was cheap entertainment. The first two parts were interesting, trying to understand the fantasy world with all it's strange rules. All hell broke loose for me in part 3, it was the most tilting piece of fiction i've ever read. stay away from part 3

Finished The Man without Qualities, Volume One; A Sort of Introduction, The Like of It Now Happens, 1 by Robert Musil translated by Wilkins and Kaiser.

One of the best books I've ever read. First published in 1930 in Germany and 1953 in English, it reads like a late 20th century post-modern novel, sometimes scarily so. I ran into whole sections that seem to have been paraphrased by other authors or the ideas used with little change.

I learned Musil's work was banned and burned by the Nazis and when it was published in English, post-war anti-German sentiment kept it from getting much recognition. His reputation has grown in the past couple of decades. I took courses in college that should have included him and I never heard of him.

I have ordered a copy of the most recent translation of The Man Without Qualities and intend to read it.

Meanwhile, I'm re-reading Beckett's trilogy of Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable.

I'd be interested to hear you elaborate, if you're willing, since many of your other book reviews have been critical (in the most positive sense of that word).

Thanks a lot!

Hahaha.