All About Books discussion

I read broadly and eclectically. The past two years, part of my reading has been in relation to online (videochat) reading groups to which I belong or run myself. For the beginning of 2019, we are going to read Gregory Bateson's Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology, a rather challenging book that crosses many scientific fields, and as a complement the book by Bateson's daughter Nora Bateson, Small Arcs of Larger Circles: Framing Through Other Patterns, which builds on many of her father's ideas in a fascinating contemporary study of ecology and social development. In addition, I am going to be leading a group that will read Sri Aurobindo's long lyrical poem called Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol and make connections such as to John Milton's Paradise Lost.

I will be continuing my reading of Elena Ferrante's now celebrated Napolitaine series beginning with My Brilliant Friend. I read Ferrante's L'amore molesto in the Italian original way back in 2003, long before she published My Brilliant Friend even in Italian. I expect to take up another project and reread, probably within an online group, Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker, which sits at the cusp between science fiction and philosophy, and, with another reading group, the science fiction classic Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, which served as the basis for the film "Blade Runner" and its sequel, "Blade Runner 2049". I will also be following a re-reading of Robertson Davies's The Deptford Trilogy: Fifth Business/The Manticore/World of Wonders - I hope to finish up Fifth Business in 2018 and start in on The Manticore and World of Wonders in 2019 - these are books I have re-read several times, but they are related to an exercise in writing I have taken on for the new year (writing a kind of "response" to Davies' The Manticore, that is another story that relates a Jungian analysis in a way that echoes Davies' book).

That's just for the beginning of the year... after that, who knows what I will be reading?

My brother recommended David Malouf’s Remembering Babylon as well as imaginary life, so I have added those to my reading list. I am also finishing up Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, although I might get through it before the new year starts. I’m also behind on my reviews, I usually like to write these up within a few days of finishing a book!

Gilead is on my TBR list, too. I meant to get to it this month but now it will wait for the New Year.
I've read 2 of the Neapolitan series and will finish those in 2019 as well, I think. I think it's wonderful that you've read the first book in the original Italian.
The Deptford Trilogy was really good. My favorite Robertson Davies trilogy (so far) is The Salterton Trilogy.

Sounds like you're going to have a busy reading life in 2019, Geoffrey.

While I liked My Brilliant Friend a lot, the second in the series I did not like at all. The first I gave four stars and the second one. I disliked it so much I did not want to continue the series. The friendship dissolves and I detested Lila.

The Days of Abandonment, another by the author, I did like. It i snot a pleasant read but is extremely well done. I found it true to life, an attribute important to me.

I found Fifth Business, the first of the serie,s to be the best.