It's Monday, what are you reading? - Ulysses + a modern odyssey

Ulysses
Last week, a blog entry from fellow blogger Beth Adams on reading Ulysses and finally finishing it brought me back to my own copy of Ulysses. I don't think I will really attempt to read the whole book, from all i know so far it's a book that is massive both in size and complexity - and what was intriguing and shocking back then from form and structure is more or less common today - which on the other hand makes it definitely interesting from the angle of how literature developed.

So i think i will dip into it for some more days, read short passages, enjoy them. I definitely enjoyed returning to the short story that the last time with Ulysses sparked: A monkey puzzle rocket burst .
and also, i might read some more notes on Ulysses - here the initial blog entry:  Ulysses -- and the Trojan Horse Within  by Beth Adams

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A modern odyssey: Mongol Rally by J.A. Irving
The other book i'm currentlyl reading is an e-book - i chanced upon it while browsing travel ebooks, and was drawn by the road image. If you are into roads, and trips into parts of Europe / Eurasia that are well beyond the well-travelled path, this book tells the story of a modern odyssey. Here's the description from Goodreads: "Mongol Rally - Three Weeks Into the Unknown All we had to do was get from London to Mongolia. But looking deeper it was going to be a lot less simple than it had first appeared. We had minimal planning, bought a horribly underpowered car that was fit for scrap, had no external support, no prior expedition experience or survival knowledge and decided to do it all in the name of charity. I hadn't even heard of half of the countries we were intending to cross and certainly didn't speak the languages but we'd go for it anyway and see how things turned out... "

The book is based on diary notes, and takes you from London to Prague to Transylvania to Romania to the Ukraine to Russia to Kazakhstan to Uzebekistan to Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan to Russia to Mongolia - and ends in Beijing. For the fun of it, try to get an online route planner to find the way from London to Ulaan Baatar (capital of Mongolia) and see what it says. the one here said: "no way". which makes reading it so good, and reminded me of a line of a taxi driver in India when asked for the way to a sight beyond the Fort: "There is a way, you just have to find it."

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Ongoing Reads
& of course, i am still reading most of my "ongoing reads", the Zen book, the Triskelion collection, the Networks book, the Peppermint Bottle, the Book of IT and the River of Stones collection, as described in my first "It's Monday" reading post in August

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13 Years and ReviewForward
A book i finished & reviewed last week: 13 Years in America: the memoir by Melanie Steele, who set out in the hope that if you only keep following your heart, your dream will come true at some point, here's my review for reviewforward: 13 Years in America

For more reviews on ReviewForward, visit:  the week in ReviewForward: memoir, scifi, classic, poetry, comic, short stories

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This blog post is inspired by the blog series "It's Monday! What are you reading?" which is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. It's a blog initiative to share ones own reading and to see what others are currently reading. participating blogs are listed in this Linky Book List

What about you? What are your reading this week?

"A Monkey Puzzle Rocket Burst", or: reading Ulysses

today: very Ulysses.

it started with reading Beth Adams blog entry on finishing her read through Ulysses, starting with those lines that reminded me of my own attempts of finding the longer path into this book: "Last night I finished my major summer reading: on my third attempt in as many decades, I finally finished Ulysses. How do I feel? Well, I keep asking myself that question. I guess I feel relieved to be done and proud of myself for actually finishing it, bu mostly I feel rather exhausted, somewhat annoyed, somewhat amused. In some ways I still don't know what to make of it. Perhaps that's what Joyce intended, and perhaps that's part of what makes it a great book: the fact that you are never really done with it, and it's never really done with you." - more here: Ulysses -- and the Trojan Horse Within

the notes added a good spin to my day – made me remember the time when i got a copy of Ulysses from the library - hardcover. almost 1000 pages. an indeed heavy read, from pure size. - and the story that sparked from there. which now also made me log back into fictionaut again, to give that story a page again, quotes included. here it is:

A monkey puzzle rocket burst
"The things we do for books, she thought.."
(a true story)

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and a visual, with lines from Ulysses - a quote from page 34 / 35 of the copy i finally ordered last year, just for days like this.