Weekly "what are you reading" Thread #69

I'm a quarter through Toole's Confederacy of Dunces. I'm not even sure how this ingenious novel has passed me by for so many years. It is truly magnificent. I do, however, have to mention that all specific 'Murica references are actually passing me by. Whatever.

I had to give up on Houllebecq's novels in French. I'll probably never be able to comprehend French books in their intended nature - which quite honestly is a bummer. I got two of them in German and that will most likely be my next project.

Also (@lfyca), I finished the first Malazan novel (Gardens of the Moon), and while I wasn't blown away by the book, I can already see how the series is different from the uninspired fantasy novels of today. I've already ordered the second and the third books of the series and will eventually get to them. The thing is, I like to maintain lists of vocabulary I didn't know, or rather, words that I couldn't instantly translate. I'm not talking about knowing the meaning of the word in the right context, but rather their actual translation. I do get very lazy when it comes to this and I've stumbled upon me quickly reading through a passage pretending that I was able to translate everything accurately. For example, for any ESLcels bothering to read my pointless drivel , consternation, trepidation and dismay have similar meanings but aren't the exact same words. As such, I've started to learn vocabulary again and the amount of words is ... overwhelming - and given that fantasy authors love to show their intelligence by using archaic terms only found within useless paragraphs about the description of girders, I think it's going to take me a long time.