Yeah, a Song of Ice and Fire is excellent, just finished the first book recently. Disliked the show though, it didn't capture the subtle feel of A Game of Thrones for me. I just bought the hardcover of Dance of Dragons, and I'm looking forward to reading A Clash of Kings!
Believe it or not I tried to read the Brothers Karamazov when I was a kid a few times, and I didn't understand it. I think I would follow it better now, but I don't generally enjoy Russian writers (Boris Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago for example bored me to pieces, though I rather like the film). Would you guys say that the Brothers is better than Zhivago? If so I might give it another shot.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky is, in my opinion (and in the opinion of good number of literary scholars), one of the top 10 greatest writers of all time. Many people consider Brothers the greatest of Dostoyevsky's works (though my favorite's The Idiot). I can't promise you that you'll like it, but if you don't, I fear for you and pity you greatly. Also, it's a difficult work to follow even with age and experience. For one thing, Dostoyevsky doesn't use a single voice, each character has its own voice. The book is filled with Russian sensibilities and mindsets and with religious allusions that are easily missed by a reader with no background in those areas. Nabokov is probably the most accessible Russian writer that's any good. I like them all though.
It's pretty good, and most people recommend it. However, it's the only one I've read so I don't really know.
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All right, maybe I'll have to research the other versions to find out more, but if that one's as good as you say maybe it's the one to buy. I had a copy at one point, split into two parts (might have been a Penguin edition) but I have no idea who translated it. My family owned it and we got rid of it eventually, because I doubted I would ever read it in its entirety. But considering the rave reviews it's getting on here, and my desire to expand my reading palette, I'll probably have to buy it again.
It is the one to buy. There are a couple other great translations, but they are each either more scholarly (and less accessible) or over-translated (meaning destroying the Russian idioms and textures) or under-translated (meaning so overly Russian that without some background in the language they're nearly incomprehensible). The Pevear translation is great for those who don't have any Russian language background but are able to appreciate and comprehend some idiomatic language and cultural perspective. Also I'm a purest, so one of the other copies I have, translated by Constance Garnett, is largely untouched. From what I've read, it's one of the over-translated versions and it hacks Dostoyevsky's work to pieces. I read part of a copy that one of my professors had which was translated by someone with a funny (it was to me anyway but I don't remember why) name that I can't remember. It was like Andrew Andrews or something. It seemed to be of a high quality but I didn't read the whole thing. My professor said it was his favorite, though. If you judge a book by its cover, it'd my favorite too. It's the one, iirc, with the snowy painting.
No. I follow George R.R. Martin on LiveJournal, but he hasn't mentioned the book for a long time. It looks like he's been kind of busy with another project lately. I'm pessimistic about it, though, on account of the gap between the last two books. I just hope the old man doesn't croak before he finishes.
The third part of my favorite series of anti-hero books, Aloha From Hell. The third book of the Sandman Slim stories.
Sandman Slim, and Kill The Dead (lol) are all three amazing books. Highly recommend.