What is your current "read"?

Last night I was restless and couldn't sleep, so I got up and read a bit from my favorite poet. I'm usually against mutilating books but this one is all dog eared, so I can locate my favorite poems
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^ 'Nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands'.

I'm reading 'Satyricon' by Petronius Arbiter (~20-66 AD), an elegantie arbiter (judge of taste) in Caesar Nero's court. Only three of the approximately 20 satiric stories of the compilation have survived. They are translated into Finnish.

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While I enjoy a "heavy" read, I light to have something lighter in between. I'm currently reading Spike Milligan's Puckoon, based in post-independent Ireland just after the civil war. It is, being Milligan, utterly daft, but still manages to highlight the absurdity of the Irish border, a problem that still infests the country to this day. The main protagonist is, amusingly, called Milligan.

The world is a duller place without Spike Milligan in it.
 
LissaC said:
Apparently this is "Banned books week". We're supposed to read books that are or have been banned. I don't think I currently have any. But it's amazing how many books are still banned in 2019. Argentina is still banning my favorite book. Malaysia had the sense to ban Fifty Shades of Grey. So many Islamic countries still ban The Satanic Verses which has been on my to read list for a while. (image from here)
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Actually in Italy it is not at all true that the book "little blue and little yellow" is forbidden since they make it read in schools.
 
^^ Duck59, I read all kinds of stories as well (in fact 'Satyricon' is mostly a description of ancient Roman immorality and orgies 😳) but I recently read a very heavy Bulgarian novel called 'Time of Parting' by Anton Donchev (in Finnish 'Väkivallan pitkä varjo' = The long shadow of violence'), describing the absurdity of borderline conflicts in the Balkan peninsula in the 17th century - problematic to this day, too.

I really enjoyed the spellbound narrative of the novel (a kind of chronicle from the point of view of two narrators representing opposite sides of the strife; relying on historic records), beautiful natural imagery, the ample glossary of fascinating turkish terms (military ranks, offices etc.), endearing Bulgarian names (like Elindenya Valley, Manol and Momchil) and the sharp-eyed depiction of beauty, greed and human interest.
 
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MypinchofItaly said:
Actually in Italy it is not at all true that the book "little blue and little yellow" is forbidden since they make it read in schools.
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The map shows books that were banned and no Longer are. Isabel Allende isn’t banned in Chile as well.
 
I would like to share what I have been reading. Decided to revisit the classics and one of my favorites is Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky. One good thing about being indoors more than usual is that I have been catching up on my reading. With libraries being closed I am purchasing more books too. Always a good thing.
 
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