What book are you reading right now?

[Skynet]

==> Flora Annie Steel. Mistress of Men. London: Heinemann, 1918.

A fictional biography of Nur Jahan (1577-1645), consort of Mughal emperor Jahangir. A intriguing book about a remarkable woman, written by the queen of Anglo-Indian literature.

Fascinating.

[Hilda]

==> Flora Annie Steel. Mistress of Men. London: Heinemann, 1918.

A fictional biography of Nur Jahan (1577-1645), consort of Mughal emperor Jahangir. A intriguing book about a remarkable woman, written by the queen of Anglo-Indian literature.

Fascinating.

Fascinating, yes, but very heavy going if you’re looking for a relaxing read.

Flora Annie Steel was one of the few Victorian authors who preferred to write about Indian India, not British India. The only other one that comes to mind is Meadows Taylor.

[Pornhubby]

There is some great Indian porn on asstr.org. One story in particular stands out, about a boy who seduces his mother on an overnight train trip. But I love that whole brown skinned and hairy muffed Indian thing.

[Hilda]

There is some great Indian porn on asstr.org. One story in particular stands out, about a boy who seduces his mother on an overnight train trip. But I love that whole brown skinned and hairy muffed Indian thing.

I owe you one, PornHubby. 

Your mention of Indian porn sent me looking for Charles Devereaux' Venus in India, one of only two porn books listed in Gupta's India in English Fiction 1800-1970. (The other is one of those cheap paperbacks published by the Olympia Press in Paris, back in the 1950s).

There's a copy of Venus in India in the Internet Archive, but for copyright reasons it's read-online-only, and has to be checked out, one hour at a time.

https://archive.org/details/venusinindia0000deve/mode/2up

Soooo. Something made me do what I should have done a long time ago, which is search my own 1TB archive of ebooks, and. . . . .  Yay! I had a copy of Venus in India all along, though without the introductory essay that's included in the Internet Archive version. Color me happy!

[Hilda]

==> Sydney C. Grier. Like Another Helen. Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1899.

A novel about the early days of the East India Company, in the form of letters sent by a young Englishwoman to her friend at home.

---

Thirty minutes later:

I'm about to give up on Like Another Helen. It's quicker and less tedious to read the relevant chapter of a history book. But. . . . Just as I was about to say goodbye to Miss Sylvia Freyne, the heroine of the story, I came across this sentence:

Mr Dash was announced, and the two gentlemen sent for their hookers.

The footnote informs us that *hooker* = huqa, "a strange sort of tobacco-pipe, with a vessel of water and a long tube like a serpent and all manner of outlandish additions belonging to them."

Good to know, but I think my first guess was more fun.

[Pornhubby]

I owe you one, PornHubby. 

https://www.asstr.org/~Kristen/53/yatra.txt

[Hilda]

I owe you one, PornHubby. 

https://www.asstr.org/~Kristen/53/yatra.txt

Thanks for the link. Until someone on this board mentioned a story set in Japan, I had no idea there was an Asian section of the Kristen Archives. So much to explore.

[Sweetums]

My daughter and I are now reading “Into the West,” a sprawling Chinese mythology book. An English translation of it, at least. We have a practice where on weeknights we have a half hour phone call and alternate reading.

[Hilda]

My daughter and I are now reading “Into the West,” a sprawling Chinese mythology book. An English translation of it, at least. We have a practice where on weeknights we have a half hour phone call and alternate reading.

I don't know if we're talking about the same book, but if we are, I remember reading Arthur Waley's abridged translation a long, long time ago. I also remember reading his translations of
classical Japanese literature. An amazing scholar who taught himself classical Chinese and classical Japanese, but couldn't speak either language.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Waley

[Hilda]

==> John Travers (Eva Bell). Those Young Married People. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1922.

I'm halfway through this 320-page novel, and so far it's been a rather tedious psychological study of a young dissatisfied wife.

After four years of marriage to a all-round nice guy, she decides she wants more out of life, and entertains dreams of getting divorced and becoming rich and famous.

I don't know whether the author intended to make this lady as unsympathetic as possible, or whether it's a veiled criticism of attitudes to marriage, but I can't help thinking that, one hundred years later, this annoying lady would make a perfect social media influencer.

[Hilda]

I thought I'd share an anecdote I came across yesterday. After working my way through four books by an author called R. J. Minney, about India in the 1920s, I had this image of him as a civil servant who lived and worked in Calcutta. I decided to look him up and was astonished by what I found. After writing those four books he went on to an illustrious career in movies, wrote several best-selling biographies, and also went into UK politics.

This is the anecdote that caught my attention:

[He] wrote both the book and play ‘Clive of India’, which ran for over a year in London and was later filmed. The Royal family unexpectedly arrived for the opening night of the play. On the same night RJ took a call from Daryl Zanuk, the legendary 1930’s impresario and film-maker, asking RJ to call at Claridges. In Zanuk’s suite the next day Zanuk invited RJ to Hollywood, RJ declined as he was due to leave for Russia to work on a biography on Rasputin, to which Zanuk reputedly responded; “Now Mr Minney sit down a minute, we haven’t talked about money yet.” The next day RJ left for Hollywood.

[Hilda]

==> John Travers (Eva Mary Bell). Hot Water. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1929.

A satire about a bumbling, misguided government fact-finding commission.

On p. 36 I came across this line:

“[He] greeted her with an expression as flagrantly gay as bunting.”

If the author had written “gay as bunting” I wouldn’t have noticed, but the flagrantly + gay caught my attention.

I couldn’t help smiling as images of colorful Pride Parades flashed through my mind.

[Pornhubby]

Forbidden Sexual Behavior and Morality. I guess I have done most of these. LOL. R. E. I. Masters. 1962, Julian Press.

[Pornhubby]

There’s been some chat today about smutty reading. And I am a lover of smutty reading. So I got on my favorite Abe‘s Books (thanks again Hilda), and ordered four new ones. Can’t wait to pollute my mind with some more vile pornographic obscenity.

Fifty Shades of Louisa May : A Memoir of Transcendental Sex
Author: Anonymous, Louisa May

Black Pearl: The Memoirs of a Victorian Sex Magician, Vol. 3
Author: Anonymous

House Of Incest
Author: Nin, Anais

Delta of Venus
Author: Nin, Anais

I’ve read Delta of Venus before. Really one of the most erotic books of my youth. Can’t wait to see if it’s still affects me the same way it once did.

[Writers Bloque]

I am reading Justine, or the Misfortunes of Virtue. A wonder De Sade book.

[Hilda]

==> Linda Stratmann. Greater London Murders. Cheltenham: The History Press, 2010.

My pile of unread books is threatening to tip over, but I'm reading this book out of sequence. I'd never heard of Linda Stratmann until she appeared in a TV feature about the Whitechapel murders. I was impressed, and ordered her A-Z compendium of London murders. They're in alphabetical order, so I'm still working my way through the Bs — Barking, Barnet, Bexley, Brent. She has so much geographical area to cover that each murder gets only a few pages, but her research is meticulous.

[MintJulie]

"...unread books is threatening to tip over,...".

I would have guessed you as a real book reader, instead of a Kindle. Probably never even picked up a Kindle.  Classy lady.

Enjoy your Linda murder series.

[JohnTheVoyeur]

Just finished Cool With Her, by Kenny Wright.

[Pornhubby]

Delta of Venus, Anïs Nin.

 

[Freesnowden]

Delta of Venus, Anïs Nin.

Excellent choice. I'm re-reading The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett yet again. And Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson.
Steven Pinker nonfiction as well