The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: theinevitable on May 01, 2006, 04:09:09 am
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Um, so, I read the entire old thread. I want to get back in the habit of reading.
I have a stack of books to read (all will be for the 2nd time. I remember little about most of them.)
Neuromancer-- William Gibson
White Teeth-- Zadie Smith
Dune-- Frank Herbert
Rainbow Mars-- Larry Niven
Count Zero-- William Gibson
Snow Crash-- Stephenson.
Diamond Age-- Stephenson.
Cryptonomicon-- Stephenson.
The Age of Spritual Machines-- Ray Kurzweil
The Code Book-- Simon Singh
Made in America (an informal history of the english language in the united states)
Quicksilver/Confusion/System of the World (I read the first one and half of the 2nd one, and then stopped because I was so confused. I have a very huge problem with telling characters apart.)
I really love mr Stephenson, but sometimes it seems that he is trying too hard. Everything is too cool. he tries to fit in too much. this is why they are all so long.
That said, I have read every book he has published (except The Big U and the last one in that new series.) I read "In the Beginning... was the command line" and took up linux. I think I would do anything that man told me to do.
I am not sure what order I should read these in. Right now, I am starting Neuromancer.
Also: someone commented on the first thread that they had bought Everything is Illuminated. Did any of you read it? i love that book so much. so much.
what is everyone else reading?
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Well, it's mostly been Tortora's Principles of Anatomy and Physiology. But I recently started 2001, Space Odessy although I slowed down drastically once it got passed the dawn of man part.
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I recently started 2001, Space Odessy.
How could it possibly top the movie?
~Paul
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I've been reading a couple of John Le Carre books lately (The honourable schoolboy and :)'s people), both of which I enjoyed but found a bit dry in parts. Some of the dry was in a good way, some just made it hard to read.
Similarly I just picked up and consumed Queen and Country volume 3, which along with the rest of the series I can heartily endorse.
I also recently read the last 8th doctor, doctor who book 'Gallifrey Chronicles' which I've been meaning to read for ages because I lost track of the books a while back but am a huge geek.
My girlfriend lent me (forced on me) her copy of the chronicles of narnia which I am starting at least, I am just a bit put off becuase of what I have heard and my own observations of flicking through the last book, it looks like Lewis got a bit heavy handed by the end. That said the Magician's nephew seems to begin with the right ratios of mystery and wonder so maybe I'll stick it out.
Oh, I also recently read 'how to survive a ***** uprising' which was purchased on a whim and was fun to read in short spurts and is very shiney besides.
The last 'literary' book I read was P.G. Wodehouse and... I can't actually remember which one it was. I'd describe the plot as involving a poor but respectable family in the country, lost loves, silly disguises, vague criminality and severe indigestion but from what I understand this includes most of the man's works.
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Everything is Illuminated is great. I haven't read his new one yet.
I haven't had a lot of time to read this spring, but I did finish:
Chesapeake, by James Michener (I'm a sucker for his books)
Foucalt's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco (Read it in high school but couldn't remember much of it, and since I keep telling people it's the thinking man's Da Vinci Code, I thought I should take another look)
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Tom Robbins (Either it's not as good as the others or I'm getting a little sick of his particular brand of cowboy hacker mystic philosophy)
Heart of Darkness, Conrad (Well, I'm 8 pages in. Just started it. When do they find Marlon Brando and the heads on pikes?)
Stephenson can get tiring. Eventually it seems like he's writing less of a book and more of a list of things that he knows about and thinks are cool. I haven't read the rest of the baroque cycle, though I found Quicksilver to be ok. It didn't quite grab me enough to make me want to read the rest, though.
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Heart of Darkness is delicious.
by which I mean: horrifying.
Foer's new one, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, is great. I really loved it.
for the record, he has written two books. One is about the Holocaust, and the other is about 9/11. Wow.
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Just started re-reading Heller's Catch 22. I thoroughly enjoyed it as I remember but it has been a bit of a time since I've read it.
Neuromancer blew my 15 year old mind the first time I read it (which is to say it took my mind into a back alley and suckled it until it climaxed. Yeah.. imagine that for a few seconds..)
Fuckin' Stephenson.. man couldn't write an ending if James Joyce handed it to him on a damned plate. He writes a good middle though, I'll give him that.
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Agreed on Stephenson, Q. Diamond Age had a great middle then the ending just seemed to happy. And in the Boroque Cycle the best book was The Confusion (the middle one). I just read Zodiac which was my least favorite so far. But at least the main character wasn't named Hiro Protagonist.
Right now I'm about 200 pages into Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
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Just started re-reading Heller's Catch 22.
That book is ten kinds of fuck*ng awesome. I am currently reading the sequel of sorts, Closing Time. My favourite bit of any book ever is when it ties in with Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 (probably my overall favourite book ever). And it just works. Fantastic.
Has anyone read anything by E.H Gombrich? He makes the history of the world a lot funner than it really should be. And I've got this massive George Orwell collection to finish, then after that it's onto a Graham Greene anthology. And there's a couple of Discworld novels I haven't read yet. Also, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell which I have on the backburner somewhere.
I also have a book on the fall of Britpop.
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I'm reading Matt Zandstra's PHP5: Objects, Patterns, and Practice (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590593804/joughcom). It is gripping. Not too much plot, but lots of development.
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I am currently reading China Mieville's "Looking for Jake," a short story collection that is like reading episodes of the X-Files. Just work in Scully and Mulder and they'd be perfect.
I must have read a half-dozen baseball-related books over the off-season, most recently "The Bad Guys Won," about the '86 Mets. A good read. But I still hate them.
My great-grandmother gave me uber-cheesy best-seller "Marley and Me" for Christmas, and that is currently bathroom reading. Let me save you some time: The dog is ornery, and makes them insane. But they grow to love the dog. Then the dog gets sick and dies, and they are sad. The end.
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It is gripping. Not too much plot, but lots of development.
i thought there were laws against this.
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I am so sick of books right now. I had a book drift next to the bed, like a snow drift, only made of books. I've started and discarded so many books after the first chapter lately. I even cracked out my old favorite and gave up on it a few chapters in. I can't get in to anything these days.
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I've started and discarded so many books after the first chapter lately.
This is my problem too. Lately my highest praise for a book is "did not want to throw across the room after second chapter." I spend my reading time looking longingly at my list of Amazon preorders of forthcoming books by authors I'm sure I actually like. I am halfway seriously thinking of spending the summer rereading all of Raymond Chandler so I can try to rip off some of his style for something I am writing. Pathetic, but at least I know I won't want to throw the books across the room.
What is sad is that I don't like to read nonfiction anymore like I used to. It is a golden age of nonfiction, with people writing whole books about pencils and salt and the great molasses flood in Boston. I would have killed for these books ten years ago, but now I'm like, eh, reading the review is all I really need to know about the great molasses flood.
Also: Ark!!!
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It is a golden age of nonfiction, with people writing whole books about pencils and salt and the great molasses flood in Boston.
If my opinion helps, the whole book about salt is wonderful. It's really well-written, interesting, and about the perfect length. Plus, you have no idea how much history is directly or indirectly salt-related.
For those who don't know it, it's Salt - A World History, by Mark Kurlansky. Apparently he also wrote a book entitled Cod, with a similar style, but I've seen it - it's very small, and the salt book talks a lot about Cod - it's probably mostly repeat material.
So now I'm on a quest for non-fiction - what've you got?
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I am so sick of books right now. I had a book drift next to the bed, like a snow drift, only made of books. I've started and discarded so many books after the first chapter lately. I even cracked out my old favorite and gave up on it a few chapters in. I can't get in to anything these days.
That's about where I am. It happens every once in a while.
Although I did just finish a great book on tape -- The River of Doubt is about Teddy Roosevelt's expedition down an uncharted Amazonian river in 1912. Excellent book, full of adventure plus insight into TR's character. We could use a guy like that now.
I've been reading a couple of John Le Carre books lately (The honourable schoolboy and :)'s people), both of which I enjoyed but found a bit dry in parts. Some of the dry was in a good way, some just made it hard to read.
That's certainly true, especially with that triology (Did you read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy first?) I think part of the reason he's dry is that he's putting so much information into his prose. His books hold up to second readings very well. Two of his later books which I've really enjoyed are Our Game and his latest Absolute Friends. I would especially recommend Absolute Friends. Really, everybody should read it. It's LeCarre's treatment of how governments have manipulated people and the media in the "War on Terror". It's short, accesible and compelling.
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I'll read Absolute Friends, but only if they spell it Absolut and put a bottle of vodka on the front.
Somebody shoot me.
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So now I'm on a quest for non-fiction - what've you got?
If you're interested in one about events (like the molasses flood) instead of things (like the cod book, which I read but am not left with a strong impression of), the most compelling piece of that sort of nonfiction I've read in fairly recent years was The Circus Fire by Stewart O'Nan. Depressing of course though with like dead burnt children and stuff, don't say I didn't warn you.
And there you go - search for this book in Amazon and they recommend a half dozen other books on historic fires that killed a bunch of people. Where were these authors back when I was eating this kind of stuff up?
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Non-fiction I have enjoyed:
The Kiss (http://touamb.com//http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0380731479/sr=8-1/qid=1146501105/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-8820546-0675843?%5Fencoding=UTF8) - a true story of a woman who had an affair with her father
The Kindness of Strangers: Peniless Across America (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0425154556) - this book made me want to do the same across Canada
The Professor and the Madman (http://touamb.com//http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006099486X/qid=1146501259/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-8820546-0675843?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) - some of it's pretty boring, but who would have though the OED was partially created by a Madman?
[fixed link-Cort]
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Non-fiction I have enjoyed:
The Professor and the Madman (http://touamb.com//http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006099486X/qid=1146501259/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-8820546-0675843?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) - some of it's pretty boring, but who would have though the OED was partially created by a Madman?
That one was pretty good, but probably was only worth a long article rather than a book.
Non-fiction eh? Bestseller or not, I found Freakonomics pretty interesting.
What about biographies? Peter the Great by Robert K. Massie is awfully good.
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Okay I'll respond properly later after I've actually read the whole threat but I have to say this RIGHT NOW: side_show, The Professor and the Madman is my favourite book EVER. I'm so excited I'm not even using superfluous commas! Woo!
Sorry, just had to express my enthusiastic approval of that particular book, and of Simon Winchester's books in general.
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hm. I read this at school, and had such a good comment to post. Ironically, my enlish teacher was about to walk up, so I closed the window.
I am in love with the typo "Manman".
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If you are into turn-of-the century Big American Cities (Chicago) Historical Events (the 1893 World's Fair) famous architects and architecture (Daniel Burnham) and murder (The real-life mass murderer H.H. Holmes) then you realy ought to read The Devil in the White City (http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/devilinthewhitecity/fair.html) by Erik Larson.
I'm about to start it; my wife couldn't put it down.
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That's another one that should have grabbed me, but when I tried to start reading it in the bookstore.... no go. Very frustrating. I need to send some books back in time to my earlier self, or something.
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H.H. Holmes always interested me because he seemed like such a dapper fellow but at the same time had like a whole dungeon in his abode.
He was like a damned comic book villain come to life. That doesn't happen often.. usually mass murderers are of the "not so bright and terribly terribly fucked up" variety. (Not that he wasn't the latter mind.)
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Right now, Clockers by Richard Price and Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell.
I ordered two books by Douglas Adams: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, on Cort's recommendation, I believe. They had better be GOOD! They are next up. Then Mr Mulliner Speaking and Midnight's Children.
But I'm also preparing for the LSAT (boo), and I need to kill on it, so I won't have as much time to read soon. Other than LSAT prep shit.
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Thanks for the recommendations AW, I shall check them out on the pronto. Unfortunately I couldn't find a copy of TTSS at my library which is kind of a shame because I would like to read about :) when he was just a miserable but good agent rather than miserable semi-retiree stuck in beauraucratic hell. Actually for some reason those books have reminded me of the Francis Urqhart trilogy: House of Cards, to Play the King and the Final Cut, which don't really need to be read in order since the continuity between them doesn't actually follow and of which I enjoy the Final Cut best by far.
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, on Cort's recommendation, I believe. They had better be GOOD! They are next up. Then Mr Mulliner Speaking and Midnight's Children.
They are good indeed Miles, and have a much more linear (in some ways) storyline than hitchiker's. I just re-read holistic detective agency recently actually and I think it is my favourite Adams' book.
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Ironically, my enlish teacher was about to walk up, so I closed the window.
I am in love with the typo "Manman".
Look out it's the attack of the Manman enlish teacher! - sorry inevitable, I'd corrected my typo before I read your post here.
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Oh man, the Dirk Gently books are just awful, but in a delightful way. At first you'll likely think WTF, D00D? but then slowly you'll start to think "What the fuck, dude?"
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Look out it's the attack of the Manman enlish teacher! - sorry inevitable, I'd corrected my typo before I read your post here.
So what, you can't change it back for a dude? Think about the print edition! Now his comments won't make any sense.
Way to crush a young man's dreams, Smells.
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dang.
I meant English.
English teacher.
and she is not a manman.
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heshe?
sheshe?
mantawomb?
wombtaman?
wombat?
(sorry, I'm working off two days with almost no sleep, and I'm gettin' all zany up in here. To clairify, the gender of our wombat is not questionable. She is a sheshe, and that is that.)
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(sorry, I'm working off two days with almost no sleep, and I'm gettin' all zany up in here. To clairify, the gender of our wombat is not questionable. She is a sheshe, and that is that.)
Don't you mean that is thatthat?
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At first you'll likely think WTF, D00D? but then slowly you'll start to think "What the fuck, dude?"
This is the best book review I ever read. I wish I could give you 4100 cans.
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This is the best book review I ever read. I wish I could give you 4100 cans.
Agreed. It quite literally made me "LOL."
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This is the best book review I ever read. I wish I could give you 4100 cans.
Now you can!
ASK ME HOW
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Okay, so here's the lengthier post I promised earlier. I know you were all waiting for it, biting your nails and quivering with anticipation.
Anyway, since I am something of a literature snob (despite not being very well read; I am high-minded without the credibility is basically what I'm saying), I plan to read as many "classics" as I can get my hands on this summer, in between my job and internship. Emphasis will most likely be placed on Russian literature. I received a copy of Gogol's short stories for my birthday, so that is first on my list. Works to tentatively read (Russian and otherwise) include those of George Eliot, Edith Wharton, Thomas Hardy, Dante, Milton, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Kafka, and Joyce.
I doubt I'll get very far, unfortunately.
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Works to tentatively read (Russian and otherwise) include those of George Eliot, Edith Wharton, Thomas Hardy, Dante, Milton, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Kafka, and Joyce.
I doubt I'll get very far, unfortunately.
Allow me to summarize. Ahem:
Some people were sad, and some people died, and some people were so sad that they died.
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Great! Now that we've taken care of that we can read Douglas Adams and John leCarre instead! What a relief. Thanks, Mite!
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On a more serious note: If you want to read Dante, I recommend taking a class. I think you need someone to give you a ton of background to get anything out of it. Anyway that's why you're paying good money to the college, to have someone explain stuff like Dante to you.
Out of that list, at one point I actually read almost all of Thomas Hardy of my own volition. But the rest of it... well, the first book I ever in my life checked out of the library and didn't finish was Kafka. And we will leave the rest to a respectful silence. Good luck.
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Kafka is my very personal deity. Sometimes I speak to him late at night. I wish I were joking.
Joyce is also very very high on list of heroes.
I have a new poetic xlation of Dante's Inferno (not the whole Divine Comedy mind) and while it certainly amuses in ways, I never really fully enjoyed it because most of it's imagination is based on a mythology I suppose.
Still though being buried upside down IS pretty funny.
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If you are into turn-of-the century Big American Cities (Chicago) Historical Events (the 1893 World's Fair) famous architects and architecture (Daniel Burnham) and murder (The real-life mass murderer H.H. Holmes) then you realy ought to read The Devil in the White City (http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/devilinthewhitecity/fair.html) by Erik Larson.
I guess that's the book for me. Or at least it was a couple of years ago, right when I finished the Jimmy Corrigan (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375404538/sr=1-2/qid=1146605880/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-6234178-7634529?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=books) graphic novel and became all obsessed with the Chicago World Fair and everything. I might pick that obsession up again.
If you're interested in one about events (like the molasses flood) instead of things (like the cod book, which I read but am not left with a strong impression of), the most compelling piece of that sort of nonfiction I've read in fairly recent years was The Circus Fire by Stewart O'Nan. Depressing of course though with like dead burnt children and stuff, don't say I didn't warn you.
Right now I'm halfway through The Fall of Berlin 1945. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142002801/sr=1-3/qid=1146605478/ref=pd_bbs_3/102-6234178-7634529?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=books) Which is as far into the nonfiction-depressing-events category as I can go. And I mean depressing. Dead burnt children? How about refugee women trying to nurse their dead frozen babies?
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Kafka is my very personal deity. Sometimes I speak to him late at night. I wish I were joking.
Joyce is also very very high on list of heroes.
Well, you know I am reading both at your recommendation.
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Well, you know I am reading both at your recommendation.
Well, I am rather bright and cute as a button.
(Although, also a Sick Fuck; so.. you know.. grain of salt and all that.)
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(Although, also a Sick Fuck; so.. you know.. grain of salt and all that.)
Surely 'pinch?'
I saw Dostoevsky up above. Has anyone read Crime and Punishment? I am expecting a resounding YES, and I would like to hear your opinions on it.
('Cos to be truthful, I never enjoyed it as much as I thought I would. Maybe I'm just too young for that sort of thing. I can always try later.) (Not talking about sex)
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Kafka is my very personal deity. Sometimes I speak to him late at night. I wish I were joking.
I don't know if Salman Rushdie's gotten much play here, but the feel of his writing is somewhat similar. It does make a bit more sense generally, but takes the same kind of literal-absurdist angle. I particularly liked Grimus, which is not the critics' favourite but feels a bit more sci-fi than his later stuff.
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I saw Dostoevsky up above. Has anyone read Crime and Punishment? I am expecting a resounding YES, and I would like to hear your opinions on it.
Yup. It's real good. Skip the epilogue; you'll feel much better. Though I liked The Brothers Karamazov better. If only he could write believable women, they'd be perfect.
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Yup. It's real good. Skip the epilogue; you'll feel much better. Though I liked The Brothers Karamazov better. If only he could write believable women, they'd be perfect.
I haven't even MET that many believable women.
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I don't know if Salman Rushdie's gotten much play here, but the feel of his writing is somewhat similar. It does make a bit more sense generally, but takes the same kind of literal-absurdist angle. I particularly liked Grimus, which is not the critics' favourite but feels a bit more sci-fi than his later stuff.
Really? I've read a good portion of Midnight's Children, and I don't see it at all. It felt more like Garcia Marquez to me.
Second the love for Dostoevsky and Joyce. Kafka, well... I started out college (and ended high school) as a fan. In fact, he's why I studied German in the first place. But now, meh. I still have yet to finish any of his novels, though some of his shorter fiction is among my favorite.
I loved Crime and Punishment and the Brothers Karamazov, but probably the latter better. Demons is also excellent, even though I haven't finished it.
As far as Joyce goes, I never got very far into Ulysses, and have only read passages from Finnegan's Wake. But the first chapter of A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man is one of my favorite works of fiction ever (the rest of the book is amazing too). Dubliners is also great.
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For the record I think the short Kafka stories are okay, but by far pale in comparison to The Trial. Ulysses is something I read every year without fail. (It has gotten a lot easier now that I do not need to read as many annotations to get some of the underlying stuff.)
Also concur on the first chapter of Portrait.. dammit people.. I'm trying to finish Catch 22 here... you are all tempting me.
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Really? I've read a good portion of Midnight's Children, and I don't see it at all. It felt more like Garcia Marquez to me.
That's one I haven't read. I think it comes across more in Grimus (particularly), The Satanic Verses, possibly Shame.
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I love Kafka. I've read everything he's written.
Also, the Trial is a damn good movie.
~Paul
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Also, the Trial is a damn good movie.
Second that, anyone who hasn't seen it needs to. One of Orson Wells' better works.
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Well, I'm a Joyce scholar from way back. I too read U every year.
I was introduced to Kafka by Frank Zappa, who suggested listening to a song of his (on Lumpy Gravy?) while reading "In a Penal Colony."
HOWEVER
With Kafka, I can only read the English translation by the husband and wife team. Muir? Other translations just seem WRONG to me.
Also, of course, if you're going to read Ulysses, you have to read Gabler's edition. The others are just... uncivilised.
And if you're interested in Joyce, there's a web site (http://joycean.org) that you may find interesting. Yes, I know it hasn't been updated since 2002, but the books haven't been updated in longer than that, so it's all good.
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Speaking of Kafka, any of you know Bruno Schulz? Jewish writer from Poland, shot dead by a Gestapo officer in the Drohobycz ghetto in 1942. My favorite author forever and ever. I don't usually go for those "x meets y" kind of definitions, but in this case the "Proust meets Kafka" tag that's usually attached to him makes sense. At least based on the little Proust and Kafka that I know...