The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: V-Adore on June 09, 2007, 12:42:59 am
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... because there wasn't one on the first page, and I'm curious what y'all are reading.
A few days ago I read the entirety of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go in pretty much one sitting (doctor's appointment with a long wait). I don't frequently have intense emotional responses to books, but this one left me sobbing by the end. I don't want to speak too much about the plot, at risk of spoiling it, but I found it powerfully sad and affecting. It's also interesting because it takes a stock plot that's generally executed very poorly (which one, I won't say) and proved it could be done well -- paradoxically, in making the stock plot more understated, it made it substantially more disturbing.
I've also been trying to get into more comics lately. Most of it has been manga obscurities, but I also got the first two volumes of Sandman. I'm on Volume 2 now -- I'm a bit embarrassed about it, but I actually skipped much of Volume 1 because I wasn't really engaged. 2 is better so far, but I'm still not quite engrossed. Ah, well.
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The last books I read are Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and William Gibson's Neuromancer. I love them for plane flights because I could read and reread them forever. I need to branch out and find other books of that caliber.
The other stuff I do on airplanes is knit on the same scarf I've been working on for ages, since I can never find time in my actual life to work on knitting projects. I also like to listen to my iPod.
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The last books I read are Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and William Gibson's Neuromancer. I love them for plane flights because I could read and reread them forever. I need to branch out and find other books of that caliber.
I reread Crypto a few weeks ago. I feel the same way, it's one of those I'll be reading the rest of my life. If you haven't read the Baroque Cycle, I recommend it, especially if you like Stephenson. I'm about halfway through my second reading of it now.
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I just finished John Burdett's new Thailand police procedural, Bangkok Haunts. It was pretty damn good, though not as good as Bangkok Tattoo, which I would commend to anyone.
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I love Stephenson, but i have trouble keeping characters straight. thus, I never got beyond the first book in The Baroque Cycle.
Yesterday I finished "Tortilla Flats," so I might read some more steinbeck. I love him. I read his well-known stuff when I was in 10th grade or so, I should probably read it again. I have a half-read book containing several speeches on Linguistics by Noam Chomsky-- very engrossing, but very hard to follow sometimes. Also to read:
A book my dad lent me called something like "America: 1968." I can't find it.
A biography of Einstein my parents gave me for my birthday
A Farewell to Arms
possibly other "classics" that I loved when I read them the first time, but now remember very little about. Mostly Steinbeck.
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I am currently reading:
Closed Chambers (a book on the history and workings of the Supreme Court, one of my great fascinations since childhood)
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
A compilation of feminist criticism from Bitch
A couple of Stephen King books: 'salem's Lot and Cell
All are pretty good.
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Man, I like The Sun Also Rises and For Whom the Bell Tolls, but I couldn't finish A Farewell to Arms.
Also, I was born in Oklahoma, so i am forced to hate Steinbeck. I have never actually read any (I probably should), but I already have an unnatural hate for him that my granddad created.
True Story: The Oklahoma City Council invited Steinbeck to the 50th year celebration of Oklahoma's statehood. The Oklahoma congress passed a bill shortly after saying that if Steinbeck comes to Oklahoma he can be arrested.
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Also, I was born in Oklahoma, so i am froced to hate Steinbeck. I have never actually read any (I probably should), but I already have an unnatural hate for him that my granddad created.
Why does everyone in Oklahoma hate Steinbeck? To the best of my memory, he rags on CA as much as OK in TGOW. Which, incidentally, I found to be boring and pretentious.
I do actually love Steinbeck though, specifically East of Eden. As with your hate, my love is borne of my recently deceased granddad, who wrote a book about him.
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I don't really know. I just know they do.
I don't actually hate him (as I said I have never read him) but my granddad sure tried to make me, and that is most likely the reason I have never read him.
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how did he rag on OK other than "people were poor during the depression, and had to leave?" I am obviously forgetting something.
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I just read Wicked, by Gregory Maguire. Not sure how well known it is - it's a telling of the Wicked Witch of the West's story, from her perspective. Pretty damned entertaining.
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how did he rag on OK other than "people were poor during the depression, and had to leave?" I am obviously forgetting something.
He doesn't rag on it so much as not portray it flatteringly, same as his beloved California.
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I kind of thought that it is where the term "Okie" became widely used, and that was a pretty derogatory word for Okies. Beyond that I haven't read the book and my granddad has been dead for 10 years, so I can't ask.
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I just read Wicked[/, by Gregory Maguire. Not sure how well known it is - it's a telling of the Wicked Witch of the West's story, from her perspective. Pretty damned entertaining.
I listened to it last year. I think it's pretty well known and the subject of a broadway musical.
I thought it was pretty well done, but wondered how much relation it had to Baum's Oz.
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Wicked was pretty hit-or-miss with me. I think it would have been more satisfying if it had either been more faithful to the source material or risen above it -- Baum's world is a fabulously well-realized one, and Maguire's attempts to make it more "realistic" fell kind of flat. That said, there were parts that were lovely, although I think I'm a soft touch for anything about college and the end thereof.
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I just finished reading Confessions of an Economic Hitman and Killing Hitler. Both non-fiction and both reasonably good.
Confessions is basically about a guy who describes his job as conning third world leaders into accepting crippling debt from the united states. It was an interesting read but I think the guy (John Perkins I believe but I can't remember right now) gives himself a bit too much credit for seeing through the scan all along etc. Fairly biased as most of these books are.
Killing Hitler was very interesting, it's suprising to see how many people failed to assassinate that fucker.
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Sorry about the misplaced close-tag. Also, I didn't realize everyone already knew about Wicked. I don't get out much.
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I am too horribly slow a worker to read anything not course-related at term time, and excellent as The Vision of Piers Plowman and the Wakefield cycle of mystery plays have been, I am getting a bit sick of all this Medieval Christianity-driven what-have-you. I'm pretty sure it's only the arse jokes keeping me going.
I am looking forward to the imminent return of Jasper Fforde to my life, though.
My copy of Never Let Me Go disappeared in mysterious circumstances when I was a few pages in. Alas, not while I was reading it, so I am not even left with a good anecdote.
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Right after I read Wicked I realized that I'd never actually read any Baum. So at work the next day I decided to head over the Project Guttenberg.
Right now I'm reading Midnight Tides. It's really interesting, especially the parts with Tehol but it tends to be pretty dense so it's hard to read during lunch when people are talking and the TV is on. But this is where I do most of my reading.
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my goodness, I had forgotten how much I love Winter of our Discontent. So good.
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so. as I have read most of Grapes of Wrath at this point, I think I can shed some light on why the real Okies hated it. Basically, they are portrayed as idiots. Constantly being warned "don't go to california! there's no work! my whole family starved to death!" only to say such as "no, it can't be! we'll be fine!" Also such constant tidbits as "paw never did put much store by writin'. always made him feel uncomf'table."
Basically, Steinbeck's Okie is The Noble Savage. There are, I think, explicit comparisons made between the Okies and those they stole their land from.
It is making me enjoy my favorite book slightly less that... every character is just a horrible stereotype, except the preacher. Who, of course, is a misunderstood intellectual that the other characters constantly harass.
Also: the things these people get mad about confuse the hell out of me. They basically hate anyone who knows something, or thinks about something, or asks something, or expresses an emotion, or attempts to help them.
Kid: "well... I guess it was her time. Old folks got to die. I sure will miss 'er though."
pa: "WHY THE HELL YOU GOT TO TALK ALL THE GODDAMN TIME! YOU'VE EARNED A WHUPPIN, BOY! YOU'RE NO SON OF MINE, YOU DAMN FOOL!"
ma: "you're goddamn right. This boy never did learn his place."
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"WHY THE HELL YOU GOT TO TALK ALL THE GODDAMN TIME! YOU'VE EARNED A WHUPPIN, BOY! YOU'RE NO SON OF MINE, YOU DAMN FOOL!"
. . . Dad? Is that you?
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:(
Part of me hopes that and the bit about mum shooting up during pregnancy was just a joke. If it's not, I'm going to storm PDX with some chocolate chip cookies and a blanket. Why the fuck do people treat kids like that?
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Basically, Steinbeck's Okie is The Noble Savage. There are, I think, explicit comparisons made between the Okies and those they stole their land from.
I don't want to get in an argument or anything, but, since I am an Oklahoman, I feel obligated to point out that North Carolinians (sp?) stole their land too. Purposely or not, the way you phrased that kind of implies Oklahomans as the only people that stole land.
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I just read some book about a young adult that can perform magic, and has some kinda destiny.
It was pretty awesome.
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oh, no. I am aware of that. they just... literally make that comparison.
a-so: the last harry potter book was basically wonderful. I love that Magical Lad.
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I just got around to reading Company by Max Barry. As was its point I saw a lot of my own company in it. Like, why do we all just sit there mute while somebody reads PowerPoint slides to us. Slides that we've also already received copies of. I'd say it should be required reading for anybody that takes a position in personnel but only if they don't read the last 40 pages or so.
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I just read some book about a young adult that can perform magic, and has some kinda destiny.
It was pretty awesome.
I just started a book like that this morning!
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Basically, Steinbeck's Okie is The Noble Savage. There are, I think, explicit comparisons made between the Okies and those they stole their land from.
I don't want to get in an argument or anything, but, since I am an Oklahoman, I feel obligated to point out that North Carolinians (sp?) stole their land too. Purposely or not, the way you phrased that kind of implies Oklahomans as the only people that stole land.
All of us, be we Okies, North Carolinians, Oregonians, Alaskans, or what-have-you pretty much stole the land from some folks who are slightly darker complected (apologies in advance to anyone reading this who has any First Nation blood in you or whatever you like to think of yourself as).
Let's not all of a sudden start keeping track. It's like that Eddie Izzard bit - "yes, but do you have a flag?"
Also, Somebody nice, my circumstances weren't too worse or different than most anybody else's, but I welcome visitors bearing cookies. And blankets. And hugs.
The hickory switches wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't had to cut them myself.
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OT: I just read John Harwood's The Ghost Writer and Preston & Child's The Cabinet of Curiosities. These are not literature, but they were both rollicking good times. Kinda spooky novels, with the Preston & Child book being a more contemporary thriller-type book. Recommended.
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All of us, be we Okies, North Carolinians, Oregonians, Alaskans, or what-have-you pretty much stole the land from some folks who are slightly darker complected (apologies in advance to anyone reading this who has any First Nation blood in you or whatever you like to think of yourself as).
Let's not all of a sudden start keeping track. It's like that Eddie Izzard bit - "yes, but do you have a flag?"
Yeah thats what I was saying.
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Yeah thats what I was saying.
Good enough then. What shall we tackle next? Abortion? Gun control?
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I started both Of Mice and Men and Atlas Shrugged today.
I'm sorry if this reading turns me into a dick for a while, I'm told that Ayn Rand can do that and I don't think Steinbeck will improve my faith in humanity either.
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Didn't see this thread. Good thread. Am starting with the "Meditations" of Marcus Aurelius, because stoicism is a good thing when you're 30 and basically a failure. I might tackle Epictetus later, but only if I'm *really* feeling like being scolded for 200 pages on a patrician style...
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Atlas Shrugged is a bit of a slog, but reputedly is Ayn Rand's definitive work. I think The Fountainhead had most of the same points however. I guess someday I'll try to figure out what the expansion of those themes introduced in The Fountainhead in the later book was all about.
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Everybody is reading Harry Potter and talking about how awesome it is, but I think the series has been in decline since the third book. The first one is actually the only true masterpiece in the collection and the last one was just terrible in my opinion. I'll probably read the latest, but I'm dubious as to it's awesomeness.
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I'd like to request that if anyone's going to discuss the new HP book, and you're going to say anything remotely spoiler-y, please put it in a thread with a title something like "Harry Potter thread--INCLUDES SPOILERS."
Thanks.
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I'd like to request that if anyone's going to discuss the new HP book, and you're going to say anything remotely spoiler-y, please put it in a thread with a title something like "Harry Potter thread--INCLUDES SPOILERS."
Thanks.
Consider this my official moderatory type endorsement of that request.
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My unofficial comment is please be nice or I will edit your post full of furious ding-dongs. Spouse and I are sharing that book due to cheapness and today is her day.
I totally wish I could spray paint furious ding-dongs on the person who, the night the book was released, walked by us and spoiled a plot point to me, the ladyfriend, and the son. My life wasn't ruined or anything by it, but it's just a case of someone getting their jollies by attempting to cause harm and disappointment in others. I'm seriously sick of that brand of humor. I wanted to Lovitz up to the guy.
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I totally wish I could spray paint furious ding-dongs on the person who, the night the book was released, walked by us and spoiled a plot point to me, the ladyfriend, and the son. My life wasn't ruined or anything by it, but it's just a case of someone getting their jollies by attempting to cause harm and disappointment in others. I'm seriously sick of that brand of humor. I wanted to Lovitz up to the guy.
Oh jeez. Smick, you are far more a gentleman than I. What a fuck*ng douche. He was just begging to get bitch-slapped.
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I think "fucker spoiled a Potter ending" would hold up in court as an adequate defense. They'd probably send HIM up the river.
I'm not a Potter reader, but damned if I haven't learned from my wife. She got mad when she told me the ending of the 6th book after she read it, and I said, "Yeah, I looked it up on Wikipedia yesterday." I spoilt it not a bit, but the fact that I knew before she did - and found out without reading it - was sacrilege.
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I accidentally ruined 5 for my SO. I forwarded her a column and I hadn't read the intro, because the guy just blathers on about how he's always looking for a new job before getting to the real column. Well she read the intro and it said who died. Then the next week he said he got a whole lot of hate mail and vowed to ruin all the remaining books, just to be a dick.
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I had a friend who read this last book send me a summary of the important points when she was done. The thing is, I am not that big a fan - before I decide to read it I want to know if it seems like I am going to care or it's just going to be annoying. I mean, 800 pages, people. I don't want to read 800 pages and then get to the end and hate the ending. Life is too short. And I wanted her judgment on whether it would make sense to a casual reader, or you had to be the kind of person who remembered precisely some crucial event on page 250 of volume 3, you know? Which I am decidedly not.
It was hard to convince her to do it - she was sure she was misunderstanding what I wanted to know. I said, I know you've read all the books more than once - didn't you like them the second time when you already knew what was going to happen? They weren't 'ruined' because you'd already read them, right? But she was still very wary.
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And I wanted her judgment on whether it would make sense to a casual reader, or you had to be the kind of person who remembered precisely some crucial event on page 250 of volume 3, you know? Which I am decidedly not.
I'm trying to decide if this trait would make you enjoy a movie like The Hudsucker Proxy more or less. And how do you feel about mysteries, where there are always callbacks to minor crap?
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I had a friend who read this last book send me a summary of the important points when she was done. The thing is, I am not that big a fan - before I decide to read it I want to know if it seems like I am going to care or it's just going to be annoying. I mean, 800 pages, people.
The whole series is a pretty fast read. Each one takes only a few hours. It's 800 pages, but not very... uh, tome-like in nature.
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I'm trying to decide if this trait would make you enjoy a movie like The Hudsucker Proxy more or less. And how do you feel about mysteries, where there are always callbacks to minor crap?
I read nothing but mysteries, basically. But it's one thing to have to remember something that happened in the SAME book and another one to remember something five 800-page books ago.
As for Harry Potter, yeah, I know that it's not comparable to most other 800 page books in the world. And I am a good skimmer. But if it's pointless for the non-fanatic, why bother? And I think she would have every right at this stage to write a book that's pointless for the non-fanatic, really.
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i think that she was pretty good about explaining what was going on. lots of "oh, remember when Mrs Mudsproggle gave you the magic stone? use that!"
but seriously, I love these books. I am weirdly upset that there will never be another one. I mean... I remember going to buy the 4th one at midnight, back when it first came out... I must have been... 13? I was very excited.
People openly called me "Harry." I was a skinny kid with big classes and messy dark hair, so.
I guess that means a scary biker guy at the mall gets to say "Hey, look, it's harry!" and slap his friend on the back, if you look like that.
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I've been down on Mr. Potter for a while. I've read them all (save the last one) but there has been little joy in it for the last couple.
Ms. Lady got her copy and finished it by 3am the next morning and was satisfied, I've basically wrung her for all pertinent details and will may or may not read it at a later date. It's kind of sad but I actually just wanted to know how it finishes without going through the trial of reading the damn things.
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I don't believe for a minute that this is the end of the Harry Potter series.
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I don't believe for a minute that this is the end of the Harry Potter series.
It's way too much of a cash cow, dude. Agreed.
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I mean, I dunno. she already has more money than god.
...can I please just have one thing where I am not cynical about it? she does not do it for the money. she loves writing, and loves these characters.
it was indicative to me that... when they were making the most recent movie, one scene called for Sirius Black's family tree. They called her for ideas of what it should look like... and she responded with "oh, I have it all written out, I can send it to you if you want."
So. to explain. she had, written out, a 6-8 generation family tree. for a semi-major character.
that is beyond passion, people.
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... re.all.y. ... ?.
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She's in a pretty awesome position though. She could put her name on a phone book, and people would line up a year from now to buy it.
(Have you seen?!? It's 1100 pages, and covers the entire 509 AREA CODE!)
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Here's my prediction. Bury it in the time capsule. Dig it up in 20 years when it's all come to pass.
Yes, Ash is right, she'll take a year or two off, spend some time with the kids and husband. Then she'll get to work on her first post Harry Potter book. It'll be something completely unrelated to Harry Potter. It might come out at about the time of the last HP movie, but that, I think might be merely a coincidence. It won't do as much business as Harry Potter by half. I suspect that a large portion of Harry Potter readers are like me, people who have basically lost interest in the story, but continue on out of curiosity or because we've already come this far might as well see it to the end. The (relatively) low sales figures will prompt the press to start calling her a has been and a one hit wonder. Not wanting to tarnish her reputation and not needing the money she won't write anymore. Until... well of course the offer is already on the table for her to come up with a new Harry Potter story. That will never go away. As time passes though her publishers will sweeten the pot until the paycheck is too much for even the fabulously wealthy J.K. Rowling to ignore. I suspect the next book will tell the story of the death of Harry's parents. It's a story that HP fans would love to read. It's got many of the characters you love; Snape, Hagrid, Dumbledore, Voldemort, Jar Jar Binks. And or course it will be a smash hit best seller.
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I suspect the next book will tell the story of the death of Harry's parents. It's a story that HP fans would love to read.
Of course, the prequel. What a good idea. It would even be sort of not a Harry Potter book since he wouldn't really play an active role in it, as a tiny baby. So she wouldn't even be going back on her word not to write another one.
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Thw walrus was Paul.
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Was the Silmarillion a prequel? My vague memory of it was that it was more like putting the author's name on the cover of a phone book.
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It was a phone book of middle earth but instead of phone numbers there was tedious exposition that was probably never intended to be anything more than an authors own guide to the universe. That thing is like reading fog.
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That thing is like reading fog.
Brilliant phrase - Can'd!
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YOU CAN'T BUY HER DIGNITY GODDAMNIT.
(but I really do hope she writes more, so...)
I already heard she's planning on writing a big encyclopedia which will include a bunch of details she didn't put in the book.
also: she recently gave an interview where she gave more details about the end.
HELL OF SPOILERS GET THE HINT PEOPLE DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW, CHRIST! (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959323/)
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Dignity is a commodity that is basically always for sale.
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HELL OF SPOILERS GET THE HINT PEOPLE DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW, CHRIST! (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959323/)
I was all disappointed when I heard that the epilogue doesn't tell you what they all did when they grew up aside from get married and have kids. This story would clear that up better if I actually remembered what the Auror Department is.
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basically they are the wizard FBI. they find the bad guys and do magic at them real hard.
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Stop spoiling people!!!
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basically they are the wizard FBI. they find the bad guys and do magic at them real hard.
I find the phrase "do magic at them real hard" extremely charming.
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it's good to know that that was appreciated. I often spend way too much time trying to make purposely awkward/silly phrases.
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so.
just finished Zodiac, then Cryptonomicon. Enjoyed both. Now torn apart by desire to learn to play piano, learn computer programming (which I was pretty awesome at, the two times I took a class), and take advanced science and math classes.
I REALLY DOUBT JAPANESE MILITARY CODES IN WWII WERE IN ENGLISH! JESUS, NEAL!
um, so now I am not sure what to read next. I feel that I had a stack of books I meant to read, but I forget what they were.
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Read the Baroque Cycle.
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I finished a dumb hacker-thriller paperback my father-in-law sent me. It was full of twists! and turns! and twists on twists! And double-crosses! Damn, it was annoying, but it was OK bathroom reading.
I also finished Jim Collins' Good to Great, which more than anything makes me wish I worked for a better company.
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I couldn't get through the Baroque Cycle. I have this thing where... I can't remember any of the characters, I kept confusing them.
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I couldn't get through the Baroque Cycle. I have this thing where... I can't remember any of the characters, I kept confusing them.
Have you read Diamond Age? It's way way waay shorter and really good. Except the man can't write an ending to save his life.
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I have noticed that about the endings.
but, yes, I have read everything he's ever written, except The Big U and the Baroque thingy.
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I happened to pick up Catch-22 and start re-reading it for the first time since high school. Wow is it good. Even better than I remember.
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Yeah, Catch-22 is hilarious and good. Really, really good. But also hilarious.
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Have you read Diamond Age? It's way way waay shorter and really good. Except the man can't write an ending to save his life.
Daniel, that makes me feel better because I could never get through the Baroque Cycle either. I bought The Confusion and couldn't get through it. It just wasn't as readable as Cryptonomicon or the Diamond Age. Cryptonomicon has a lot of the same family lines as the Baroque Cycle, but I just couldn't get into the Confusion.
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IT IS LITERALLY CALLED "THE CONFUSION."
also, Somebody nice (!?) it always makes me jump a little bit when you use my real name. I am not sure why. Part of it is similar to when you hear a stranger call your name in public, and you know that it's not you, but you still look.
Except, it is me. Hm.
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IT IS LITERALLY CALLED "THE CONFUSION."
also, Somebody nice (!?) it always makes me jump a little bit when you use my real name. I am not sure why. Part of it is similar to when you hear a stranger call your name in public, and you know that it's not you, but you still look.
Except, it is me. Hm.
Sorry, the inev. I don't want to creep you out, dude.
Yeah, from what I remember the second volume is called "The Confusion".
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Quicksilver is first. Confusion is second. The System of the World is third.
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no! no! it is OK. I was just trying to explain that it is... confusing. (I aim this to linnea regarding my name-- I just realized that this is confusing (ha!) in the middle of a discussion about a book called The Confusion.)
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I liked Confusion the best. Possibly just because at that point I was far enough in to be interested in the characters but no far enough to feel like I'd been reading the same book for 18 months. Or maybe just because it had lots of Eliza and she was my favorite character.
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I totally wish I could spray paint furious ding-dongs on the person who, the night the book was released, walked by us and spoiled a plot point to me, the ladyfriend, and the son. My life wasn't ruined or anything by it, but it's just a case of someone getting their jollies by attempting to cause harm and disappointment in others. I'm seriously sick of that brand of humor. I wanted to Lovitz up to the guy.
Hell I would've exploded if some wanker had done that to me. Full-on fanboy rage. I managed to get through them all without it being spoiled though, luckily. Mainly because I'd shut off all communication with the outside world until I'd finished reading the new one. The Deathly Hallows was an alright read, s'pose.. that epilogue fuck*ng sucked though.
I'm just finishing the Hound of the Baskervilles now, Sherlock Holmes is one ultra rad mo-fo. I've got Pyrates, by George MacDonald Frasier lined up next.. any other Flashman fans out there?
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I like screaming the spoilers to OTHER things at lines like that.
"VADER was his father!" and so on. The squares look at me but the hepcats chuckle and nod.
My brother has never read any of those books but my girlfriend has and his girlfriend is and so he enjoys making up long rambling alternate stories based on a highly fragmentary understanding of the stories.
"The Firebird Princess was frozen by the evil Hogwart and the Firebird King demanded that Harry save her and so, by the order of the Phoenix, he challenges Hogwart to a broomrace."
Frankly, having had to listen to one of the books crossing the country, in trade for my girlfriend doing most of the driving, I think I prefer my brother's drunken word-jazz.
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It is not new by any means, but I've finally got around to reading Watchmen. Why I never read it until now, I don't know, but I do know that my life thus far has suffered because of it. This book is incredible.
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It really is.
I read V for Vendetta in one sitting during my second year of uni when I should have been studying for something or other.
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Watchmen is pretty goddamned important stuff.
It explains 9-11, in a certain metaphorical way of thinking.
If you grow up on, like, paranoid comic books and Philip K Dick novels such as I did, the world makes pretty much total sense except that said total sense is completely terrible.
I was born to play the Night Owl in the movie adaptation, by the way, but I did not get famous fast enough. It is a sad thing.
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I nicked Watchmen (with permission..) from a shop a few weeks ago. Aint read it yet, got distracted by Joe Haldeman's Peace & War trilogy. Which, for the record, rocks.
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I've pretty much decided to stop getting books from the library. In the past year and a half or so, I've checked out maybe 15 books. I've finished none of them, and about 10 of them I forgot to turn back in until they'd been overdue for a few days. I was an English major in college... I'm not sure what's happened to me.
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I've pretty much decided to stop getting books from the library. In the past year and a half or so, I've checked out maybe 15 books. I've finished none of them, and about 10 of them I forgot to turn back in until they'd been overdue for a few days. I was an English major in college... I'm not sure what's happened to me.
I check hella books out from the library and bring them to work with me. This time I read Ramsey Campbell's The Face That Must Die and Scott Smith's The Ruins, and I'm about halfway through Joan Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock.
Also, man, Phil Dick. Poor broken bastard.
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My new apartment is literally across the street from the central library. The SO is like an addict. She has like 10 books checked out, one waiting for her, and at least 5 more on hold. I'm just kind of killing time reading short books like Ye Gods while I wait for the next Malazan Book of the Fallen book to come out this month.
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A giant library is one of the great parts of working at a uni.
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Okay, dudes. I just got a 75 dollar Amazon gift card and I need some book ideas.
Since finishing college a year and a half ago, I've basically been reading all the books that I'd bought during school but never got around to finishing or even starting. You'd be surprised how many of those I'd had lying around. Just picking up a new book off a stack of books I already own means I haven't been following the latest releases, so I'm totally out of touch with what's new.
I was an English and Poli Sci major in school, so I enjoy fiction and non-fiction stuff. Any body have any recommendations off the top of their head?
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The Invisible Man, by Ralph Elllison. I love this book. I am reading it right now and it is intense.
Um, right now I am reading that book, and I just read Plato's Republic, and Machiavelli's The Prince, and Aristotle's "Politics and Constitution of Athens" and "Nicomachean Ethics". Except... I read them badly and now I have to write a paper on them. Plato, though, he is fuck*ng awesome and he changed the way I think about things. So good.
allso: hell of books about Italian Film (actually, litearally, 4), a Human Evolution textbook, a Linguistics textbook, various random psych articles/chapters/experiments about Human Memory. All of those are awesome, but are probably not good for pleasure reading.
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I'm still just reading The Malazan Book of the Fallen. As I have been basically since this thread started. Fuck you, Steven Erikson for writing a 10-book series that's actually good. I had other things to do, you bastard.
At least I'm up to book 6, The Bonehunters. More than halfway there!
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I'm wondering if I should take special advantage of the buyer's anonymity offered by my newfound Amazon gift card. That is to say, load up on the painfully obvious classics -- Hemingway, etc. -- that I've never had the occasion to read before. The benefit of this, of course, is being able to buy books that everyone in the world has already read without suffering dirty looks from the cashier.
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Where do you shop where bookstore clerks give you dirty looks? I have never encountered this. I thought this was just a music-purchasing phenomenon.
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Yeah having worked at different bookstores for a total of about 4+ years, I have to say someone coming up to the counter with a classic was always viewed as a "cool" customer in all us book store employee's eyes. I mean if you're buying Hemingway, that probably means you've read other Hemingway. It was the Daniel Steel and Tom Clancy buyers that were the ones that disappointed us. Or even worse, people who read Harlequin or Historical Romance novels. WTF? I always tried to remind myself that "hey, at least they're reading!" But you have to remember that most bookstore employees are a special kind of loser in and of themselves, and their snobby judgment of you should only be a reminder that you probably get laid more than they do.
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Getting the "Watchmen" graphic novel is always important. "Dark Knight Returns" too.
Is there any Philip K Dick you haven't read yet? Any Vonnegut? Hunter S Thompson? Mark Twain?
The classic sci-fi novel "The Stars My Destination" is often unjustly overlooked.
A good translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh is always awesome.
A play to read, maybe? "Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead" seems to have been ripped off so often that it seems to have been rendered insignificant? But it totally fuckin' hasn't actually. Our Town, maybe? Tennessee Williams is some good shit.
If you wanna go total old-school, The Tempest is fuck*ng amazing.
"The Bad Guys Won" about the 1986 Mets is clutch, for obvious reasons.
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Try some quality genre fiction -- It's hard to go wrong with John Le Carre or Patrick O'Brian.
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For some reason, I have lost a really large number of graphic novels to the "I borrowed this from you, and will never return it" thing. Watchmen? Gone. Bone? Gone. The Cute Manifesto? Gone.
my english teacher from high school has the first two. after this year she's moving to Virginia, so, I'd better get them back.
My ex has The Cute Manifesto, but she goes here now. So maybe one day I'll run into her and mention it?
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I'd definitely back up good genre stuff like Le Carre or Watchmen or Heinlen, Wodehouse is also deliciously tasty in my opinion if you've never read him. The man wrote books that just convince you all is right with the world.
I'm reading a book called Hollow Earth by someone Standish (don't have it with me right now) which is a history of theories that the earth is hollow over the last few hundred years. Maybe also some accessible non-fiction stuff like the Selgiraffe Gene by Dawkins or A Brief History of Time by Hawking, really tasty if you've never read them.
At the end of the day though nothing is quite as satisfying as picking up a book by that author you always meant to read but never got around to it. That's just an opinion of course.
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Is there any Philip K Dick you haven't read yet? Any Vonnegut? Hunter S Thompson? Mark Twain?.
You have no idea how much of my reading decisions revolve around this (the answer to all of them is no, but I am quickly getting there). Sometimes it is ever like "hey vonnegut thought well of Heller, I should read some of his stuff"
Also, Catch22 is good.
Does it seem like novelists are better at being good for long amounts of time compared to musicians and such? I mean PKD probably did as many drugs as your average funk band, but he stayed better longer than nearly any body I can think of as far as music goes, so it ain't that.
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Well, Phil had on his side the fact that he was Genuinely Crazy, y'know.
Say what you will about madness and much of it'll be true but... it never leaves you at a loss for ideas. If you can keep yourself together mentally enough to actually write your ideas down, madness can keep you going for years and years and year.
The inconceivable amount of amphetamines he did helped too, of course.
I'm almost at the point in this writing project I'm working on where PKD get introduced as a character and... man... am I looking forward to writing him.
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Also, Catch22 is good.
I just re-read Catch-22 about 2 months ago, then listened to Closing Time just recently. Closing Time was pretty good, but Catch-22 if just a fuck*ng amazing book.
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Reading Catch-22 in high school is pretty much the reason I went on to major in English in college.
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Everyone should read Edward Abbey's "The Fool's Progress."
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Awesome. I just ordered a handful of new books from Amazon based on your guys' suggestions, and now I'm not going to get them.
It's my own fault, really: I gave them my street address. I don't get mail at my street address. I do get mail at my PO Box, though.
I thought Amazon shipped standard orders through UPS, but they use USPS. Goddamn, I'm an idiot.
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Awesome. I just ordered a handful of new books from Amazon based on your guys' suggestions, and now I'm not going to get them.
It's my own fault, really: I gave them my street address. I don't get mail at my street address. I do get mail at my PO Box, though.
I thought Amazon shipped standard orders through UPS, but they use USPS. Goddamn, I'm an idiot.
??? I've never received anything from Amazon that wasn't UPS. Well, I got one package that was FedEx, but still.
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How can you not get mail at your street address? That sounds downright un-American or something.
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I live on a funny street that the mailmen miss so often that it's not even worth it to keep a mailbox outside. It's strange, I don't live in the boonies or anything, but this goddamn street is like the Atlantis for mailmen. And yet... UPS and FedEx don't have any problem. Don't ask me how that works.
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You live in San Francisco right? Where abouts (you don't have to tell me the street or anything)?
I only ask because I think I am moving there soon. My friend lived right across from Jack Kerouac Alley in Downtown, right between China Town and Little Italy. I think I would like to live as close as possible to Golden Gate Park on Haight or the Mission district somewhere.
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At the moment, I live south of San Francisco on the coast. I am looking at places in the city, though, so I should be living there soon. I'm looking in the same area -- something close to GG park. Probably not quite Mission, though. That neighborhood scares me a little.
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Awesome. I just ordered a handful of new books from Amazon based on your guys' suggestions, and now I'm not going to get them.
It's my own fault, really: I gave them my street address. I don't get mail at my street address. I do get mail at my PO Box, though.
I thought Amazon shipped standard orders through UPS, but they use USPS. Goddamn, I'm an idiot.
I'm sorry to say I still work for the USPS at the moment. You can get mail at your street address and your PO Box - I do all the time.
Also Amazon dropships at US Post Offices, and the drop shipper is UPS a lot of the time. UPS gets them to them to the PO and the PO delivers them to your house or PO Box. We get drop shipments from FedEx, UPS and DHL, with postage for us to complete the delivery. I think it's cheaper for them that way.
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UPS gets them to them to the PO and the PO delivers them to your house or PO Box. We get drop shipments from FedEx, UPS and DHL, with postage for us to complete the delivery. I think it's cheaper for them that way.
Well now this is a piece of information that for some reason boggles my mind.
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Well now this is a piece of information that for some reason boggles my mind.
It goes the other way too. USPS sends a lot of international mail by FedEx and UPS. Because it's cheaper to pay another company to fly the mail overseas that it is for USPS to buy its own planes and fly/staff/maintain them.
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I'm sorry to say I still work for the USPS at the moment. You can get mail at your street address and your PO Box - I do all the time.
Also Amazon dropships at US Post Offices, and the drop shipper is UPS a lot of the time. UPS gets them to them to the PO and the PO delivers them to your house or PO Box. We get drop shipments from FedEx, UPS and DHL, with postage for us to complete the delivery. I think it's cheaper for them that way.
Well, shit. That would explain why Amazon told me it was shipping my wife's Harry Potter pre-order by UPS but it showed up in the mailbox.
Although I have to say, the thought of that is kinda like the Black Panthers hiring the Klan to bounce at their rave.