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Author Topic: Summer reading  (Read 18729 times)

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revdj

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Summer reading
« Reply #30 on: August 05, 2003, 11:14:17 pm »
I loved Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and recommend it to all.  Non fiction fans may want to check out Hofstader's Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.

If you like classics, I would humbly ask you to examine http://www.dougshaw.com/top100.html , which contains some mildly witty comments on Modern Library's top 100 list, with my recommendations.
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jay-ell

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« Reply #31 on: August 06, 2003, 12:54:35 am »
Quote from: "wombat"
But if you, who say you are better at the internet than real life, agree with her, this analysis must be wrong.


Actually, I haven't read it.  What I meant was brilliant was the way you phrased the question.  

Because Pi never ends.
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wombat

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« Reply #32 on: August 06, 2003, 01:31:43 am »
Ah. Possibly that's another deep and subtle point I missed about that book...
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PinkStainlessTail

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Summer reading
« Reply #33 on: August 07, 2003, 08:08:16 pm »
Quote from: "wombat"
Quote from: "jldunston"
Quote from: "wombat"
Has anyone here read Life of Pi?  And if so, what did you think of how it ended?


Brilliant.


This is what my friend, who is a real writer, thought too.  That is was brilliantly about, like, what is reality and what isn't, and all that deep stuff.

But I thought it was like a story you write when you are nine years old and it gets so fantastical you can't figure out how to end it, so you say "And it was all a dream."


SPOILER







Only if you assume the story Pi told the insurance agents is true, and not something he made up because he saw they would only accept a story that would fit their beliefs about the world and what is possible therein. What actually happened is ambiguous. It's the first "trick ending" I've read in awhile that didn't feel utterly contrieved and horrible.
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wombat

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« Reply #34 on: August 07, 2003, 08:29:47 pm »
Yeah, I do see that, but somehow it still didn't work for me.  I think I felt like we were supposed to believe the story he gave them.  But, I am so much in the minority on this, obviously, that maybe I should just stick to reading comics and murder mysteries and surfing the web.  I may no longer be able to appreciate Literature.
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What is this, the fuckin' Algonquin Round Table or some shit?  - Nabu

If you're going to change your life then you have to change it every day, not just the days the world isn't taking a shit on you. -Doc

PinkStainlessTail

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« Reply #35 on: August 07, 2003, 08:34:37 pm »
No no, it's just that not every piece of literature works for everybody. I thought Everything is Illuminated was the worst piece of utter UTTER shite I have ever been forced to read, but many people loved it.

KEEP READING BOOKS. THEY ARE GOOD AND GOOD FOR YOU. Though there's nothing wrong with comics, etc.
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monkeyb

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« Reply #36 on: August 08, 2003, 06:05:40 am »
Life of Pi ending felt cheap.
Just finished "Salmon of Doubt" sort of by the late Douglas Adams,I hadn't picked it up until recently because it hurt too much.As it was ,i still cried.
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slink

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« Reply #37 on: August 08, 2003, 08:37:22 am »
Quote from: "monkeyb"
Life of Pi ending felt cheap.
Just finished "Salmon of Doubt" sort of by the late Douglas Adams,I hadn't picked it up until recently because it hurt too much.As it was ,i still cried.


Me too. In a manly way naturally. I just didn't want the Dirk Gently bit to end, let alone so soon.
I think Holisitic Detective Agency is my favourite of his novels, despite my having adored H2G2 my entire life.
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CortJstr

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« Reply #38 on: August 08, 2003, 01:28:10 pm »
Holisitic Detective Agency is damned hard to find. I'd been wanting to read it for a while but when I got Salmon of Doubt last year I knew I had to find and read it first. So sad that we'll never find out what happened.
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revdj

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« Reply #39 on: August 20, 2003, 05:54:07 pm »
Quote from: "monkeyb"
Life of Pi ending felt cheap.
Just finished "Salmon of Doubt" sort of by the late Douglas Adams,I hadn't picked it up until recently because it hurt too much.As it was ,i still cried.


Salmon of Doubt depressed me, too.  It seemed like it would have been a very interesting novel.  My fave DNA book is Last Chance to See.  I wonder if, had he lived, he would have written more non-fiction.
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satchel

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« Reply #40 on: September 02, 2003, 04:33:28 pm »
It’s been a Fitzgerald summer for me. I’ve been reading The Beautiful and Damned and Tender is the Night over and over. I thought This Side of Paradise was weak though.
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slink

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« Reply #41 on: September 02, 2003, 06:33:03 pm »
I've been reading Michael Moore - Stupid White Men, and Maomi Klein - No Logo, along with a collection of Chomsky this Summer.
Preparing for a Political Science Bachelors Degree!
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AugustWest

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« Reply #42 on: September 02, 2003, 06:59:55 pm »
I'm reading Hunter Thompson's Kingdom of Fear, and was shocked to learn (as I read on the can this morning) that he dated a cousin of mine in high school.
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slink

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« Reply #43 on: September 02, 2003, 07:04:28 pm »
Quote from: "AugustWest"
I'm reading Hunter Thompson's Kingdom of Fear, and was shocked to learn (as I read on the can this morning) that he dated a cousin of mine in high school.


Yea, I need to get round to getting more Hunter, and now I'll have to look out in KoF for your cousin!
I especially need to get round to picking up the Campaign Trail ones (ones?! I believe he did a Clinto era one as well as the Nixon one?).
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Choop

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« Reply #44 on: September 02, 2003, 10:25:43 pm »
Oh, shit - I forgot reading is a summer thing!

Seriously, I go through about a book a week when I've got a busy schedule, and about three or four a week when I don't. If I were to list all the books I've read, even just the good ones, jough's database would be filled to "da max" and I would just end up ruining the internet for everyone.
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