(null)Created 26 Apr 2002 at 16:45 UTC by blvdgirl, last modified 26 Apr 2002 at 16:48 UTC by blvdgirl.
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/booktalk.htm Notes: So, what are you reading? What's good? What sucks? What speaks to you?
Just read the novella Shopgirl by Steve Martin. I bought it a couple of months ago randomly and picked it up two days ago while thinking, I should read the books that I buy. The basic premise- MFA storeclerk and late- night artist, Mirabelle, has an affair with a wealthy, older man. She thinks it's serious. He thinks that she knows it's not serious. And both of them learn about their true identities in the process. Set in the more affluent, artsy segments of Los Angeles, with brief interludes in San Francisco, Seattle, New York, and Vermont. Major themes- honesty in relationships, power issues in relationships, and the importance of "peership" (my term). Overall, the plot is fairly predictable. There are some great supporting characters, especially Jeremy and Lisa; but the appeal of the main characters feels a little flat. So, don't waste your money or even your librarian's time. Eventually, they will probably make it into a mini- series that you can ignore as well. And my final conclusion, all the critical acclaim it received was simply an effort to kiss Steve Martin's ass.
im reading The Lord of the Rings. I read The Fellowship of the Ring before the movie came out, and have since seen the movie 6 times (my sixth was with, surprisingly, pedro, dogmanphil, blvdgirl, oldpossumus, and barefootjumper). I have read several things since then (couple poker books, Vineland by Thomas Pynchon, some short fiction by Roald Dahl). but a couple days ago, while thinking about LOTR:FOTR i was thinking about how i wanted to finish reading the story. so i picked up 2Towers and plowed right in. im almost done with it. Sam, Frodo, and Slinker/Stinker are at the crossroads before Cirith Ungol.I love this series. i love it more and more every time i read it or see it or discuss it. amazing.
then i SWEAR i will finish reading Underworld.
Ok. So, who, after reading parts 2 & 3 of LOTR believes that Eowyn is a dispensible character? I ask you.
Yes, I may let this die someday...
i don't think she is. i mean, somebody else could slay the chief Nazgul, but i don't think Tolkien wanted anybody else to.
eowyn must be there...no man can slay the Witchking...that was the deal, why he is lord of the nazgul...its a very devilish deal... if you mean dispensible = she should have died from her wounds and heartache...well then, that is a further debate, but I would again point to tolkien knowing more of this world that he wrote than the books, or anything since published, has mentioned....with the renewal of
with the renewal of the kingdom of gondor, the return of the king, it was necessary for aragorn to bring healing, to be first revealed as a healer...so, if eowyn just died, then, well, aragorn wouldn't have looked as kingly, you know? anyway, I forget any point I thought I had...she's awesome, and I don't think she could be excluded from any version
I know. You all see the indespensible beauty of Eowyn- how she is necessary to the plot and the thematic wholeness of the tale... But, it stil boogles my mind that they may have axed her from the films altogether, and I must vent my fears and frustrations.
Last weekend I procured a copy of Neil Gaiman's Sandman - The Dream Hunters. It's a retelling of an old Japanese folk tale, and it's incredibly badass. It also helps that it is illustrated by my personal lord and savior, Yoshitaka Amano.
just wanted to finish the Eowyn thing... She is in the next two movies...She (as in the books) has a large part of the coming events..I'll just say this...I geek hard (as I can attest to baggins as well) and I've been a snoop about these movies for a good 2 and a half years now....the story is in good hands....
Ok...I just checked the website and you're right, they are keeping Eowyn. Good thing or else I would have been forced to hate the next two films. I guess I should have kept my geek up, but I hadn't been to the site since before I saw the Fellowship.
I figured from the first movie that they were trying to merge her into Arwen somehow.
I had also heard they were going to do that. But that was a long time ago, and I've let my geek down about it.
Nope...two girls, one for each of you.... actually, after seeing the preview for TTT, a friend of mine (who shed a light tear at the first teaser for Fellowship) declared he was more moved by this new one....and, after seeing Eowyn (who is in much of the trailer) declared that Aragorn should choose differently...my friend, he's one in a million....
Man, I can feel my clothes getting stinky and the pizzaburger sauce all over my fingers, just like I was there.
Sad, though it is, Aragorn doesn't choose differently. Actually, I was a little pissed about the sword-wielding Arwen in the movie because she is supposed to be more of a foil to Eowyn. Sort of blurs some of the points that Tolkien was making... However, Eowyn has to understand Aragorn's rejection before she can really love Faramir. But, I've always thought that Faramir was definately getting the better gal.
I bequeath the task of coming up with the Entree name for LOTR to Mr. Peter E. Carlson.You are the Entree Bearer, Peter.
Seeing Amy's suggestion, i probably would have done it (badly) if it weren't bequeathed before i got here.
regarding arwen and eowyn:
alas, my geek has waned a bit as of late. i haven't had the $$ to get out and see the latest TTT trailer yet. im almost ashamed to admit it. however, the couple of times i tried to organize something, plans got all shot to hell, and it wasn't my fault. Eowyn seems to me to be the stronger, more resilient, more hardy-and-down-to-Middle-Earth girl. Arwen seems to have more of a glamorous, idealistic, romanticized air about her. seems like the truly powerful stars always get the flashier chicks. but maybe the best ones are saved for the lesser heroes. i don't know which one i would choose, given the choice. then again, i don't like to talk about the situation as men choosing women (thus asserting dominance over a passive object [thus objectifying women]). makes the ladies out to be prizes on a game show or something. i know none of us are putting it that way. and i don't think Tolkien ever intended it to be taken that way. but sometimes stories like this don't always go out of their way to make the distinction.
much more to say on arwen and eowyn, and it'll be a good topic to start off with, if only we could get something to eat while we talk......
Re-reading CS Lewis' Space Trilogy....The first book is Out of the Silent Planet. It's interesting to see how similar Lewis' ideas are to Tolkien's in the Silmarilian. Kind of makes you wonder who influenced who... Kind of makes you wish you could have sat in on some of their conversations at The Eagle and Child- that would have been cool.
ive always thought that when i get to heaven, one of the first things im going to do is sit and have a pint with Martin Luther, JRR Tolkien, and CS Lewis. and im going make Lewis finish the Dark Tower. that book was going to some REALLY cool places. but it was never finished. or it was destroyed before his estate could publish it. it bugs the heck out of me that i can't find out the rest of that book until i die.
I read the unfinished Dark Tower, and I must say it was really cool. He was getting into some odd soul-migration stuff and parallel universe stuff. Crazy!
I've been skimming A Gravity's Rainbow Companion which I either purchased while sleepwalking, or moonboots left on my bookshelf. Almost makes me want to re-read that beast....almost. Last weekend I happenened across Mason & Dixon new for $4.99. So I'm going to start that soon if anyone cares to join me. It could be an informal diner bookclub of sorts.
and its just beggin to be read. don't know how committed i am to it right now though.
the learned english dog a conversation between two clocks passing by and pynchon with a heart read it...... and it may be time for me to read it again.. yes, yes, I will do this with you just say when
i also wish to join the happy throng. huzzah!
I just have to find a copy.
i guess if all you cats are game, i'll ante up too.
Look for a new entreé for the Mason & Dixon reading group in the next week or two.
are we going to have like assigned pages per week or something? how will we keep from getting ahead of each other? how will i know if i'm winning?
so id prefer if i had time after i got back to 'catch up' with those of you starting this week.
Yesterday I finished Thom Jones's short story collection Cold Snap. The first group of stories, about nutty folks all somehow associated with African medical aid missions, were excellent, but the rest (the last third or so of the book) were rather annoying. But that's okay because the third story is about a drunk baboon, and it's impossible to go wrong with that level of craziness.
I recently finished David Brin's Kil'n People, which was a fairly straight-foward detective tale set in a quirky future where one can purchase clay "blanks" into which you can imprint your soul's Standing Wave, so they they can do all the boring work stuff, and you can do other stuff.I also got a copy of his book Earth, which I have read before. The copy I got is a brick-like paperback with nice small print. Excellent.
always thought books on tape were a more than semi-lame idea, but then i'm butt-puckeringly anal about somebody else spoiling my read by interpreting the words for me. i hate to hear poetry read by anyone, even the author, if i haven't had the pleasure of reading it first. i like the inflectional blankness, disembodiedness, openness of written words. but, i think i'm wrong about this a lot - for instance: this last weekend i listened to david sedaris' book me talk pretty one day as spoken by the author this last weekend on a long drive, and it was cran-tastic. infrequently has five hours of "reading" gone so fast or seemed so pleasant. and besides that, the book is really good. if you've listened much to this american life (which if you haven't i can unreservedly recommend although i miss it almost every weekend) you may already have heard a few of the book's better stories, and you may be familiar with the confessional tone and substance of his writing. so maybe i'm not wrong about this a lot, because confessional nonfiction (i think mostly) writing is a pretty special case, but in any case, find this set of tapes if you can, because they are pretty short and plenty silly and occasionally laugh-out-loud-and-wake-your-sleeping-brother good.
that's the crappiest book review i've ever read! there's not a single specific in the whole paragraph. all he says is that he thinks it's a good book. what a bunch of crappy crap. like for instance, he doesn't say that not all the stories are really that great, and he doesn't even name the best ones, like "a shiner like a diamond" or "picka pocketoni", nor does he mention that most of the really good stories are about france. plus, he doesn't describe the style much, or say why the stories are good, just that they're good. moonboots is a jackass.
I haven't forgotten about the mason & dixon reading. I don't think assigned chapters is a good idea since we won't be meeting face-to-face and people read at different rates anyway. Maybe I will create a room this week and those that want to start reading can join in on the conversation. If there are people that would rather hold off to July or something, speak now and we can postpone.
I'm almost done reading a really cool book called Let It Blurt. its a biography about an old school rock journalist, Lester Bangs. The book is done well, and tells the story in a real amazing amount of depth with a lot of details and stories. it also has some AMAZING quotes from the man. Here is an interview, and brief bits about the book. You all should check it out.
it is by one of my favorite authors, Orson Scott Card. the whole series is good. there is talk of a movie. learn more here.
I had luck at the libary last night. They finally had the copy of Fight Club and I also got Gateway by Frederik Pohl and Hyperion by Dan Simmons, both Hugo winners. I also picked up Fermat's Last Theorem by Amir Aczel and Finding Darwin's God by Kenneth Miller. It was one of those rare time that they had most of the books I was looking for. Plus they had Rushmore in their video section. And now, I've got my PIN number so I can reserve books online and stuff. Not that I lack reading material at home and every time I go to the library I end up with more books than I can read in three weeks.
this is a really cool book. the whole series is a great read, but its definitely a mindfuck (sorry to those who are offended, but that's the perfect word). i think you'll enjoy it, lukas. i was thinking about you today. i drove a guy from DC who said he was having trouble finding work in the IT market. said a quick prayer for ya. hmmm. html tags don't work in the headers?
A Canticle for Liebowitz? I'm about halfway through right now and finding it fascinating reading. Coming from a Catholic background, it's interesting to see how the new world religion is building on the old world, and how it references the crusades (the simpletons). I'm really digging it so far. Anyone else read this book? (Someone recommended it to me, and it may have been Pedro but I don't remember who told me to read it, but thanks to whoever did!) I get this problem where people tell me this book is good, so I go buy it then I lose it on my bookshelves and re-find it a year, maybe two, later and cannot recall who recommended it or why.
I really dig that book, and might have recommended it to you.
Excellent book! I like Part II the most I think, but the rest of it is just amazing. A couple of us folks read it for a class at NPU... Christianity and Literature in the 20th Century- what a great class that was! Enjoy the rest of it... And, if you can find it, try Lost in the Cosmos by Walker Percy when you finish Canticle. They go quite well together, I think.
not the canadian football league. canticle for leibowitz. i wasn't in the class, but i also was roped into reading A Prayer For Owen Meany which made me weep. read it if you haven't. read it again if you have.
For those of you with them thar computer sound file players, NPR did an audio dramur production of A Canticle for Liebowitz. Oggs away!
Tastytronic Industries Prefers Ogg Vorbis to MP3!Also, the new version of Winamp supports Ogg Vorbis out of the box.
I haven't yet read Canticle (it's on the reading list) but I've read some other really great books that are science fiction + religion (although I'm not sure that's what Canticle is about). The books are Children of God and The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. The books center on a Jesuit mission to a far of planet and the journey of faith of one of the priests. There's some more info on the books on her website.
I'm reading 2001 again. It's sort of slow going, I think because I've had a lot of other stuff to do recently.After that, I get to start in on the frosted flakes box. ;-)
I like the premise of 2001. The idea that aliens are giving us gentle nudges is neat or whatever, but what I really like is the underlying assumption that unless we unlearn our aggressive instincts (either from alien nudges or by our own doing), we'll annihilate ourselves before we can start exploring the stars. Sometimes I feel like this might be true. But mostly I'm just boggled by the sheer number of humans on the planet, and wonder how we manage to get anything done at all with all the free porn available on the Internet.
...oh wait. nevermind.
Part II is really really damn good. I am fascinated with the way this book is moving. It's hard - I used to finish a book in one or two days because I'd get so into it and I don't have the time now and it really really bugs me. I wish I could finish a book quicker - it's like leaving an old friend.Thanks for the other recommendations. Books connecting society and religion fascinate me - religion and the study thereof is a pet topic of mine as a Catholic-Turned-Jew.
I got the DVD of 2001 recently. Maybe it was the frame of mind I was in, but it annoyed me intensely. It's so slow moving, and full of "look how cool the future will be" sequences. I suppose they could just be take as "everyday life in the future" scenes, though. Never mind.
I still take occasional reminding that the "computer displays" in the film were all done by animation.
Just finished the book. Was good.Regarding the movie, I suspect that the sequences are so slow because, well, you have to move slower in 0-gravity. Remember, this movie came out before we landed on the moon. Aside from the easily-dated furniture, I'd say Kubrick and Clarke did a laudable job of predicting details of the near future. Much better than any other sci-fi flick I've seen.
Perhaps another reason for the drawn-out-ness of things was to give the audience a chance to realize what was happening, and to think about things. Sure, we all know now that astronauts would eat liquids from tubes, but that wasn't common knowledge in the 60s, os there's a few minutes of a guy eating stuff through a straw. Or the zero-gravity toilet. Or the disorientation of the girl walking upside-down in the circle.
My favorite favorite thing about that movie, though, is that the soundtrack features two pieces by Gyorgi Ligeti, and people don't whine incessantly about it.
So now I'm reading from a Frosted Flakes box (thanks, Lukas!) And I find myself wondering: did Philip K. Dick write anything bad?
I just finished read Dan Simmon's Hugo Award winning novel Hyperion. And I must say that it is a fine book. Probably my favorite out of the other 3 Hugo winner's I've read recently. Gateway by Frederik Pohl was good, but it relied heavily on building to a climax at the end of the book. And since the ending wasn't all that great, I felt somewhat let down by the preceding story, which was well written and interesting, it just never delivered. Both A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge were great books with engaging stories. I liked the first book quite a lot and am glad I bound it, but I felt there were some major holes in the story. The latter was a prequel and good in it's own right, but it seemed to move rather slowly at times.
Then I picked up Hyperion. The story is fantastic and I absolutely loved the structure of the book. It is told through the personal stories of seven pilgrims and each story is fascinating and engaging. The technology is very cool even if it is wholly impossible, but then again, so is most tech in sci-fi books. The strong point of the book is definitely the characters. Rarely have I read science fiction that has conveyed such emotion through the pain and struggle of the characters. Even though the ending does not resolve anything, I was not bothered. It was a book that left me wanting to discuss the implications of the TechCore, the Farcasters, the destruction of Old Earth and so on. This is one I had considered binding, and may do so now so I can read it again and return my overdue library book.
Next up is A Canticle for Leibowitz or Dhalgren, two more Hugo Award winners. Plus, I want to read Fall of Hyperion to see what happens. And then I'm going to stay away from the library and try to read some of the books on my shelf like Mason & Dixon, the Don Delillo books I got years ago, the Einstein biography gathering dust, and the list goes ever on.
Hyperion is really cool man. im glad you liked it. i really liked the structure too, sort of a SF Canterbury Tales. sort of (i think that description was printed on the book itself, which is lame of me to repeat it, but i think its a good description). Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and Rise of Endymion are all really good too. i was happy with that series as a whole. i love the technology in those books. the Farcasters are so freakin cool. i especially love the river that flows from planet to planet through the 'casters. super cool idea!
if you like those books, you might like Darwin's Blade by Simmons. i also have his novel Crook Factory which i haven't read yet. its about Hemingway running a bunch of spy operations in Cuba during WWII. seems pretty cool, so far. I like Simmons' ability to reference other literary works and authors without ripping them off.
also, if you enjoy SF with good characters and well-written plots, check out Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. he's probably my favorite SF author, and i've read 90% of his stuff. EG and the rest of the series is fantastic, and is supposed to be made into a movie sometime (this was a long time ago, but i heard it from the man himself, at a signing). sooner or later we'll have to get that M&D club going.
Ender's Game is good stuff. After reading that many years ago my sister (who I need to get on here along with my wife et al) and I went on an Orson Scott Card kick. Well more my sister than me, but I ended u perading a whole lot of his books and Ender's Game is definitely up there with his best work. For a while I was into the Alvin Maker series, but that got all kinds of hokey and I haven't picked up a Card book in a while. I should read Ender again though.
On the recommendatino of Nick, I picked up Perdido Street Station from the library and I must say that it is a thoroughly enjoyable book. I'll write a semi-review one of these days.
Seriously, after I finish/quit reading Dhalgren (so far I don't like it) then I'm all set to pick up M&D. Seriously.
Erik just gave me The Body Artist by Don Delillo. Its short, and probably a good way to read a whole Delillo book without having to attempt Underworld yet again. not that i couldn't handle it, i just kept putting it down for too long, and having to start over. i will read it someday.
re: OSC
He's definitely one of my favorite SF authors. I first got into him through Will Duffield. He had a big ole collection of short fiction by OSC that i blazed through in about 2 weeks (1000+ pages). i loved it. i then started reading his series, starting with Ender's Game. did you read the whole series, or the book, lukas? read the series if you didn't already. i like the Alvin Maker series, though its got a long way before its over, and he hasn't put one out in a while. his single, non-series novels are good too. like Songmaster, Enchantment, Lost Boys, Wyrms, Saints, etc. also good is the Jason Worthing Saga. check it out. man, its been a while since i read his stuff. makes me wanna go back and reread it all again.
Started reading Moby Dick the other night. I am officially one chapter in... It's beautifully written actually, something I wasn't expected having never been much of a fan of Melville's prose. But there is a real poignancy in the text that I think I am going to like.
"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth,; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principal to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street and knocking people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can."
"meditation and water are wedded forever."
"Ah! how cheerfully we assign ourselves to perdition."
"as for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote."
I've finally gotten around to reading Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood. Remarkable stuff, truly. I've always been a fan of Atwood. I'm taking a course in Canadian Women's Lit (such is the stuff a writing major's day is made of) currently, and finding it quite fascinating. They could've called it Atwood, Munroe and Shields, Oh My! It's quite good. I don't want to talk too much about the particulars, but it totally illustrates differences between men and women that I've noticed a bazillion times before. Women's hatred is calculating, cold. Fierce, quiet, running beneath the surface. Men, it's in your face and you can deal with it, but women, oh no. So calm, so quiet. This book is a good illustration of that, and Elaine's artistic abilities are great. The whole thing reads like a masterpiece gallery of art. Really a fascinating structure for a book, and a really engaging set of characters. I actually know a girl like Cordelia. Knew. I got out before Elaine though.Highly recommended.
Another book I'm reading is the Nanny Diaries. Don't waste your time. I've got a book club I participate in and this is quite the piece o crap they dreged up. Totally without the humor it seeks.
Next up? The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields.
I'm reading this cool book called Lord of the Rings by this british guy named J.r.r. Tolkein. It's cool you guys should check it out.
i think its evil, like those harry potter books.
and I heard that tolkeen was a CATHOLIC!For those of you just joining the conversation from The Internet, this interchange is a joke... now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
unless its the biography of U2. i wount read it. but, i have heard of this "lord of the dance of the rings." supposed to be good.
i just finished this one by alice sebold. it's her first novel if you don't include her memoirs and it's amazingly graceful. the title phrase, 'the lovely bones' refers to the lives that keep growing around someone's absence from earth. somehow, reading this book helped me to find wonderful, warm memories from throughout my life.
the problem I suffer from is I attempt to read something like 7 books at a time only to finish one of them... if I am lucky. So I end up with such experiences as reading the first 45 pages of Xenocide 10 different times. And then other books never get read because I tell myself, "This time I will read until the last page" and once more dig into a book I have started more times than I can remember. Although, it does make me feel better to know that I am not the only person whose copy of Underworld is gathering dust on the shelf. Someday... that is if I can ever finish Xenocide.
One book that I am definitely glad I was able to finish recently was Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. I know I missed 3/4 of what was intended, but it was an incredible read. It made me wish I had the opportunity to have studied it in college... it would have been interesting to hear Dooley's comments on it.
Dooley!
on the bus to work today, I just finished reading "In Search of Schrodinger's Cat" by John Gribbin, which is a piece on Quantum Physics, and totally changed my life. Unfortunately the first third of the book reads like Genesis "so-and-so begat this theory, which led to what'shisname's theory on this..." and so on. Then it goes to the meat and potatoes of quantum theory, and then hits la-la land with a lot of Metaphysical conjecture.I give it a four out of five stars, and maybe all five, cause if you sit on the bus and read a book about physics or any sort of science, the weirdos will leave you alone. Pittsburgh has lots of those extra- talkative whackjobs prowling the bus lines.
are we talking Xenocide by Orson Scott Card? if you're trying to read that book without reading Ender's Game or Speaker for the Dead first, you're gonna be lost, and not that into it. if that's the case, i'd highly recommend going back and reading those first. if you have read them first, and are still having trouble getting into Xenocide, well, i don't know what to tell you. except that its really good. and so is Children of the Mind, which comes after, and is really freaking metaphysical-cool. god i love Card.
if we're talking different books completely, then forget i ever mentioned it. and what is this similiarly-titled book about?
So a long time ago peter berquist bought this book at amvet's called A Day with wilbur robinson. It was an illustrated children's book and it was one of the coolest books i've seen of that genre. Well I had totally forgotten about it until the other day when something rattled around my old brain and I did some web searching to find the author. His name is William Joyce and he is awesome. He's probably a household name for those that know kids books, but I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes.
raskol got me the latest installation in the Ender's Game series the other night, for my recent birthday. he's cool.
i just started the first chapter, and it seems pretty cool already. definitely taking a different turn from the way the first 4 books went. but them again, the last 3 books started when the first book started, and has progressed from there. but following different characters. quite good.
...a month later... I was referring to Card's Ender series. And, yes, I have read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead many times each. Recently, I even went back to read them again simply so I could continue on with Xenocide and not miss a beat. But I just can't get into Xenocide. I even have the prospect of eventually getting to Children of the Mind, which some claim to be the best book in the series. Basically, this is all to say that some day I am going to have myself chained to a chair and not allowed to be released until I complete Xenocide.
it might take a bit of time to get into. but you will weep at the end. and COTM is REALLY good! the whole series is one of my favorites. The latest installation is entitled Shadow Puppets. so far its been really good. i haven't had a huge chunk of time to just sit and read it all day, unfortunately. but tomorrow i will have some time. and perhaps another chapter or 2 tonight. OSC is one of my favorite SF authors, by far.
I don't like it. Why must I teach it?... Oh yeah, dead white guy canon.
But, I did come up with a fun project idea for it that my students will probably whine about, neglect to turn in, or turn in late (that whole karma, what-goes-around-comes-around thing)-- they have to make brocheres to try to get tourists to travel to any of the painful and deadly places visited by Odysseus in his journeys... They have so many fun options- Circe's island, the Siren's place, the channal where Scylla & Charybdis hang out, the Land of the Lotus-eaters, the island of the Cyclopes, the home of the giants, Helio's island, and, of course, Hades.
The Odyssey just seems like a great way to get to show lots of Xena episodes in class.
I love Charles Bukowski. I love him because he hated the world and I want to hate it too. And his poetry was touching while full of anger, spit, urine, and whiskey.But then I found Fante. Fante is like Bukowski but with more heart, more genuine feeling. Bukowski would of been fante if fante had been born just a few years later.
Now I'm reading the rum diary, by Hunter S. Thompson. It's really good, he wrote it in his 30's before he was all drugged up. When my boyfriend gave it to me to read, he said, "You'll like it, there's even a love story." Why does he think that about me. Rum Diary is good, becasue when Thompson was 30 he was still young and not quite so diluted...but he also wasn't out of his mind or irrational. Also you can find some form of tenderness in his words.
But my favorite is still bukowski.
i am reading a kick-ass book. its called: J.R.R. Tolkien Author of the Century and its written by Tom Shippey. he's all over the extended super max ultra platinum collector's DVD of FOTR, talking about Tolkien. the book is really great, talking about JRRT and his work on Middle Earth and just why it is so damn great. also, his knowledge of and work with philology and his understanding of Tolkien's fascination and obsession with it is really great, and the insight in this book is invaluable. i highly recommend it. ask and maybe you can borrow it.
Somebody lent me Ender's Shadow. It was pretty good. I think I would have liked to have a little more of Ender...I think Ender's book had a little more of Bean anyway, but I only read Ender's Game once when someone lent it to me in college. I think I will have to go back and re-read it now and then the sequels.
you must go back and reread it and read the sequels: speaker for the dead, xenocide, children of the mind. then the alternate sequels: shadow of the hegemon, and shadow puppets (which i just read a couple months ago, and its pretty good.) anyways, i love this series very much, and i finally got my dad to read them. though he started with EG, then decided to read ender's shadow next, then wanted to read shadow puppets after that. which is definitely not a good order to read them in. but he claimed he couldn't find SFTD in any book store he went to. i told him i look for it everytime i go to a book store, and they always have it. so i finally bought it for him.
harrypotter the fifth!
I finished the first book in Kim Stanley Robinson's triumvirate of novels about the colonisation of Mars. Red Mars is a long and tedious book that by some act of grace won a Hugo and a Nebula. There were lots of cool sci-fi gizmos and many details reagrding the technical aspects of colonising Mars, but these didn't save the book from it's lack of any sort of character development. The plot line is pretty thin and there is a loack of continuity throughout the book. Maybe I just read it too fast, but I really could not get into any of the characters. They read like cardboard cutouts of Mars settlers. I checked out the second book as well and may see if it's any better since I think it also won a Hugo. Red Mars could have been a really great novel, but it's not.
I liked the series. Red Mars, however, was very disjointed, and was the hardest one to read all the way through. in the other 2 you will get a lot more character development, and get to know quite a few people really well. i really like the rest of it, especially just watching them terraform Mars and having it develop into a habitable place. and hte politics are crazy, and there are some really cool ideas in it, such as a giftbased economy. which i dig in some utopian sort of way. read the rest of the series before you give up.
...you can give up, but you'll have read the whole series by then, so by "before you give up," baggins means "".I don't really care, I just thought it was funny!
"Red Mars" . . .I made it through it but it scarred me. Even good friend Peter V, who normally devours those books, had bad things to say.I just wandered past the next two volumes in the Sulzer lib yesterday and thought it was about time to get back to reading those before the semester swallows me alive.
Just read the 10th Jordan book too, and am ruminating over filing for divorce from the series, given the amount of time I've committed to Rober Jordan over the years, and the law of diminishing returns, novelist version.
is getting better...although I still feel like he's trying to be the ayn rand of mars or something.
i got a late christmas gift of The Best American non-Required reading for 2002, edited by David Eggers. It's geared toward college age kids (am I that old already) but it looks like it has some fun stuff in it. One of these days I'm going to get Eggers new book from the library. I also want to read the upcoming issue of McSweeney's but don't forsee shelling out the douhg for a subscription. I am, however, going to pick up a copy of Conjunctions 39.
At the moment, Im re-reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, which is really, really good fiction.
Also at this moment, Im reading (for the first time), The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill, which is also really good fiction.
And though I'm sure many people are already fans, anything by David Sedaris is great. I first started reading him from Esquire magazine, but then got into the books. So for those who have gotten into the books and like them, there's great stuff not to be found in bookstores here
any OWEN MEANY fans find this story interesting?
from the onion
I read White Noise on the bus over the last two days. People always talk about how great Don Delillo is but he hasn't lived up to my expectations. It's very melancholic and meandering. The storylines that develop are marginally fascinating and I can't deny that Delillo ias a skilled writer, but I haven't been able to enjoy or connect with the book in any meaningful way. I also have a copy of Underworld (obtained along with White Noise at the fabulous Brandeis Book Sale) that I have yet to crack open. I was planning on tackling that next, but I don't have much enthusiasm for that task at the moment.
"Underworld" is worth reading for the absolutely fantastic prologue. After that it's clear that DeLillo didn't have as much enthusiasm for the meat of the book.Everything I know about waste management (actual waste management, not Sopranos-style "waste management", I have learned from this book.)
I'm reading The Left Hand of Darkness for the first time. A long overdue reading and so far it's a really good book. Also, I did start Mason & Dixon but never got very far. Anyone still up for a communal reading of this one?
we'll see how far i get.
Yesterday, after being on airplanes all day and travleing with my family for a week before, I felt I needed a little pick-me-up... So, I read the last chapters of all of the Anne of Green Gables books (there are eight total). I used to do this often in high school... They are such sweet books, and I love the happy endings. Ok, I warned you it would be a silly confession....
I do the SAME THING. I even got the movies, the ones that PBS runs yearly. I consider it an antidote to the sickness and too-real reality of the world today. When I need to feel better, I read the ends of Anne of Green Gables - or if I've got time, I pick one of em and read the whole thing.That's too funny - I thought I was the only one in the world.
I have the first two, but haven't seen (and have decided not to see) the most recent continuing saga one. I allow the plot adjustments in the first two because I saw them and loved them prior to reading the books, but I don't think I could handle the changes made in the third one.
I should have known you were a kindred spirit Dex.
STAND UP, ERNIE BAXTER: YOU'RE DEAD
ADAM VOITH
he did some reading from his book last night at the damien jurado show. very cool stuff.
I too am thinking of divorcing the Jordan books, (haven't read this entree in a while) but like the second to last one, so am wishy washy on it. However, have you read the Terry Goodkind Sword of Truth Books? I personally see them as successful versions of the Jordan books, vast, epic, long, but engrossing to the end, and I can't wait for the next one!
My upstairs neighbor on berteau gave me a few of the Sword of Truth books when she moved out. I could never bring myself to read them. They were enormous and I couldn't get into them. I just couldn't imagine how he could write 1,000 pages a year and still have it all be quality.
My personal favorite epic other than LOTR is George R.R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" Series. Notably, in that he does what no other fantasy author can really do; he's not so attached to his characters that he can't kill them off. If you haven't read it, you may feel free to borrow them--i can get them to you via Guylla, or however else . . .But Martin is light-years better than Jordan. Don't get me wrong, Jordan is good, but Martin's done in three books what it took Jordan six. Jordan needs to off some characters; I mean, come on, BigJ, you and I probably agree on some characters whose POV chapters I skim, looking for importance.
I'm still torn on "Crossroads of Twilight". I have one reading of it under my belt, and Peter V and I usually re-read and then go back to the new book. He's on his first reading of Crossroads, and I'm in Crown of Swords right now working back. He always re-reads thoroughly first, I read the new one first, then go back, and usually we talk about it.
Here's a tag you might find useful to kill some time at work: the Wheel of Time FAQ. Pretty darn tasty. http://www.darkfriends.net/wheel/
Goodkind didn't hook me like Jordan and Martin did . . don't know why. But Jordan set out deliberately in the first 100 pages of his first book to get a Tolkien-flavor in it, and I think he succeeded--that's what hooked me. And the cover art is awful.
I read The Catcher in the Rye last week, mostly on thursday. I liked it, but it didn't hit me as hard as some people, who claim it as their favorite. However, I read Franny and Zooey last night and that book is amazing. Just really beautiful, it hit me. I was seeing so much of myself in Zooey at times and at others wishing I had somebody like him around to talk to me like that.
I don't think it would hit me as hard today as it did when I first read it in high school -- it was revolutionary for me then, because it so captured how I was feeling at the time. I know I'd still enjoy it, and there's a lot of Holden's responses to things that I identify with, but I think it would be more nostalgic for me now than directly communicative.
that makes sense, pedro. i never had to read it in high school, but everybody else under the sun did. my little sister just had to read it, and she loved it. check out Franny and Zooey sometime. i think you might like it.
Lukas you should read the Goodkind books, I like them a lot. I am waiting for the next one to come out this August. But he got me when he created some new characters and then killed them for the sake of the book. THat really got me liking him, it seems like he does a book on other people with little plot movement toward the main goal, and then writes the next book with the main movers and shakers really doing stuff, I kind of like that. And yes Jordan needs to kill off about 30 characters, and that's being modest.
read it and dug it. baggins, you should read 9 stories -- The Laughing Man is, I think, my favorite short story of all time, and I have always thought would make an awesome movie, if done by the right people. (Not that Salinger would let that happen in a MILLION years.)
Anyway, I read (pretty much all the way through--just a few pages left) a biography of Mary Todd Lincoln last night. My sister was in DC this weekend, and picked it up for me at some Monument or another. It is written by Carl Sandburg, and is just riveting. I expected it to be a little more well-written, perhaps, because Sandburg is such an awesome poet, but it is fascinating all the same. And not saying it's poorly written, it's just kind of got that cliche' biography feel to it.Mary Todd Lincoln is a distant relation of mine--my great-grandmother's cousin. And this does not surprise me, because Mary Todd Lincoln is INSANE. Like, clinically speaking. And a lot of my mom's side of the family are INSANE, clinically speaking. I'm not making light of it. It's really sad.
"Catcher in the Rye" used to be, obviously before I read it, my best winning answer to that game all book people play" "what is the greatest book you've never read."Upon having read it, I can't stand it. The farther away from 15 years of age you get and read it the more it dates itself, and the more Holden Caulfield annoys me, and now I'm at the point where I'm no longer interested in what he has to say, because it seems like whining . . .
and BigJ, do you mean Goodkind or Martin? It's been my experience that Goodkind hasn't killed off anyone remotely interesting in his series . . .
...and that's alright.
that being said, i absolutely adored Franny and Zooey, while i just sorta liked Catcher in the Rye.
I read Catcher my junior year of high school but just didn't get it. I mean, I wrote an english paper about it and understood it in that sort of way, but I didn't identify with Holden at all.... I didn't try Salinger again until late in college when I picked up F&Z (which I also adore). So then I re-read Catcher and liked it more than I had as a teen. But I don't like it as well as his other books.
I meant Goodkind because he has written two books that were focused not so much on Richard, and has killed off 2 of the 3 characters that he created in those books. They weren't crucial to the main plot, but they were still major characters in those books. He also has far fewer characters than Jordan does and I would say that makes it harder to kill some of them off, but with the next book (due out in August) I wouldn't be surprised to see someone major die.
never read any. should i believe the hype and get some from the library?
Lukas, you are really missing out. My favorites are the short stories, although all the novels are great, too. Any of it is awesome. Enjoy.
i'm reading 'middlesex' by jeffrey eugenides. god, it's good. i read his first novel, 'the virgin suicides': book, excellent; movie, not so much. i highly recommend 'middlesex'
"pedro páramo" by juan rulfo. It takes place in a cemetary, underground, with dead people.
I always thought people were crazy when they said they were into "biographies" but now as I, ahem, approach adulthood, I find myself more interested. I've recently read "Man's Search for Meaning" for the first time. Before that was "An Anthropologist on Mars" which was more about case studies, but like a biography in that it was about real people. And awhile before that I read "Riding the Devil" about a sociologist in West Africa. All were excellent. Right now I'm reading "Ghost Rider" about Neil Peart's (drummer from Rush) travels on his motorcycle after losing his daughter in an accident and his wife to disease within a year of each other. I'm liking it a lot too. Some good books I liked and just sent my neice are "Bitterroot Landing", "What Girls Learn", "H", and "Bastard Out of Carolina".
that is a great book. But was it a biography? I remember it being about the writer's stay in a concentration camp & more of a (personal but detached) psychological study. Okay...I guess that is sort of a biography. Maybe I'm thinking of the completely wrong book, anyway.
i recently picked up Infinite Jest again, for the third time. i really like that book. every time i read it i get more and more, and make more and more connections, and get so much out of it. i recommend it to all who are willing to put a little effort into reading a novel.
re: The Virgin Suicides
I haven't read the book. but i liked the movie. i'd like to see it again.
This vacation I've been reading A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It starts with the formation of the universe and proceeds to explain the sciences of the solar system, earth, and living organisms from there. I am about 300 pages in, and have only begun reading about life. It is pretty much a science book that is well-writen and funny. Good stuff if you find science at all fascinating but aren't about to start reading geology treatises.
Finished Peart's Ghost Rider and highly recommend it. Now I'm almost done with Malcolm X's autobiography and it is truly interesting. He was a highly complex person who went through tremendous changes. I have Chuck D's Fight the Power which I've only read a little bit of, but I think I'll pick it up next. Also, listened to Bridge to Terabethia in the car driving home from NH and it's such a great story! Little things keep reminding me of it.
Now there's a book I haven't thought about in AGES. For some reason I associate it with the book A Wrinkle in Time. I should get those from the library and spend an evening back in the fifth grade.
I l;ove that book, I think upon rereading it in college it took me all of about 3 hours, good times. I am currently reading the latest installment from Robert Jordan, for all you Wheel of Time fans out there. It is absolutely horrid, I am 500 pages into the book, and he has spent more time describing about 150 characters than doing anything else, and I feel like nothing has happened at all, in 500 PAGES!! I am only reading now because I want to get to the end, but I am afraid it will never come! It feels like with every book he writes he actually get FARTHER from the end of the series, I am starting to get really frustrated. I can't wait to pick up the Terry Goodking book that just came out and actually ENJOY a book I'm reading.
Skip to the end two chapters, Is**K, I give you permission. The rest isn't worth it.
The great book that I finally just finished was Crooked Little Heart by Anne Lamont. It is a coming of age story of a whole family (that one character in the story calls the "kind of family you would get at a garage sale"). A family coming of age story, meaning that there is a 13-year-old girl going through all the horrifying mess of becoming a teenager and breaking away but that we see the story not only from her perspective but also the perspectives of her best friend, her parents and her parents' close friends. It is riveting. The characters are real and beautiful and tragic and the story does not try to pat anything into perfection. It insprires the reader to "practice ressurection" and find strength in both the little and the big things.
The guily pleasure that I polished off was To the Nines by Janet Evanovich. I don't know that I've ever mentioned that author on here, but this is the ninth book in the series that I've read. The series is cross between mystery and romance; they have no socially redeeming qualities and are not a source of intellectual stimulation. But the characters and scenarios are so addictively funny that I continue to read them. So, if I guess I am recommending the series to anyone who wants something very light to read, the first one is called One for the Money.
...but without that pesky built in finale.
That's the grand finale, when the undead armies of all the previous murders are enslaved under the power of Dr. Moriarty, who uses an ancient mesopotamian ziggurat to unleash his hordes upon the earth.Sorry if I gave anything away.
Actually, I wish the Sue Grafton Z book would be half as cool as mine.
I am finally at the last two chapters, and boy was the book not worth it! I'm thinking the next one will be good though since he spent all 650 pages of this book doing nothing but setting up future action. No action that I can ever think of needs 650 pages to set it up! But I'm not bitter, no!!
I'd recommend it if you have reclusive tendancies.
i almost feel bad mentioning this book here because from what i'm told, it's very hard to get your hands on even when you're trying.but i adored this tiny little book. it's maybe about ninety pages, but it is brilliant, in fact, maybe more so because of its size.
the narrator is the older brother of a young girl who has two imaginary friends named pobby and dingan.
in a [kind of geeky] way i think the book reclaims something for humanity. i wish everyone could read it.
i just entered it into www.abebooks.com and came up with a lot of finds. if anyone's interested, the book is 'pobby and dingan' the author, ben rice.
I picked up Truman Capote's In Cold Blood at the company book sale for a buck. It's really good so far and a little disturbing. It's fascinating because it takes place in west-central kasnas just south of where we used to drive across on 96 when going to visit my grandparents growing up. So I can picture all the towns in my head and although I've never actually driven through Holcomb I have a good idea of what it all might look like.
by Tom Robbins, Einstein's dreams by Alan Lightman and Three to See The King by Magnus Mills are all excellent books that I would highly reccomend. All three for different reasons. However, please try to ignore the title of the Mills book. The title kinda made me feel dirty after finding it out after finishing the book.Next, that darn wind up bird chronicle that Murakami has bee taunting me with for years.
I am debating on whether to read the next Terry Goodkind novel (which I know I will love) or whether to go get Life of Pi instead, I've heard good things about the Life of Pi, and I think I could use a book that's not just mindless fiction for a change. What's the opposite of mindless fiction? Mindful reality?
get life of pi.
with the barefootjumper hijack. BigJ, you should definitely read life of pi. And read it by October, because Martel will be speaking at the Chicago Humanities festival, and when I saw him speak about the novel a couple months ago, it was by far the best (barefoot jumper is BLABBING in my ear right now and won't stop and as I'm a man I can only do one thing at a time and this is very hard with all the extra noise!)iamashithead.That is also barefootjumper. Maybe she will barefootjump her way off my ass for a while! And let me write! HA AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!
ANYWAY . . .
Is.. I mean BigJ, hearing Martel talk about the book is really great and shouldn't be missed. And you like animals and lifeboats too.
And Smax, whoever you may be, you will not be dissapointed by the Wind Up Bird. Do you like his other stuff?
This will probably be my only post for another ten months, so here are books I've recently enjoyed the last couple of months . . . pobby and dingan by Ben Rice, Lamb by Christopher Moore, Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides (barefoot's recommendation), Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. I guarantee you will like the dog in the night-time one, and I've only read thirty pages of it. Yes, and barefootjumper likes that one too. So she is saying in my ear.me=jerk
Oh yeah and The Minotaur takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill, about a five thousand year old minotaur who works the beef line at Grubs Rib Shack in modern day North Carolina.
And here's the early tip on what will probably win the Pulitzer or somesuch garganenourmous prize - Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem - if its half as good as his Motherless Brooklyn it will be great. Ciao Bella! Hello heffer!
i liked motherless brooklyn. i also liked gun with occasional music.
oldpossums and barefootjumper The Movie. That script excerpt above has me mightily intrigued.
thanks for the 411, I'll check the Life of Pi instead of Terry Goodkind, but it will be a truggle not to get Goodkind since it's the 7 in a series that I have loved more and more since it started, not many like that. ^See Posts Above^
oldpossumus, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World was my favorite by him so far. I also read N. Wood and underground, not as good but not bad either. I think I may have read one other, but I can't remember, maybe not. It was during a massive reading frenzy when I was reading Murakami last. So far Wind up bird is good... I'll see in a hundred pages or so.
The DaVinci Code
My friend Maria had been bugging me to read it for months... I finished it last night at 2am when I should have been sleeping, I do not have the luxery of sleeping late anymore. But, it was page-turner, a thriller as the jacket suggested. A lot of research and an intricate plot. Characters not very developed... Anyway, at 2am when I had finished and finally knew all the secrets that the protagonists and I had been pursuing faithfully for hours, I just got depressed and thought to myself, "that really wasn't worth it..."
i have only been working at my bookstore on saturdays, but every saturday for the last 2 months, i have sold so many copies of that book- it is always people who come up to me and say, "give me a good book" and i keep saying that one. we sell out of it once a week, it seems.
I was given a copy of this book (it's very small) by my aunt; it was a copy owned by a sort of great-aunt in law. Anyway, it is a great devotional. if you're looking for something to read and meditate upon, I would totally recommend it.
i just gave an old copy of that very same book to a friend of mine...
raskol was kind enough to send me a copy, which i received this weekend, for my birthday. it is an enchanting novel. i already love it. will post more when i'm done. thanks, raskol.
I broke down and bought this book in the airport on my way home for Labor Day... Amy talked about it and I really wanted to read it... so far, it's great.
Sorry I never mailed it to you, as I said I would (this shouldn't really surprise you though). Someone here (as in the same state) borrowed my copy as soon as I'd finished it. Trust me, you will continue to enjoy it.
I figured, this is a book I probably would like to own anyway... I almost didn't even mention it on the bbs because you either forgot to send it or weren't done yet, etc., so no worries. I'm really enjoying it. It makes me want to go out and discover something important.
I lent someone a copy of that Lee Smith story, "Desire on Domino Island" today. Boy, does that story make me laugh and remember being in that Topics in Christian Lit class with d3R0ulet.
My favorite is the chapter in which she befriends a wild racoon names it Bruce and then nicknames it Posey. At least I think those were the names, funny stuff. I had my wife read it, as she has read a few of those on her day, and she laughed her butt off.
Good ole chapter 8. It's Posy, however... That is also the chapter where she sends for her retarded brother Lewis.
I'm halfway through the latest Harry Potter book. I usually wait until they're in paperback but a friend lent me this one. I'm not sure how long it'll take me to finish since my arms get sore holding it up in bed for too long. In other book news we got a bag full of books from the local library book sale this weekend for $5! It happened last year too. I love those events. Got a hard cover of Annie Lamott's Traveling Mercies, two Douglas Adams books, and two Walker Percy ones I didn't have. Also a bunch of albums for 50 cents each! Pat Benetar, Loverboy, Red Clay Ramblers, Rush. Quite a haul!
Good stuff. I like reading Murakami books. They make me feel normal.
but I don't know what I could possibly say about the book. Just read it.
i stayed up wayyy too late last night reading lance armstrong's ghost writen book about surviving cancer and winning the tour (five times as of this july). It is an amazing story. His doctors figured he had a few percent chance of living and somehow he survived and returned to become one of the greatest cyclists ever. Plus he had a kid (and later twins) after he was sterile (the day before chemo started he made a deposit at the sperm bank).The thing that struck me is that Lance is pretty much a walking miracle but he's still agnostic. The other sad footnote is that he's getting a divorce. In some ways it is understandable given the hardships of being married to a pro-cyclist, especially one as insanely driven as Armstrong. But, part of me wants it to be a picture-perfect story.
It's a good book and worth a read.
with Hardy's Jude the Obscure. I started it a few days ago and can't put it down. It is such a beautiful, pathetic tale. Strangely enough I thought I had read it long ago, but definitley have not. Sometimes all the books I've read bleed together, but I would not have forgotten this one.I remember Laura reading it, curled in our bunks in our little room on Canterbury Lane, in Oxford, and it made me miss England (and Laura) a LOT. She loves this book, too.
heidi! i am so glad that you are reading that....you need to read tess of the d'ubervilles next/ it is one of my favorite books of all time and i just know that you would love it too, maybe even more than jude.i miss you and i miss england/that was still my favorite time of my life, and a book like that would definitely bring a lot back.
maybe i will read that one again, starting right now.
(i just sighed)
i read that last year, and i really did love it--that's what encouraged me to read this one. i think you're right, i think tess is my favorite of the two, but i love jude as well. i am nearly done but i would say my main problem is sue. i love her but i also want to wring her neck half the time. but i love her because she is very human, in spite of this divinity jude ascribes to her...they are both really interesting characters. hardy is a genius. i like his poetry, too, but not as much as his novels.
I was pretty much forced to read that before I started my Ph.D. (at the idealistic stage) and when things were tough I remember thinking it was good advice.
its oldpossumus and I just wanted to remind everyone that Chicago's official "book of the year" (you know, where they try and get everyone in the city to read it, even the animals, and libraries have discussions etc) this year is Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried", which is an incredible book about the vietnam war and the nature of storytelling. So do you neighborhood and Mr Daley a favor and read this book. And for those of you in the windy city, O'Brien is giving a reading on the 30th (I think) of Oct. at the harold washington library.Go Cubs!
That we love you and miss you and K and PC. Can you guys do some kind of like, group hug or something tonight, from me to you?
the cubs win.!!
i always thought, "huh, that's an interesting name," and then as i was doing something really mundane one day after reading the diner, walking to subway for lunch i think, it occured to me: "OH! oldpossum's book of practical cats," which i have, and have read, and enjoyed. duh.i read the most absolutely putrid and offensive book last week. i checked it out from the library. i won't even write the name of it here, but trust me, it was scarring. the awful thing is i couldn't stop reading it because it was so very awful. it was like a train wreck that you can't look away from.
umm... I'm OK, You're OK!
Geek Love.
but Cinnamongirl has to agree to eventually tell us what the title was after a few days if we don't guess it.
alright, that's only fair. i'll give you a hint--it was this supposed genre called "chick lit," and it was by a british author, and it was very very abysmal. i still can't believe i read it--i'm so embarassed.
...so disgusting, you have nightmares.
American Psycho was written by an American, so that's out.
that's my guess, but then most people I know who read it thought it was really funny.
i love wuthering heights! sad!bridget jones' diary is a pretty good guess. my dad's girlfriend, who is very well-read and never reads anything written after the 19th century, loved bridget jones' diary, so i am guessing it is good.
in reviews i've read of this piece of termite-food masquerading as literature, i.e. the mystery book (i had to go on amazon to write my own scathing one, just to purge my soul), i saw this book LIKENED to bridget jones, in story and plot-line. except for the fact that it sucks, and this woman cannot write to save her ass.
I really enjoyed both Bridget Jones books. As per the awful one Hiedi is raving about, I have no idea...
no dice yet. i would like to read b.j.d, but as i said it has been likened to this book (hint hint), and at the moment that frightens me a bit.
.. THE NANNY DIARIES was it? Oh my god I almost died of retching.
but i think i remember someone telling me they liked that book. i will trust your opinion, dex.
Confessions of a Shopaholic... Please say that wasn't it, Heidi. I mean, the title itself depresses me. I can't imagine actually reading it... But, I do often read books that friends recommend and end up bitterly disappointed, so if it was, I guess I understand.
Personally I hate them all, but I know Heidie likes them so no dice there.
and i didn't realize amazon is selling underwear these days.and WHY do so many of you darn men insist on hating jane austen? she is hilarious! and i know a certain NPU english professor with the initials d.d. who loves jane austen, so boo-ya!
fyi, to narrow the field a little, it's a contemporary book, written in the last few years. and the author isn't really well known, at least i'd never heard of her (for good reason).
i will tell you just HOW much i hated this book. i wanted to go all oedipus on myself and gouge my eyes out, so i couldn't read it any longer. yet i kept reading it, much to my own chagrin.
on a slightly more elevated plane, i spent my lunch hour at the library as i am seeking out some new reads. is anyone here familiar with faulkner? i am not, but have always wanted to read something by him. any suggestions/opinions appreciated.
I just think it's funny to pick classics from the "chick lit" (your words) "genre" (someone's idea of a classification) and pretend taht they were so bad they made you want to die, precisely because they are so widely regarded as classics.
the mystery book is no classic. except for classically terrible. and tomorrow shall be...ta da! the unveiling. so this entree can get back to what's it s'posed to be about--good books.
Definitely read some Margaret Atwood, Heidi. It'll cleanse your pallette, so to speak. Cat's Eye is particularily good, but I also enjoyed Handmaid's Tale and Alias Grace as well.
A Light in August. I haven't read it since high school, but I remember liking it a lot. Our teacher had us read Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn prior to starting the book, and whenever I think of one I think of the other.
i'm really stabbing in the dark here, but are you speaking of White Teeth? i don't know if Zadie Smith is actually British, but i know the story takes place there. in my limited knowledge of contemporary authors this is the only one i can think of that might be it. but... i also am enjoying the book so far, so i don't know if we just have really different tastes in lit or what.
her second book 'the autograph man' got pretty poor reviews. i loved 'white teeth' and i'm glad you're reading it, walter. part of why i liked the book is because the neighborhood in london where the book is set is where i lived when i was there, so the whole thing was very vivid for me. it was like watching a movie set in chicago and every little thing you're like, oh, that's home. or seeing a p.t. anderson movie after living in the valley.
Tim O'Brien's reading is @ 6 PM at the main library downtown. I am currently planning to go, if anyone wants to go. You also have more than enough time to read the entire collection of short stories in "The Things They Carried.". They're intense but short . . .Let me know, friends.
I was away from the computer all weekend in the provincial village of Milwaukee. This awful book I read is called "Jemima J." Honestly, and I do not say this to negate any of my own fault on the part of reading this book; I read it because a website I like was slamming it viciously, and I wanted to know what they were talking about. It's by Jane Green (who I'd never heard of), and right after seeing it slammed so I was looking for "Hardy" at the library, and "Green" is close to that, and I saw it, so I checked it out for kicks. More like, it kicked ME in the ass. It is about this overweight woman who has no friends and no self-respect, and who stashes food all over the place and cuts pictures of models out of fashion magazines and stares at them all day, all because she is "fat", because that's what fat people do, right? So then she goes on this crash diet and loses like 100 pounds in a month through starving herself (which the author seems to promote rather than condemn, and even if you lived on lettuce you wouldn't lose that much weight in such a short time). She has met this guy on the Internet, and he is this Californian body-builder dude, so after she's lost all of this weight and is finally BEAUTIFUL!, she goes out there from England to meet him. At first things are great, but then she finds out he's cheating on her with--gasp--an overweight woman! Sorry I spoiled the plot, but I'd rather no one ever reads this book. Ever.Friends, this book is so bad that you'd rather poke yourself in the eye with a sharp stick than read 10 pages of it. Yet I did, and I am the baser for it. So in any case, avoid this book like you would the plague.
I'm reading a really awesome (and horribly sad) book called "Middle Passage" right now. Check it out.
hahaha... thanks for the warning.
I feel like I started the ball rolling about guessing the book and then was away from the diner too long to participate much. In any case though, that book does sound quite awful and I appreciate the warning. On the other hand, it wasn't a total waste b/c the discussion in this entree was fun and the final revealing of the title and plot was satisfying. Especially since it does actually sound bad.
How did I miss that. I am a big fan (as you could probably tell from my old diary posts). Make sure you read Nuclear Age.
library has a first edition of "Nuclear Age", which oldpossumus spent most of his undergraduate career plotting to steal. That's good writing of his, but my favorite is still "In the Lake of the Woods"
Under the influence of Covenant Brainwashing Seminars ( Go now to Covenant Estate Planning. Hand them a check. Do not question my authority to tell you this. Go. Go Now! ) I have determined that my fine literary mind is mush.I am 300+ pages in to Neal Stephenson's new novel, Quicksilver,, which like his last work, is massive, and it took me a full 30 minutes to figure out who little kid Ben, in 1715 Mass Bay Colony could be, another hour to figure out what "Mass Bay College of Technologikal Arts" could be, and five minutes of wandering around the house who Edward Teach was, and why that name was familiar.
So far it's good (not as brilliant or as mind-grabbing as Cryptonomicon was) but you need a course in 17th century English history, a copy of Samuel Pepy's Diaries, and oldpossumus father on speed-dial to really get everything that's going on. Sort of how Eco's The Name of the Rose revealed all sorts of hidden depths after a class on medieval church history.
i've become obsessed with picasso. i picked up this book, written by a former lover/girlfriend of his and it's really good. i'm not all too far into it yet, but it's assisting my obsession. it's always interesting to read about a public figure from the eyes of a very private relationship.
Several of my students are reading To Kill a Mockingbird for their English class (juniors in my mythology classes) and I am jealous of them because I love that book so much. I bought a hard-copy with the original cover art a couple of years ago but lost it somehow on the move from Chicago to here...
by Michael Faber. I am reading this right now. It is pretty amazing. So amazing, in fact, that I had to wait a month to get it from the library. It is a Victorian novel written by a contemporary author, and gives a very interesting and educated commentary on the society of Victorian England.
I say finally because I had been plodding through it slowly... Anyway, I found the ending to be so desperately sad that I couldn't go to sleep for several hours... I read it on laura's recommendation... I think I'd call it a good book, but I may need a couple of days to put it into some sort of order in my mind & heart. (I had the same response to One Hundred Years of Solitude).
one of those periodic tectonic plate resettlings of my bookshelves that all lit majors go through for the rest of their lives, and mine eye alighted upon Cien Anos de Soledad, and I said to myself, "self, you should read that again."Which doesn't explain why I ended up with one of my four copies of the Hobbit.
It's blustery--reallly blustery here--a perfect night to read The Hobbit.
I had a hard time getting through the first hundred pages or so (I'm not sure why, because it was good reading), but after that I finished the last 250 pages in one night. I could not take my eyes away from it. I am still processing the ending, too, but I think it was an incredible book.
and I loved it. LOVED it. I don't really know how to articulate how I feel about it, but it was very mystical and beautiful. It made me reflect and think on many things ina whole new way. Thank you for sending it to me, Raskol. (I feel like all I ever do here is list the books I read rather than analyze them. Sorry. I just can't put my feelings down in words. It's easier for me to talk about it).Right now I am reading Jane Eyre, which I thought I had read years ago--I'm always thinking I've read books which I haven't for some reason, amnesia--and it's fantastic. I can't put it down, which is good, because I was a lazy-ass over break and just started it a few days ago and have to have it finished by Monday. One of my student workers was reading it over break for a class she's taking with deR0ulet this semester, so another of my co-workers and I decided to read it as well and have a quasi book club next week to discuss it. Highly recommended. It makes me feel cold and chilly when I read of the moor, and the love story depicted is very unusual and riveting. It also makes me miss England. A lot. But then, so many things make me miss England.
Most of my reading is done on the el, so I don't try to tackle big, scary books. It's little novels for me; the easier-to-read the better.Lately I've been enjoying John Irving. Both A Prayer for Owen Meany and The Cider House Rules are excellent, and much much much better than the movies (the movie "Simon Birch" was loosely based on APFOM). I get the impression that his new stuff isn't as good.
I also finally read High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (and now I want to see the movie) and Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald. Both excellent choices for the commute.
I am currently reading the Dark Tower Book 5, and boy is it fricken good. I don't know who else here has read them, but anyone who hasn't should definitely. They are Stephen King at his finest, they are not horror but very convoluted sci-fi, and they kick all forms of ass. After that is Life of Pi which I got for Christmas, and am looking forward to very much. I'll post my feelings on it when done. I have been told it has some interesting views on biology and such, and that intrigues me.
you should especially like the biological and zoological elements of Life of Pi, given your propensity for such interests.
if I finish the book soon and have strong feelings about his comment son biology I will start a Pie of Pi entree.
Anne Lamott is speaking at NPU on April 1st. Isn't that crazy?
that is great...what is the occasion? good for northpark.
I'm reading a few books.... Exterminator, Burroughs - The Science of God = Death kit - Sontag, and I think one more. None are very good. I'm dissapointed. I need some mind candy, maybe Tom Robbins again. Mmmm candy. Is that life of pi book heavy?
because the dialogue classes--though many of the students i've spoken to think dialogue is "a waste of time" (no reflection on what i think, just quoting)--were required to read one of her books. i think it's awesome, and i plan on being there to see her speak.smax, i really didn't find life of pi to be heavy..it is beautiful, and was for me (after the first hundred or so pages, but i think it's just because i was distracted by other things in life then), impossible to put down. i would highly recommend it to anyone.
yo,i just finished "the winter of our discontent" on the bus today, and it was pretty good. i used to relish steinbeck, but haven't read any of his stuff for ages.
anyone have any insight into the last few chapters? i'm a little confused... i get the overall point, but the sequence of actions really caught me off guard, and i'm having a hard time making sense of them.
I find it so interesting that she's coming to NPU. I have a great deal of respect for her both as a writer and just as a person. She's speaking on "what is community" which is the campus theme. Very coincidental in light of the recent controversy over NPU's hiring practices. I think I'm going to have to skip class the night that Anne is here.
Anne Lamott is a good writer, I would be interested to hear her speak, what must be done to get in and see her?
Staff, faculty, and students can have one ticket for free, so you might be able to snag one of those from someone. Otherwise, email j pope at northpark dot edu and she can hook you up with one for $10.
and then my mom can give it to me, or maybe I'll see if Jen will give my mom and her assistant one and I can take the wife too.
In a recent exploratory mission through the dusty backshelves of my bookcase, I happened upon the Belgariad and the Mallorean--two 5-book series penned by David Eddings. I had read both series back in JH/HS and have fond memories of getting lost in the worlds of Sendar, Tolnedra, Riva, Cherek, etc. At one point I owned them all but they were ruined in a Chicago basement flood. Thanks to the Brandeis Book Sale (every June in the Old Orchard parking lot) I picked up complete sets fo both series on the cheap. They've been gathering dust in the deep recesses of my bookshelves ever since--until a few weeks ago when I was feeling ill and didn't have then energy to tackle the Rushdie and the Joyce I had got from the library.Since I cracked open the first book in the Belgariad I've been reading them non-stop. I still enjoy Eddings story telling and I get a lot more of the drinking jokes than I did years ago. But I also have noticed that they get very repetitive after a while. That could be because they weren't necessarily meant to be read in one long extended sitting. It's little things like entering a town and meeting someone friendly and then spotting an enemy and having to slip out the back way. In a way it makes the journey more exciting, but he uses the same formula several times. It's been enjoyable to revisit a world that I spent a lot of time in as a kid and the books are en easy entertaining read. Not sure if I'll make it through the Mallorean or not but I'll probably give it shot.
Another thing I noticed about the Belgariad is some of the pretty obvious similarities between it and some of teh characters/places in Middle Earth. Maybe it's just hard to write fantasy without paying homage to Tolkien and maybe it's just that Middle Earth was fresh in my mind but it's hard to ignore the similarities. (Of course, Eddings also pulls from the Arthurian legend as well.) You've got the long dead evil god and only a young innocent boy from the backwaters of civilisation can save the universe with a magical orb. And I guess every wizard has to have a tower too. I had some other minor ones that seem to have slipped my mind. But all in all Eddings contructed a fascinating fantasy world that even in my old age keeps me reading.
if you want agood fantasy read that will definitely keep you reading, and not make you think so much of middle earth, try reading the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind, I've touted it's glory in here before, but they are currently my favorite new fantasy series.I am waiting to start Life of Pi until I can wrestle it away from my wife, could be a while though.
my upstairs neighbor on berteau gave me some goodkind (not good kind, goodkind). They were so enormous and I never actually read them. I think I may have sold them or given them away. I'll have to check the shelves when I get home. I never had the interest to plow through Sword of Truth but maybe...I got Life of Pi for Christmas. It's next after I finish Midnight's Children...
I read "Ethan Frome" a few weeks ago. I highly recommend it. It is a short, sad little story. I couldn't put it down. Now I have checked out "House of Mirth," also by Edith Wharton, and will start that next.I never had a Chicago public library card until six months or so ago. It is so awesome--unlimited free books! Why didn't I think of that before?
RULE!
God Bless the United States of America
's library system!
The library system kicks butt, and my mom's boyfriend is a library director, whenever I want to check out a book for a few months, I just get it from his library.
So I ended up starting the second five-book Edding's series called the Mallorean. I finished all but the epilogue last night and I think it's on par with the first set of books. It's very similar to the first set of books and he gets away with a lot of repetition by writing the theme of recurring events into the story. One of the gripes I have is that the five books are all leading up to one predestined meeting between good and evil and nothign will stop it from happening. The fatalism just gets a little cloying at times I guess. The band of travelers in the Mallorean was, on the whole, more enjoyable than in the first set. I think that there was more depth to the characters whereas the original band of friends were very one-dimensional characters. I was pleasantly surprised that the story was good enough to keep me reading for ten books. It helps that the material is light and easy to breeze through quickly. I wish that he would have taken more time to explore the world he created because I think it could have been explored it much richer detail than it was. In summation: easy-reading fantasy adventures with a good story and likeable characters (if a bit shallow) that will keep you reading long past your bedtime.next up on the reading list is Quicksilver....From 10 books in 1 month to 1 book in 10 months.
I miss them. Irony, my sister has been working in libraries for probably around 6 years now. I haven't lived within an hour of a library in over 4 years.As for books... I'm almost done with All Quiet on the Western Front. Everyone keeps telling me it's depressing. Although it's about the reality of WW1, it's told in a very German deadpan style that seems to present things merely as fact, not horribly depressing. Anyway, I like it and I think all politicians and military decision makers should have to read it.
I just finished the Belgariad last week and read the first book of the Mallorean a couple of days ago. I've decided to wait awhile before reading the rest of the second series... I just couldn't believe that the same characters were going on such a similar quest so suddenly- it felt a bit forced to me. But, I probably will finish them eventually. I just need a break- I think it's time to read something a bit weightier.
but they are still a fun read. I've read them through 3 times. His other series the Ellenium and the Tamuli are much better.
after finishing the epilogue of the mallorean last night, I read the author note and it gavea brief history of Eddings and how he had written some straight ahead adventure novels but had always been fascinated by teh fantasy genre and started the Belgariad to explore some philosophical and technical (and theological) ideas he had about the genre.
I picked up Mystic River last night, with the intentions of reading it before seeing the movie. I don't believe I have ever been so instantly engrossed in a book. I started it on the el, then came home & continued reading the rest of the night. I never do that.
Someone else on here finally figured out Dennis Lehane is one of the best new authors around in years! Modern noir at its best. "Mystic River" is one of the best character driven novels I've read in a long time, and to think it's a departure from what he usually writes....
Somewhere online I found the preface to The Rivan Codex, which is kind of a history of the world he created for the Belgariad and the Mallorean. It's an interesting read about his own writings and the history of the fantasy genre. Two quotes that I think go together well:
Some years later (mid 70's) I was in a bookstore going in the general direction of the 'serious fiction'. I passed the science-fiction rack and spotted one of the volumes of The Lord of the Rings. I muttered, 'Is this old turkey still floating around?' Then I picked it up and noticed that it was in its seventy-eighth printing!!! That got my immediate attention, and I went back home and dug out the aforementioned doodle. It seemed to have some possibilities. Then, methodical as always, I ticked off the above-listed necessities for a good medieval romance.(much later in the preface)
Are you up for some honesty here? Genre fiction is writing that's done for money. Great art doesn't do all that well in a commercial society. Nothing that Franz Kafka wrote ever appeared in print while he was alive. Miss Lonelyhearts sank without a ripple. Great literary art is difficult to read because you have to think when you read it, and most people would rather not.
He certainly cashed in and wrote some enjoyable fiction.
but he appears in those quotes to be a pretty cool dude.
ok, so out of boredom and mild curiosity surrounding the hype of <>The DaVinci Code</i>, I read it. It's ok, as far as fiction goes. If you buy the agenda he seems to be pushing, you're easily misled, and don't know your history (heck, I don't even know my history that well, and I found some glaring errors). So, if you allow for his historical creative license, then the book is alright, though the ending is a little flat. the code stuff is kinda cool, but i think in a couple cases he stretches it a bit. My dad read it too, in preparation for possibly teaching a class on it at church (since the subject matter is germane to churhc history). now he went and bought 2 of Brown's earlier? books, and I'm reading one called Digital Fortress. it's all about the NSA and their super-decrypto computer being compromised. it's ok. not bad for a read, i suppose.anybody else read his stuff?
...for italics. forgive me.
I read it. I think I posted about it eons ago. I also found the ending lacking. I might have said more about it, but I doubt it... It's certainly not worth scrolling back for.
I read it in two days. Best thing I've read in over a year. A very nice mix of fact mixed with fiction and did all sorts to my former art school brain.
salon is running a great story written by a mid-list author about the trials and tribulations of the publishing world. It's a depressing read about the state of the publishing industry. You can sit through a day-pass to read the whole article but I'll include a few excerpts:In the 10 years since I signed my first book contract, the publishing industry has changed in ways that are devastating -- emotionally, financially, professionally, spiritually, and creatively -- to midlist authors like me. You've read about it in your morning paper: Once-genteel "houses" gobbled up by slavering conglomerates; independent bookstores cannibalized by chain and online retailers; book sales sinking as the number of TV channels soars. What once was about literature is now about return on investment. What once was hand-sold one by one by well-read, book-loving booksellers now moves by the pallet-load at Wal-Mart and Borders -- or doesn't move at all.Okay, just one excerpt. It's hard to pull stuff from the piece out of context easily. I've never had any serious aspirations of being an author. There's something terribly daunting about writing that much coherent prose. I wonder if the unswerving profit motives are leaving otherwise brilliant authors out in the cold. The general homogenization of american culture probably isn't helping the mid-list author either. There's alto to think about in the article and I found it to be a great monday morning read with my cup of coffee. There is also a companion piece entitled You can save the endangered midlist author. It's five things to do to help small midlist authors:1. Patronize independent bookstores. They sell online too. To find and/or order from the nearest one, go to Booksense. What you "save" at chain and online bookstores isn't worth what you lose.2. Read, buy, and tell your friends about non-blockbuster books. Attend readings by non-blockbuster authors.
3. Encourage the institutions you deal with -- schools, churches, book groups, professional organizations -- to buy books from independent bookstores. Most offer substantial institutional discounts, and all of them -- unlike Amazon and other online product pushers -- pay taxes in your community.
4. Read. Think. Enjoy and create culture. Encourage your friends, children, and politicians to do the same.
5. Support funding for the arts; fight like hell when moves are made to axe what little of it is left.
Philip Yancey is one of my favorite Christian authors. He's an incredibly thoughtful writer. Anyhow, I'm reading Where is God When it Hurts right now and just finished a chapter on Leprosy or HD. I never realized that Leprosy is characterized by having an inability to feel pain. This results in burns, broken bones, infected cuts and various other ailments that ultimately lead to what is commonly associated with Leprosy (worn-down toes and fingers, infected skin, maladjusted bones, etc.). Interesting.
...by Edward Jones lookes like a really interesting book about a former slave who becomes a slave owner in the mid 1800s.
My friend has an independent bookstore in Oak Park! Check it out if you have the chance. "Welcome to The Book Table, the newest addition to Oak Park's independent bookstore community. The Book Table is a discount and used bookstore in the heart of downtown Oak Park, across from the Lake Movie Theater. Every title at The Book Table is sold at a discount - most titles are at least 50% off the cover price. We specialize in high quality new and used books in all categories, from kids' books to architecture and history. Browse our website, or come by our spacious 3,000 square foot store. Either way, our goal is to provide you with excellent customer service and great books at discount prices. The Book Table. 1045 Lake Street. Oak Park, IL 60301. 708.386.9800"
the Artemis Fowl books? Are they any good?
just started it. i went through big sur on highway one and it was amazing. my friend mollie talks about it a lot and we're hoping to take a road trip up there this summer, so i thought i'd read this homage.
There's an odd book called "A confederate general from Big Sur" by Richard Brautigan... Like most things he's written, I liked it and it made me want to go there. From the pictures I've seen I think that place deserves black and white infared film.
David Foster Wallace has a new book out. I checked it out yesterday at Border's. I read the first 30 pages of the first story, and I'd like to finish it.read the reviews that people have on the amazon link i have above. some are just stupid.
anyway, i'm sure if you like Wallace's stuff you'll probably enjoy this new collection of short stories.
Lukas posted that he's reading this guy's book about Mormons. I liked Into the Wild a lot. I have Into Thin Air but haven't read it. The Banner of Heaven book sounds pretty interesting.
highly recommended. A great book for a cold, dark winter night.
i'm picking away at this small book by howard zinn called disobedience and democracy, nine fallacies on law and order. despite the fact that it is fascinating and short, i'm still taking a really long time to read it.also of interest to me, though i haven't started or gotten my hands on a copy of it, is zinn's a people's history of the united states.
I'm currently reading A People's History..... I'm in the fourth chapter. It's great so far!
how you like it at the end. i'm really interested in it.also, my intention for this lovely saturday is to go up to borders and get a dictionary to replace the one my roommate accidentally threw away and the tibetan book of the dead, which i've wanted to read for years.
i'm reading the 9/11 commission report. or i started it anyway, yesterday over lunch and i've been wanting to get back to it since. maybe i'll grab a sandwich and go to the beach and read over my lunch hour.last night i went to a book signing/reading by an author who is the sister of a friend of a friend. helen scully is her name and her debut book, 'in the hope of rising again' is getting really wonderful reviews from major critics. it's being catagorized as historical fiction and is based on her family's history and set in the south. i have not yet read it, but from the discussion last night, it sounds good.
I was stuck in an airport without a book and went through the paperback best sellers shelf near the gate. I wasn't overly excited about anything I saw but settled on Ice Hunt. It's not bad.
Cold Mountain after seeing and liking the movie; interesting prose style, thick tone, concise clips of a long-gone America... I liked it.
I'm still working through A People's History of the United States--I get very frustrated by it though (not the book but the deeds it recounts) and I have to put it down and read something else for a bit.
For being the 1 out of 12 in the ratio for Cold Mountain. Should have been titled Glacial Mountain for its movement and pacing....Sorry for the bitterness. I'm currently drafting my hours-of-my-life refund request for God for the time spent on this book.
I love being a statistical anomily.
Were one-of-a-kind, Aimee.
i finished reading "give war a chance" last night, it wasn't that good. I felt like it was kindof a thrown together. it says "eyewitness accounts of mankind's struggle against tyrranly, injustice and alcohol-free beer" but it's just kind of a "this is where i was this is what i saw this is why i don't care that much and want to be back in a country where i can drink". O'rourke's later book, Eat the Rich, was much more enjoying, but i read it first, and it has some of the same material as this book which added to the dullness of it. i still plan on reading "CEO of the Sofa" next, but not until i'm done with "the art of wind playing" by Arthur Weisberg.
my advice: don't stop halfway through. I took a month or so off this book and I'm probably going to have to start again. The storylines are so dense and detailed, almost chokingly so, that it'll be hard to pick up where I left off. But if you liked Cpryptonomicon and Snow Crash then I think you'll like Quicksilver, just don't put it down for very long.
I read Quicksilver. You need a course--a bunch of detailed courses in the history of physics, the church in England and America, world history from 1400-1700, code theory, and specific English history from 1620-1714 when the Georges came into being king to fully understand that book.I was hooked with the prologue with Blackbeard chasing Daniel Waterhouse....and Half-Cocked Jack Shaftoe is delightful
On the other hand, SPOILERS!!!
The second book---I just blanked awfully on the title--suffers abominably from the saggy middle propensity of trilogies. I slogged through and then have put off reading no #3 which is out now... I feel strongly about that because Cryptonomicon is one of the best books I've ever read.
BTW, the Cryptic Studios designers, on the beta of City of Heroes, specifically listed a bunch of character names no one could use (obviously trademarked comic things, but in the top ten was--you guessed it--Hiro Protagonist. Cool.)
Seeing as you were the transfer coordinator at one point in time, how 'bout i fax over my transcript and you let me know if I'm qualified to read The Baroque Cycle?
I need a new book or two. Any recommendations for something a little lighter than "under the Banner of Heaven" (which I should read living in Utah) but not too mindless?
We'll collaborate between your sister, yourself, Pedro, and me. (and some outside consultants)....I still get calls from the admissions people who know me--what's even scarier is that those people who came in have undergone graduation audits and no death threats have been received by me...
I'm about a third of the way into a book I'm really digging. It's called 'Blue Like Jazz'. It's a book about a guy's spiritual journey to Faith. but it's not cheesy, or lame, or hokey, or filled with a bunch of Christian-ese lingo. in fact, I really like his writing style. very simple and straightforward.I recommend the book to anybody who has any interest in the Christian faith whatsoever. heck, even if you're not interested in that, you might get something out of it.
So I finished Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger. I have a hard time with Salinger. I really don't like his writing. Sorry Amy. I was really hoping that it would be much better than Catcher, but alas, it was only slightly. I will go into more detail upon request, but basically I feel silly complaining about books about New Englanders complaining.
i liked F&Z way more than Catcher. but neither was earth-shattering.
I love F & Z but can completely appreciate that others do not. Whine for me Salinger! Whine, whine, and whine some more! (Perhaps, I like Salinger because such a whiner myself...)
Maybe I should put this in the nerd category, but it fits so well right here. When I got the Sims, back before I decided that I despise the Sims, I moved the entire Glass family onto the block. But, it was really depressing that none of them were smart enough to go to the bathroom without assistance.
i liked F&Z. and Catcher. but Catcher didn't live up to the hype everybody gave it. probably because you have to read that book in high school in this country. and that holden kid sure speaks for a lot of high school kids. least the ones who can articulate their displacement and contempt. and F&Z was better, i thought. i mean, i really did like it. it's a good thinker. and i liked the whininess of it. i am a complainer too, when i don't keep myself in check. but it wasn't EARTH-SHATTERING.
Read Catcher until sophomore year in college, and I have never picked up another book by Salinger ever again. Hands down, he gets my vote for most overrated writer.
I believe Kerouac can beat Salinger as most overrated any day. He also falls into the catagory of the talking about talking boring whining crap I don't care about group.
the award goes to tom wolfe, courtesy of the NY Times
I have found much joy in the writings of Jack Kerouac and J.D. Salinger. Both writers often raise societal complaints through their characters, sure enough. Their characters often bemoan certain aspects of living. They don't stop there. And they don't whine. The discussions in 'F & Z' -as well as the musings of Holden in 'Catcher'- always attempt to grab hold of certain truths. Often those truths are too slippery for the characters, but these books offer avenues for our own discoveries, no matter where the characters are when the last page turns. Salinger has written many other stories that go in other directions besides pondering the weight of the eternal & the present [which is still not whining]. Over the course of Kerouac's books his alter ego throws himself fully into many differing belief systems, trying to find a true foundation. He often fails, or feels failed by the teachers he once held high, or by the friends he once felt united with. But his willingness to try something new, to try again and again, is captivating, and inspiring. He never claims to know it all. His descriptions of various American landscapes -not just in 'On the Road', but in 'Dharma Bums' and 'Big Sur' and elsewhere- are vivid and breathtaking. I especially recommend the last ten pages of 'Dharma Bums' coupled with the first few chapters of 'Desolation Angels'. These two books see the same landscape, but one through the eyes of hope and the following through the madness of isolation. He also has books of great tormented grief reflecting on youthful death, aged fading, and times when past failures outweigh possible new attempts. The conversations in 'F & Z' are talks that most people wish they could have in their days. To vent with freedom and without restraint. How many conversations have you pulled punches in order to establish a false peace, and then found yourself left with a tap water taste in your mouth because you never even gave yourself a chance to find out what you really needed to say, or feared hearing what the other would say? As if arguing means faulty relations, or not knowing equals weakness. To trust someone is to let it all hang out because you don't know. That is what a writer has to do, to have trust in readers, to believe that a reader will take it all in and then ask questions back at the text. Dig deeper. Find the mistakes and love them because they are human. They are offered. But at least do it. These quick critiques misuse this diner, because they are opinions that leave no tracks, no space for conversation or argument. Whining is sitting back, guarded by moats of fear, hiding from failure and critique, shooting arrows at those people willing to risk life in order to live it, risk being misunderstood in order to communicate. It's perfectly natural not to attach yourself to everything you read. I dislike plenty of things. But to call these two authors overrated whiners cowardly avoids the very important questions they ask. Questions that we all have asked, and don't stop asking just because we left high school. I congratulate those that have found true understanding in all their surroundings. It must be a palace of answers that you live in. I often gauge my present days by considering what a younger version of me would think of me now. I ask myself questions like, "what would the eight-year-old me think of me now?" or what would the 18 year old think, etc. Not that I buy into the very American ideal that youth is above all else, that we are doomed to an adult life that only tries to correct our failed place in high school society. But I don't want to forget banging my head against the gray painted walls, trying to find some black and white bricks underneath. I don't want to forget staying awake alone all night, hoping my thoughts stumble onto something that may soothe my pounding heart so that I may one day go to sleep peacefully. I don't want to leave things behind just because they hurt or didn't make sense. But most of it still doesn't make sense. And there is even more to add to that undecipherable pile. I definitely don't want to simplify the days just to feel mature or adult. And I fight against a forced silence, because I do fear being a troublesome burden, or a `whiner' if you please, to someone I am speaking with. I fight against the feeling that verbal worries are repulsive to others. If the world doesn't have enough answers for all the questions we ask, from our first thoughts to our times when only memory is left, that doesn't mean constant questions, continual attempts at unearthing relationships & identity, marrying free thought with destiny, or reevaluating faith is whining. But if you feel that Salinger and Kerouac whine too much don't read another book of theirs. Be happy that you fought through the one or two stories you were prodded into picking up. Just don't read them and you'll avoid the so-called `whining'. That's what I do with most of the entries on this diner.
I love you, Peter Carlson.
I can only blame my own personality defects, not Mr. Salinger or mr. Keroac's writing. They're writing just doesn't fit me. Believe me... I have been resisting reading either for years after reading Catcher for the 3rd unintrested time. I will refrain more carefully in the future.
was wrong with just saying "To each their own", Peter?
`To each their own' is a wonderful ending to an argument that we haven't yet had. It shouldn't be the starting point. I didn't want to see those writers torn down with no defense, not when I felt completely otherwise. I gave my two cents. I think of the diner as a place for conversation. For discussion. That's not a new thought, and it wasn't mine first. I know I don't post here often. Hell, I don't feel that my thoughts are all that interesting most of the time. But conversational arguments can be held here, sharing opposing views, fighting it out in words in attempts to make a connection. But I don't buy most of the movie-poster one-liners that get thrown around here. Come on, Gunch, I've heard you rant and rave. Let loose. Calling a writer the most overrated because of one book - that's not good enough. Go ahead and rip 'Catcher' to shreds [you read it, you have opinions] but don't go for the Bruckheimer flash, the pomp and circumstance sun-times quotable, and skip over the details. What drives you mad about it, what digs into, what stops your breath and steals your desire to start it up again? I've been blessed to speak with a lot of the folk that post here, good conversations that aren't built on flare or witticisms. However, I often think that postings here sell their writers short. Yeah, I love Kerouac and Salinger, and a hell of a lot of others. I love them sometimes not for the `earth-shattering' divinity of their written words', but just because they wrote. And they kept on writing. They didn't settle for the quote of the day, the cynical jab from the peanut gallery. The patrons of this diner have a collective creativity and brilliant livelihood that astonishes me. I have been blessed to witness what little I can of this. But what have we all done so far? These flippant comments don't reflect well, too much oil in the water. Give more time to ``your own'', more character to your statements. Many stunted conversations here miss opportunities because people curb their thoughts in order to play footsy with equally voiceless other posts, unwilling to set aside good feelings for communicative depth. What happens is all that blocked emotion comes out in passive aggressive attacks on written works, popular music, books, and movies, and also in vague attacks on the culture of `them'. I prefer dirt in my teeth and sand in my hair. I don't want to replicate silly ``hello, how are you'' exchanges that we all give out during the day. Let your heart bleed. I want to read more people loving something. Truly loving something, no matter what the next post could reply. I don't care about my certification ranking. I've always been a tourist, even before this diner went up. I yell and scream at myself all day, back and forth and a third voice chiming in. I know many here do the same. So use chances in life like this diner to hide behind little comments. You know the old English major drill. Give some textual analysis, give name to your irked feelings. I think that there's much more beneath the surface. Open it up. I can respect someone that hates Kerouac because of reasons, because they tried and didn't feel it fit. Of course, to each their own. But what the hell is your own? What can you not live without? There are uses for those English degrees out there, even if they aren't paying. Quality. There's enough quantity in the world. Throw something out to the world, throw something out to the diner and let them chew on it. Let them hate it. Let them love it. Give something tangible and alive. I'd much rather part with 'to each their own' if everyone's own had a pulse.
Sorry... I didn't mean to start anything.
Peter-- thanks for your last post. I, like Matt, was a little uncomfortable with the one before that because I felt that it was condescending, but, after reading this one, I think that I understand what you were trying to say better. Your passion is important. It can remind us that we too are passionate.... I think that sometime we do resort to the simple and easy way out in conversations here in ways that we would never do in person- we're trying to be polite or we're afraid of being misunderstood- like Prufrock we ask, Do I dare disturb the universe. I know that I think about those things (though clearly not enough since I was misunderstood about the whole certification thing, but that's of very little import).
And, since you asked, I've never read Kerouac, but here's what I love about Franny & Zooey (notice, I am not extending this to Catcher which I don't love). I feel personally connected to the characters, especially Franny but to each of the Glasses in some respect except BoBo and Waker, because often I too look at the world and feel impotent in its seeming emptiness/uselessness/superflousness... To find characters who are intelligent and caring who also feel lost in the mess, like they're trudging through mud for they know-not-what (and who do occassionally whine out like true human beings), is comforting. Franny and Zooey make me feel less alone in the universe. If I had my copy in front of me, I could reference specific words, phrases, and ideas that confront & comfort me; but I've done with it the best thing that anyone can do with a book that they love, I've lent it to a friend.
I wish that I had a good analytical reason for liking Catcher less, but my reason again is just a personal response. I never could relate to Holden. When I was his age, I was too full of sunshine and flowers and cuddly bunnies. I vaguely understood the concepts and themes enough to get an A on a paper on it in 11th grade, but didn't fully grasp his desperation and doubt til I read him again in college. Unfortunately, by then I think I was a little too late. I finally understood what he was going through, but I never lived it. It's a silly way to read books maybe, but I read books to make connections. Wasn't it in The Shadowlands--"We read to know that we are not alone"?
The saddest thing about this is....I do not have the time or luxury any more to have free passions. I must only be passionate about that which I am mandated, or charged.But, the Amazing A is right, thanks for your post--and your clarification post.
I recently read the book Feed by M.T. Anderson. I suppose that you'd call it adolescent literature. Someone had recommended it to me several months ago at an AP conference as a possible companion piece to Brave New World. The basic premise behind it is that in the future, people will have computer feeds installed in their brains at birth--the ultimate wireless connection, complete with pop-up ad banners and automatic bill pay. The plot revolves around Titus, a teenager, who has to re-evaluates the convenience of the feed when he falls in love with a girl who's feed is malfunctioning. Overall, I thought that the book was pretty good. I think that it's a good way to introduce students to science fiction literature. However, I think that the book ended up falling a little short of its potential when it came to its criticism of consumerism. Still, I thought that I'd mention it to all of you computer nerds out there--some of the ideas are fantastic. It'd be a quick, not-unfulfilling read.
i'm reading the iliad and i'm nuts about it.
Whenever I'm at a place that has cable I always try to catch the cooking show: America's Test Kitchen because it's just such a geeky cooking show. I've also picked up the magazine Cooks Illustrated now and again and really enjoyed the no-nonsense style. These people are not celebrity chefs out to sell cookbooks and dvd's and schwag--they just love good food and love figuring out the best way to get there. Which brings me to my new favorite cookbook: The New Best Recipes - by the Editor's of Cooks Illustrated Magazine. It's a big cookbook with 1,000 recipes and includes blurbs on food science and product testing. This weekend I made a beef stew recipe from the book and even using a real lean piece of round roast it was really good beef stew (which I will shortly have for lunch). Not only do they present recipes they also tell you why they arrived at that particular recipe. This makes it a wonderful tool as you can take their suggestions and use them in other recipes. Plus all the little food science blurbs are super cool. I'm considering subscribing to the Cooks Illustrated website just for searchable access to the science information. I used to rely on The Joy of Cooking for all my basic food preparation needs but The New Best Recipes might just supplant that on my kitchen shelf and the first book I turn to for help. I can't wait to try out their pad thai recipe as well as the simplified Coq au Vin.
by Marion Meade. I love a good biography. I finished it last night (at 3 a.m., by the way. 4 hours of sleep is not enough for me, I have to remember that). Really great, descriptive, factual but entertaining. She had a fascinating and also a sad life. She was not a happy person. Recommended.
i do not read nearly enough these days. just enough to lead the small group i lead on thursday nights. finishing Mere Christianity this week, then a week to talk about a movie we're supposed to watch and discuss, and then on to The Story We Find Ourselves In by Brian McLaren. i haven't read it yet, but it was recommended by a good source. I need to stop watching TV and start reading more. I still haven't finished the DFW book about infinity yet...
I re-read this over spring break because I'd assigned it to my honors English class based on the vague memory that I'd read it as a sophomore and thought it was good... I was right. I am not a die hard Dickens fan as some of you may remember from Eng Lit II with deRoulet, but AToTC is a fine story. Yes, the tone gets didactic at times and the serial style is often annoying, but what a tremendous cast of characters swept up in a period of history that if nothing else was saturated with passion. I cannot wait to start teaching this book on Monday... I hope that the students enjoy it as much as I'm thinking they will. It's always a disappointment when they don't...
by far the coolest book i picked up in this weekends haul of used books was a little book called Pocket Ref. It's a pocket-sized 541 page book packed full of random reference information. From radioactive isotope half lives to maximum floor joist spans to logarithim tables to resisitor color codes to conversion tables for all manner of units. It's so cool! According to this, beeswax has a specific gravity of 0.96 whereas solid dolomite is 2.9. Hah! It even has a table of computer ASCII codes. Too bad it doesn't have a table of HTML entities instead.
I have that! alh's mom bought it for me as a Christmas present. It was my bathroom reader for a while.
I finally finished Quicksilver, Book One of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. I enjoyed it for thoe most part. It's definitely long and vast in scope. There are a plethora of characters to keep track of, many of whom have different titles throughout the book. There's action, science, war, political intrigue, religion, and even some sex thrown in for good measuer. If you enjoy 900 page epics with loose plots and lots of characters then this book is for you. I'm going to forge ahead and start on The Confusion this weekend. At only 816 pages I should be ready for vol. 3 in no time at all.
The presence of Blackbeard at the beginning of that hooked me, but about 1/4 of the way into the Confusion, I realized that my pirate infatuation had masked the fact that I didn't care for any of the main characters very much---even Jack Shaftoe. Furthermore, you really need a degree in English History--Civil War and Restoration specialty, 17th century European politics.....Even the fact that these are the ancestors of our favorite heroes in Cryptonomicon couldn't save the fact that this is a big loose mess...
Kudos to you for teh effort to finish. Lukas for teh win!
by C.S. Lewis. I plan on reading that this weekend. Will someone help me out here--did we read that in deRoulet's Christian Lit course? I should remember, I am a bad English major. I was burning tha candle at both ends pretty hard-core those days and some of my undergrad days are a blur. Thanks.
by a C.S. Lewis course I took the same year. anyone who had Jam3s N3lson, did you know he retired? (he is one crazy, crazy human being. I mean that in a nice way, of course).
It was the CS Lewis course that read "The Abolition of Man" not Christian Lit... (Hmmm-- I'm afraid that I didn't like the CS Lewis class. I found Dr. N3lson's quirks annoying and his lectures dry... Fortunately, I still love CS, so I was permeanently scarred.)
Lewis' Mere Christianity in my small group. it's a pretty good book, though I don't agree with everything he has to say. it was very tough to to tailor it to a Small Group discussion, however. luckily, my group isn't afraid to talk and chase each other down long, winding tangents for hours. which is all i really want them to do is to talk and discuss and get to the heart of things. i'm more of a guide than a teacher in that respect.one thing I can say about Lewis: he had a peculiar knack for coming up with good analogies.
At some point early this morning I completed The System of the World thereby completing the Baroque Cycle. The ending was somewhat of a letdown after all that went on in the previous 2,600 pages. I guess not so much a let down but I would have preferred a longer Epilogue after the final climax. I guess I have to make it up on my own. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable three volumes. Stephenson can be a bit wordy at times and he has some storytelling gimmicks that annoyed me a little but he really is a good storyteller.Next reading project: Ulysses
Orson Scott Card's Maps in a Mirror. it's the giant single-volume edition of most of his short fiction - science and otherwise. i've read it before, but it's been a long time, and i do like those stories.
I found the ending somewhat of a let-down the first time, but having recently re-read the Cycle I can say I think it was pretty well done. It is a seamless whole.
The local NPR station doesn't get "This American Life" which is an absolute crime. I was lamenting this fact with a friend and she said she had just finished reading Nakedby David Sedaris. David has had part of this book, and I'm assuming some other stories read on this life. It's good stuff and I'd recommend his writing.I also read part of "Drinking, Smoking and Screwing" the other day. It's a collection of "Great Writers on Good Times." It has two of my favorite authors in it, Brautigan and Bukowski. Needless to say it wasn't in my local bookstore. Utah can be frustrating. Nothing by Bukowski in the local library at all!
I reread the last four of the Anne of Green Gables books this past weekend and was so glad that I did. They make me believe in the beauty and goodness of the world.
I've also just started reading Reading Lolita in Tehran so far it is very good. It is about a group of women who form a book club and read banned books. Such an interesting look into Iran's history as experienced by a group of educated women. However, I am thinking that I probably should have read Lolita before reading this one as I know that I am only partially understanding some of the metaphors.
please post comments on the newest Harry Potter, those who have read it. spoilers ok, just warn everyone first. i will post more after work tonight.
THIS POST CONTAINS SERIOUS SPOILERS. PLEASE DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THE BOOK.
I guess that a person's reaction to book 6 is going to be directly tied to the question of whether or not you believe that Snape is evil. I, for one, don't buy it. I think that Dumbledore wanted Snape to kill him to protect both Malfoy and his status as a double agent. I base this on a conversation that Hagrid overhears between Dumbledore and Snape in which Dumbledore is telling Snape that he can't back out of their agreement--an agreement which I'm assuming involves killing Dumbledore as a fail safe. I am just not willing to believe that Dumbledore is that mistaken about Snape, and I certainly think that he had some other reason to trust him other than the one that Harry believes (that Snape overheard the prophecy that got Harry's parents killed and felt badly- yeah right). I think that Rowling really tries to bring the readers to see things from Harry's point-of-view at the end of the novel so that she can then pull the wool from everybody's eyes in book 7.
I have a prediction about R.A.B.-- I think that it was Sirius' younger brother Regulus who was a death eater at one point, but then tried to leave them. He was killed a week later- a week is enough time to steal a horcrux or two... How convenient that Harry owns his old place!
Other general comments, I don't think that Rowling did a good enough job developing the Tonks & Lupin romance. If she had a purpose for doing it, then she should have done it better, and if she didn't really have a purpose for it then she shouldn't have put it in at all. Also, the Fleur/Bill stuff seemed a bit unnecessary. However, I did think that she did a good job in developing Malfoy's character and establishing the backstory on Voldemort--things that I've been anticipating since the series started. Also, the teen romance & angst stuff was laugh out loud funny, but what was up with the Spiderman "we-can't-be-together" crap? Stupid canned response.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERSthe spiderman thing was my first thought too. that, in fact, was my only real criticism of the whole thing. i have really been wanting harry and ginny to finally get together since the 2nd book. it finally happens, and then he cops out? i think when the dust settles, they'll be together. so i'm suspending judgment on it. but maybe the whole 'love is so powerful' thing comes into play here, in that voldemort will not have ginny as a bargaining tool against harry when it hits the fan. i don't know.
i like the horcrux thing. very LOTR, the bad guy putting part of himself in a powerful object to preserve his life. having to destroy those objects to ultimately destroy the evil in the end. according to rowling, she's never finished LOTR, but i'll bet she knows its very similar, all the same.
tonks&lupin = no point, other than a red herring plot hook to get the readers hung up on. but nobody really cared that much about them in the first place to make it a big deal. we'll see.
draco's attempts at power and glory, along with his still very real adolescent vulnerability was pretty cool to see.
i agre RE snape. i am not convinced that he is bad. and i bet we see dumbledore rise again, just like fawkes the phoenix.
Pearl Buck's "The Good Earth" and Esmerelda Santiago's "When I was Purto Rican (Quando era puertoriquena)." Both are very good.I finished a class last night, complete with the most useless but easy final ever (no complaints), and do not start another class for 3 whole weeks. This is the longest break I've had since starting school last June. I can read whatever...I...want. For three whole weeks. Rad.
"tonks&lupin = no point, other than a red herring plot hook to get the readers hung up on. but nobody really cared that much about them in the first place to make it a big deal. we'll see."
It's not that I don't care about Tonks & Lupin. I really like both of the characters (Lupin is one of my favorites), but I just don't think that she developed their bit of plot enough to make it believable.
"and i bet we see dumbledore rise again, just like fawkes the phoenix."
My dad thinks so too... I am not convinced.
i am not sure either. but Dumbledore went down without much fanfare or fuss. i mean, it was sad and all, but it was quick. and she pointed to the phoenix a few times. i could be wrong. it would certainly work, plotwise, without the big D in the picture at the end. and it would follow that harry has to take what he learned from dumbley and hogwarts and pursue voldy by himself. but i wouldn't be surprised if he came back somehow.
SPOILERS...........I agree on the Tonks and Lupin thing--but it's not necessarily a red herring, per se. If you remember how Snape treats Tonks--and conversely , Lupin's point about the power Snape had over him when he was teaching at the school, it's more of the Rowling What's Up With Snape mini-plot? Yet Snape is a jerk to Tonks, and it's clear that he knows why she's despondent.
It's more of the background of the interaction between Harry's parents' generation of wizardhood.
I'd like to believe he's evil, ole Snivellus, but Rowling's far too clever for that. (Though I, like whoever mentioned it above, spotted RAB for Regulus A Black in about two seconds flat, though I missed the implication for that particular clue that Harry now owns #12, Grimmauld Place).
It sounds like a most-Dumbledorish thing to say in answer to the question of trust; "Because he's going to kill me"
and besides the side-along thing, when does Harry actually Apparate on his own? (Before the end of the book mind you)...
Also, you may note--if you have not already--that relationships happen in key pairs, Harry-Dumbledore mirrors Tom Riddle/Voldemort--Dumbledore, which in turn mirrors Snape/Harry/Dumbledore
Ok so the next book I am eagerly awaiting is the next from George RR Martin's Song of Fire and Ice series, because that's the best series that's come out in a while. But, before that series there are two that I started and love equally, Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth Series, which is still my favorite. The last book in that was very very good, and it's one of a trilogy that ends his series, which he has done in good pace and form.Meanwhile the other series is one that I think a lot of us on here have read, and begun to hate. Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, or "Waste of Time" as I've heard it called. The first 4 books were FANTASTIC, but the subsequent 6, that's right 6!, were not so much.
So, his 11th book in the series comes out in like 2 weeks, I said after the last one that I wasn't even going to buy it, until I read this:
Starred Review. The previous book in Jordan's massive Wheel of Time, Crossroads of Twilight, may have come out in 2003, but don't let that fool you; the 11th tome in this epic fantasy is the one Jordan fans have been eagerly waiting for the better part of a decade. The breakneck pace, lyrical beauty and astonishing scope of the early Wheel of Time volumes established Jordan as one of the top writers in the Tolkien tradition. While more recent entries have maintained that beauty and scope, the pace has slowed to a crawl as the central characters dispersed in six directions. In contrast, the latest explodes with motion, as multiple plot lines either conclude or advance, and the march to Tarmon Gai'don--the climactic last battle between the Dragon Reborn and the Dark One--begins in earnest. Faile's captivity with the Shaido, Mat's pursuit of Tuon and Elayne's war for Caemlyn come to a close, while Egwene's capture brings the Aes Sedai war to the heart of the Tower. Jordan has said that readers will be sweating by the end of the book, and he's probably right. Sweating or not, they'll also be dreading the long year or two before the 12th installment.
HE ACTUALLY ENDS SOMETHING!
If this book as actual plot advancement and even some conclusions, I just may have to buy it. Which is good since the Next George RR Martin book isn't out for another month.
And that's my long post on trashy fantasy books.
I'm stuck in the middle of Gr3gory Maguir3's Wicked. I borrowed it from a woman I work with--she really likes it and uses it in her senior English class to teach archetypes, but I just am not enjoying it. I don't really think he's that good of a writer.
I am, however, enjoying a Shakespeare biography I bought the other day, Will in the World. I'm only forty pages in, but all signs seem good. I'll keep you posted.
i think i am going to pick up Consider the Lobster tomorrow. a new book of essays by David Foster Wallace.i expect it to be good. i will keep you posted.
My wife and nonbiological sister love Maguire. I picked up W*cked and could not make it past the heavy-handed sociopolitical critique and heavy archetype brushing of the characters. I didn't care about a one of them. I know he's trying to spin popular literature with the bigger political/sociological systems of our world (communism, socialism, industrialism, marxism, etc) but I really think he forgot that people have to find someone or something to identify/care about in one's plots...My best evidence for this is that once they stripped the basic plot of all his little spin quirks, and gave it songs, and a beat you can dance to, the musical Wicked is the hottest ticket in Chicago.
Got the CTL the other day. Enjoyed muchly. Will have to obtain ASFTINDA.
great book.
I'm in the middle of the second book in a fantasy trilogy by Fiona McIntosh called "The Quickening". The pace is a bit slow, but the plot definately continues to surprise me. The hero is a twenty-something soldier who by birth is the commander of the royal army. However, his allegience to the kingdom is tested when the good king dies and his selfish son takes the throne. The selfish son really is an evil character, and I'm looking forward to his demise which I'm assuming will come at the end of the third book. What makes the plot so twisting and weaving and unpredictable and fun up to the point that I'm at is that a witch gave the main character a "gift" which I'm going to spoil for you--each time the character is killed (it's happened twice so far), his soul transfers into his killer's body. So, he gets to keep fighting the good fight against the evil king, but each of the new bodies bring unique consequences. Anyway, I'm recommending it to all you fantasy fans out there for summer reading.
Oh, and I finished Xenocide the other day. That was good reading. But, I feel more pressure at the end of this one to search out sequels than I did at the end of the other 3 I've read in the series...
after Xenocide comes Children of the Mind, right? you gotta go all the way with this one. one of my favorite series of all time. then you'll have to go back and read ender's shadow and the shadow of the hegemon and the rest.crazy stuff.
jane is one of my favoritest characters in fiction.
i've been re-reading a prayer for owen meany. it's such a wonderfully brilliant book.
Ha, I got stuck early in Wicked, too. But the play is wonderful.
consider the lobster was good. i'd already read Up Simba! as an eBook. so a chunk of CTL was cutout, and it became shorter than I had expected (of course, I could read it again).I love DFW's maddening attachment to crazy and crazier footnotes/endnotes.
been reading a poker book lately. i won't bore you all with my thoughts on it.
I've been reading E. Annie Proulx's books this summer. Accordion Crimes was very interesting. The review of it on curledup.com is accurate. I can see why my grandma used to read James Michener or some historical fiction now.Pedro - Maybe an accordion will find you! Pawnshop?
It's the lovely little book of essays and ramblings on nature by Aldo Leopold, one of the fathers of american ecology. It's a nice little read and makes me really want to spend more time outdoors.Anyone who likes nature should pick it up.
yeah, i love that book
i just picked up the latest installment in 2 of Orson Scott Card's series. I'm reading Shadow of the Giant now, and then the next Alvin Maker book. we just went and got a bunch of books recently. i'm glad jackie likes to read.
So I picked up Sand County Almanac because I've always meant to read it. I need to read a lot more because I've decided which schools I'm going to apply to for my PhD. after Meagan is done with her schooling, and that means I have to catch myself up on what I've forgotten. Sometimes I wish I'd gone right out of undergrad so that I would have had it all fresh in my mind. Luckily I don't forget stuff often.
Aldo is mos def the man as is what I've read of Sand County A. I especially remember, at the beginning, his beautiful rumination on trees as a source of energy; the fallen tree on his property and how you can trace Wisconsin's history in its rings, and how the sun's warmth that fed the tree is eventually released as the warmth in his stove for heating. Very poetic.Have you read any David James Duncan? I have a feeling you'd get him. And Muir of course; even if that man hadn't written books his beard was enough to make him my idol.
I have no idea how many times I've read this book, but every time I pick it up it surprises me into loving it a little more.
I just noticed that this entree got started with Steve Martin's "Shopgirl" and blvdgirl said:"Eventually, they will probably make it into a mini- series that you can ignore as well."
And they did!
(Ok... well, a movie. Did anyone see it?)
i saw it recently at home. it was forgettable.
i found both the book and the movie to be quite good.in fact, after watching the movie a few weeks ago, my roommate and i concurred that we had been thinking about it and would like to watch it again. not that i think it would ever WIN an oscar, but i think it's one of the best movies i've seen in recent years.
A new paperback version of Infinite Jest apparently just came out $8 on Amazon.Also, this book is siting on my desk at work, in case I need to laugh.
Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): improbably deformed, howling fantods, entertainment cartridge, annular fusion, feral hamsters, dawn drills, tough nun, prochain train, professional conversationalist, spontaneous dissemination, new bong, metro boston, tennis academy, red leather coat, appropriation artist, red beanie, addicted man, magnetic video, little rotter, littler kids, technical interview, police lock, veiled girl, sober time, oral narcoticsAwesome.
but on that list should be sth from my crim law book-- "reasonable glue sniffer"
I mean I've spent plenty of time being an unreasonable glue sniffer, but reasonable glue sniffer is just silly.
Have I ever mentioned that Severus Snape is hot? I mean, he's really, really hot. And no, I don't care if that means there's something wrong with me. Snape's just that hot. He's hotter than John Hodgeman OR Aragorn.
I finished the final installment of the Harry Potter series late last night.I was happy with it. I don't wan't to put in any spoilers just yet. so I will only make general comments right now.
Is anybody else reading this currently?
obviously JKR tied up a lot of loose ends. she explained things that were unclear in other books. she brings in just about every character you've ever met in the series in some way or another - whether in a memory or recollection, or in some part of the plot. i liked seeing those characters again. i would have been fine if some elements were left unanswered, but i certainly don't mind knowing what happened.
there wasn't anything i was disappointed by. the ending of the story was great. not necessarily what i expected, or how i expected it, but i liked it.
i don't know what else to say without spoiling anything.
let me know when y'all are done.
raskol got me this for my birthday... it is absolutely incredible. it could basically go on the shelf next to a 1950s boy scout handbook and is one part field manual, one part liberal arts education, and one part fact book. right up my alley.
I finished it too baggins. I feel the same way about the loose ends, although I expect people will feel cheated about a couple of characters lack of screen time...well, Harry can't be everywhere at once.The feel of the whole book was very different, which I suppose should have been expected. It's like the beginning and end parts of GoF stretched out full length.
Mainly I'm just sad it's over (among other things in the book proper)...but it'll be fun to reread them all knowing what I know now.
I finished it the first night because I am a lunatic that prefers stories to sleep... I too thought the ending very good, though I too am sad. I also feel pretty vindicated in a lot of my speculations--it's always fun to be right. I don't think that the epilogue was necessary or that it really answered the kind of questions that I wanted answered, but the climax was amazing.... When we're ready to start "spoiling", I will have more specific things to say.
pedro- I saw that book in an airport recently and flipped through it (I assumed that it would be safe for me because I'm a girl). It looked great. I might get it for my nephew when he's a couple of years older.
i agree about being vindicated on a couple of accounts. i won't say more, but i was right. not that it was difficult to predict some of these things, but it feels good to know i could see where she was going.i wasn't all that thrilled with the epilogue, either. if that's the last chapter that's been written for 17 years and locked up safe, i think maybe she should have rewritten it. or at least considered it. it didn't wrap up much, and was rather bland.
more when we're ready to spoil.
I finished it last night and thought it was excellent - but I'll throw my coin in the opposite fountain as I liked the epilogue. Not one of those all time great epilogues - it's no Moby Dick - but I thought it was good. Anything's going to be a comedown after that ending, but I think it's good she showed us what she did. I felt that it carried the theme or moral through to a fuller conclusion. But I agree, I felt like some of the writing itself was choppy in that last bit.Man it's hard to talk about a book when you're not really allowed to talk about it! It's like trying to explain a recipie to someone who would start weeping terribly if you mentioned food.
We say that after Wednesday, the book reviews entree will be taken over with Harry Potter spoilers... is that good enough for everyone? Speak up or forever hold your peas.
I'm 340 pages into it, but didn't have much reading time because of birthday festivities this weekend. So I should be done by WEdnesday or Thursday.
I thought the book ended quite well. I would have prefered a little more in the way of wrap-up, but the epilogue was nice.*SPOILERS*
I did think that Snape was good so that wasn't a surprise, and I knew without a doubt that Harry was a Horcrux, but I was wrong in that I thought that Dumbledore was still alive. I also thought that Snape was going to be more instrumental in the defeat of Voldemort than just getting killed like a punk.
I also thought that Harry was going to die, but not that he was going to come back. I thought that Voldemort killing him would kill both of them. But then as I got to that point I knew Harry wasn't going to actually die. My thought was that either Harry, Ron, or Hermione were going to die. I was bummed to see Tonks and Lupin get killed. It was very circular of her to leave Harry with an orphaned god-child.
OK I have to get some work done. Everyone else let me know your thoughts.
SPOILERSI too thought that Snape was good. I defended him over and again after the 6th book. However, as book 7 continued and there was still no justification for Snape, I began to get more and more depressed. When he feld from Minerva and the other heads of houses right before the climax, I thought that was it. The death knell to my theory that Snape was a hero and not a villian... she got be to believe his culpibility. And I was devastated by that. Then, she turned put in Snape's chapter and the world made sense again. I was delighted, actually weeping in both joy and sorrow based on the circumstance. Anyway, if she did nothing else right, JK did right by Severus Snape.
i think a lot of people felt the same way. i always knew snape had to be good. had to be. the only thing i wish we could have seen is how it affected him to be under such deep cover with the deatheaters all the time. i mean, he WAS good ultimately. but she kinda hinted that the only reason he was loyal to HP is because of his (kinda creepy) obsession with Lily Potter. are we to believe that Snape was ALL good? I hardly think that's the case. It seems as if his obsession with LP was just enough for him to make the right moves during the whole endgame to help Harry ultimately do what he needed to do. but it also seems that Severus might just have been enough of a bad guy, or at least his intentions were dubious enough for his association with the deatheaters to be quite easy for him.
crap! well so much for reading the books!just kidding. I've got three and four ready to bind and then I'll read them all (after i snag them and bind them--i get back to you in a few years). Though i wish she would have left snape's good/evilness up for debate forever.
on a completley unrelated note, i finished infinite jest for the thrid time last month (yes, it's been that long since i posted, and the ending made my head spin for weeks. Talk about not wrapping things up. At first I wanted to take DFW out for several beers and pick his brain as to what, in his mind, happened to Hal between Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment and Year of Glad. But then I decided that would ruin all the fun out of coming up with crazy theories to fill in the gaps. But I still would like to pick his brain for a night.
i'm considering a 4th read soon.let me know if you ever get to have beers with DFW. i will be there.
I waited, as you might know, until my friend got back two Mondays ago. Who didn't get engaged by the way. And we were both delighted to find that he was sick so we could lie in bed all day and read HP7. We finished last Saturday morning at 3:30 am, having started on Tuesday and taking one day off to work. That's not bad time for reading a long book like that aloud!Oh, it was lovely.
I suppose I'll be reading it again on the 9th or the 10th of September, in Turkish, on the bus ride from Istanbul to Ankara. To myself this time :-)
I didn't think Harry was a horcrux and so was surprised at that, but I was sure Dumbledore was dead and I was sure Snape was good. I mean how else could I have read it in the middle of the book when we hear that he sent DA members to do detention with Hagrid?
I was very happy with Neville's bravery, etc. even though I had thought he might have been the one the prophecy was about after all.
I was vindicated in my belief that there had been something going on between Lily and Snape, even if it was only friendship on Lily's side.
And I figured Snape had to die. What was he going to be if he stuck around? I mean, even if people thought him brave they weren't going to cry and hug him and stuff. He would never go for that.
Ah, Snape. *sigh*
Yes, BigJ, circular to leave Teddy with godparent Harry. That idea--that she would not have killed off Teddy's godparent with his parents and left him all alone--was the only thing that kept me hoping that although Harry clearly had to do some kind of dying that he would come back.
Now if you were Rowlings, what would you do? I mean, you'd have to either not publish again or you'd have to work again on something very, very different. I respect her so much that if I write more it would have to go under "The World is NOT Going to Pot Pie."
Dobby's death, a little Harry walking to his death, for the whole chapter
ETA shirts
I bought an ETA shirt
JK announced on her US book tour that her character, Albus Dumbledore, was/is gay... My question is why make the announcement. I have no problem with the author of a series of novels that I totally dig creating elaborate back stories on each of the characters, and I don't mind that part of Dumbledore's backstory is that he's gay. I do mind the fact that she's revealing this information in a way that seems intentionally inflamatory; she specifically said that she expected that the conservative Christian groups that already opposed her novels would now have another reason... The novels aren't political--they're children's fantasy stories--and whether or not Dumbledore is gay has no effect on the plot or even the character development within the events of the books (imo). So, I just don't think that her dramatic reveal was necessary.
One reason is that lots of fans already speculated about it and it was a matter of contention. She already had a backstory, so at a certain point, why not reveal something of what was a part of her creation of the character? Putting it into context, say, if Tolkien had a backstory for the Sackville-Bagginses (which I'm sure he did, actually) explaining, say, why they were so money grubbing and unhappy, and someone asked him a question about it -- even though the backstory "has no effect on the plot or character development" why not answer truthfully from out of that backstory? I think the difference is that this aspect to his backstory is controversial.As to the political aspect of it, I think it is a fact that many conservative Christian groups think JKs books are truly tools of the devil, which I would guess probably flabbergasts Rowlings. I really don't think it's a stretch for her to innocently muse out loud that it's going to be more fuel for their fire.
Naked Before God by Bill Williams. It was lent me by the friend who recommended it which is a good thing, I gather, because it is out of print. It is pretty amazing so far. It's about a man who has cystic fibrosis and diabetes who for the sake of the fiction is the disciple, Nathaniel... Here's the beginning:
"In the beginning was the word: perfect, pure and holy--and then we started messing with it. It's a wonder God hasn't struck us down yet.
"My name is Nathaniel. I am writing this book. It is a piece of fiction. that is to say, it is an irresponsible pack of lies. Don't believe a word of it!
"I wish it could be different; I wish I could tell you the truth. I struggle, in fact, after that chimera--look at these smudges, already accumulating on the page--but I know I'm chasing the wind. It's a hopeless task, trying to capture the word. Vanity, as Solomon would say."
...Anyway, I encourage you all to rush out and make use of your public library or local used book seller. I just know I'm going to keep wanting to talk about this one.
I'm also re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird for the umpteenth time with my 9th graders. Seriously, it's a great, great book.
