|
I just finished The Gunslinger last night. I thought it was a good read. I'd be a little upset at the ending if I didn't have the next book to read. I'm excited to continue the series.
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2007 21:44
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 11:30 |
|
|
I finished yesterday The Middle East: 2000 years of history from the rise of Christianity to the present day by Bernard Lewis. It briefly covers the state of the Middle East before the rise of Islam, when it was divided between the Eastern Roman (or Byzantine) and Persian empires and then goes on to describe its conquest by the Arabs and the subsequent Islamization of the region. Afterwards it follows the history of these states until the conquest of the region by the Ottoman empire. Following that it has chapters describing the state, economy, ruling class, commoners, religion and law, and culture of the Islamic states during the middle ages. After that, it covers the decline of the Muslim world compared to western Europe and the changes that this brought to Middle Eastern societies and concludes by discussing the history of the region up to today. I found this book to be quite interesting; it places a primary focus on the structure and culture of the Middle Eastern societies and how they evolved through the past two millennia, rather than on the military history of the region. It also discusses the theology and evolution of Islam, which I found quite interesting, since I haven't previously read much on this subject. Overall, I found it to be an interesting book, and would recommend it to people that are interested in learning about the history of that turbulent region.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2007 22:54
|
|
|
organism013 posted:I also think you did kind of hit it on the head when you compared Gen Y to the Lost Generation- like I said, I could basically go to any bar or dance club in my city and see pretty much exactly what was going on in the novel. Very interesting point, bears exploring. Oh thank you. I was looking for at least one other person to mildly agree with me... to sorta convince me I may be on the right track. I'm trying to get something published that delves into this theory.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2007 00:53
|
|
|
Dostoevsky's The Gambler. I chose it because I've recently taken the plunge into sports betting and wanted something topical. It's very light and straight forward compared to Dostoevsky's other works, which isn't surprising considering it's his most autobiographical. It basically profiles his odyssey as a compulsive gambler and its effect on those surrounding him, beginning with betting on roulette as a hobby, to relying on it for his primary source of income, to becoming entrenched in it to the point that it's the only stability in his life, making him lose any sense of self-identity in the process. The driving plot, however, is his inexplicable affection for a woman named Polina whom he's absolutely obsessed with, much of which ties in to gambling itself. I'm beginning to learn why Dostoevsky had the reputation of a madman with all these bizarre and sadomasochistic relationships. Anyway, I enjoyed it immensely. I'm planning on reading Notes from Underground next.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2007 02:58
|
|
|
Tristessa, by Jack Kerouac. Once I got past the idiosyncratic use of punctuation, I really enjoyed it. Fun Fact: Apparently, on Saturday, there was a marathon reading of On The Road to celebrate it's 50th anniversary. Cool, no?
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2007 11:12
|
|
|
Finished The Crossing yesterday and I'm working through Cities of the Plain.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2007 16:35
|
|
|
Red Harvest, by Dashiell Hammett. Followed it up by watching Last Man Standing on DVD. I find it interesting that although LMS is a remake of Yojimbo, which "officially" is based on The Glass Key rather than Red Harvest, there are a lot of details in LMS that seem to come straight out of Red Harvest, and others that come from the short story "Corkscrew" - which was basically a case of Dash Hammett recycing his own plot, but setting it out west instead of in a city. It's even the nameless Continental op both times. You'd think the guy would eventually get bored of setting gangs at each other.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2007 23:55
|
|
|
Read Flowers for Algernon last week. The writing is pretty hokey at times and the romance feels really tacked on (probably because it is). I still liked it based on the premise alone, and drat if I didn't get all teary-eyed at times.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2007 02:54
|
|
|
I just finished The Balkans: From the End of Byzantium to the Present Day by Mark Mazower. It's quite a short book that starts by going over the ethnic groups that are found in that region, followed by the way in which the Balkans were before the decline of the ottoman empire. Afterwards it discusses the rise of nationalism in that region and how the current states arose from the husk of the Ottoman Empire. Finally it follows up the history of these states to the present day. This book is fairly well written, but I was rather disappointed by how short it was. It doesn't really go into any detain on the subject it covers.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2007 21:14
|
|
|
I just finished Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri. I had seen someone praise it, I think maybe even in this thread, and after looking it up it sounded interesting so I went and bought it. To be honest I was a little disappointed. I really liked the idea but I just didn't care for the execution. The language was often very nice and sometimes even quite beautiful, but there was not a character in it that I didn't want to stab in the face, except for Vinod but even he was a little too pathetic. They just seemed to one-dimensional and predictable after too short a time. The whole Hindi religion set-up, once you realize what's going, became a little too predictable as well. Overall I'd probably give it a 3/5. Before that I had read Puddin'head Wilson by Mark Twain. I'm going to agree with the person who commented earlier in this thread that there's really not much going on it. The book doesn't seem to really go anywhere. It was funny at times, but not Twain's best writing. I enjoyed it, though. Next up I'm going to try to attempt Pynchon's Against the Day. I got it for $7 of Amazon. The only Pynchon I've read before is The Crying of Lot 49 but I figured that if I could get the hardcover for 1/3rd the normal price I might as well try it. I'm both excited and dreading starting it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2007 23:47
|
|
|
Thunderball, Ian Fleming Almost typed Ian Flaming there.  Anyway, yes, yet another Bond novel. Hoping to finish up the series this year sometime. This was probably the biggest game Bond's been in yet, and it reminded a bit of the movie Broken Arrow what with the hijacked nukes and all.
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2007 02:59
|
|
|
Just finished The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. It was fantastic; Chabon is a brilliant wordsmith and he bends his muse quite well to the form of a mystery. I'd highly recommend it to any other fan of mysteries.
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2007 04:10
|
|
|
Finished Cities of the Plain yesterday, which wraps up Cormac McCarthy's fantastic Border Trilogy. Definitely some of the best stuff I've read recently and McCarthy is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors. Working through a short story collection by Ian R. MacLeod - Voyages By Starlight right now. The first few stories I've read so far are rather good, so I hope the rest of the collection holds up as well.
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2007 20:17
|
|
|
It, by Stephen King. After years of only having the memories of the movie in my mind, and even with the previous experience of almost all his other book/movie pairs, the differences are really big (for the best, mostly).
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2007 03:05
|
|
|
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Sadly I don't remember Gatsby well enough to compare the two effectively, but I didn't enjoy TitN as much. Though there is certainly excellent characterization, at least with Dick and Nicole, thanks to the direct parallels with Fitzgerald's life. Working on the short Notes from Underground and loving it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2007 07:10
|
|
|
Just finished the Old Man and the Sea, excellent book. Preferred it to the Sun Also Rises, personally. I really wasn't expecting that ending, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. Powerful stuff. The Picture of Dorian Gray I just finished today. I find it bizarre that just two months ago I had been thinking nearly everything Henry says, about pleasure ultimately being all there is in life. It was kind of strange to read all these thoughts that I had been having put on paper years ago. Very enjoyable read, but it wasn't all that memorable for me. I appreciate the fact that Wilde seems to prefer brevity, but seeing Gray's decline into murdering Basil wasn't all that convincing, and it seemed like he used the supernatural a little too much as a crutch to make him do inexplicably evil things. I don't really see what his looks had to do with any of it, which was the point, I suppose, but lengthening the book to more clearly document the exact steps of his moral decay would have been more interesting. This is something I thought An American Tragedy did quite well (admittedly using up 7 times the length), despite the hate that the book gets in this forum. Back to the ongoing project of reading Ulysses. I can completely understand why people say it's the greatest novel ever written, and I'm inclined to agree. Nothing else I've read comes even close to capturing the way people actually are on paper. It's absolutely striking. Furthermore, it's a book where the author seems most concerned with getting the characters on paper in a perfect manner; the reader's comprehension almost seems secondary. There is absolutely no way I'm ever going to understand everything in chapter 3, and I'm fine with that. An intellectual in 1922 would certainly have a thought process referencing things I had no hope of following, and I can appreciate that. This book is DENSE, but truly striking. Does anything even come close at capturing the real behavior of humanity? A thousand times I've criticized movies and books for being unnecessarily incoherent. For once, I can recognize a book for being extremely difficult to follow but with a perfect justification for being so. I just finished the newsroom chapter, which I didn't really like as the funeral chapter (which stayed in Bloom's head). Gotta admit, I'm actually reading the spark notes after I finish each chapter. I'm not ashamed, it's worth it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2007 07:11
|
|
|
Ripped through Voyages By Starlight yesterday. Pretty solid collection, though a couple of the stories didn't grab me as much. Just started Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2007 16:00
|
|
|
Sacrifice, book 5/9 in the Legacy of the Force series by Karen Tarviss. Jacen kills Mara Next up, The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz. Should take me a while.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2007 04:36
|
|
|
Chaos_Cow posted:Just finished the Old Man and the Sea, excellent book. Preferred it to the Sun Also Rises, personally. I really wasn't expecting that ending, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. Powerful stuff. Well, can't argue that. Old Man and the Sea was loving great. I refuse to believe it was completely devoid of symbolic meaning though. I mean, c'mon. You may be interested to know that there's an abridged version of the book in audio form... read by Charleston Heston! It's just as good as it sounds.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2007 04:50
|
|
|
Zero Karizma posted:You may be interested to know that there's an abridged version of the book in audio form... read by Charleston Heston! It's just as good as it sounds. Haha, abridged!? Isn't the Old Man and the Sea like 100 pages long anyway? I just finished Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer and it was a hundred times more enjoyable than Everything is Illuminated, which don't get me wrong, was an enjoyable book.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2007 09:04
|
|
|
The Immortal Emperor: The Life and Legend of Constantine Palaiologos, Last Emperor of the Romans by Donald M. Nicol. This book is a biography of Constantine XI, the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire. The book starts by describing the state of the empire when he was born, then goes on to discuss his accomplishments as the ruler of one of the remaining regions of the empire. Following that it discusses his time as an emperor, his conduct during the siege of Constantinople in 1453 and the circumstances of his death. It then rounds up with a discussion of the legends that arose around him, namely that he had been turned to marble by an angel and that an angel would one day restore him to flesh, return to him his sword and then that he'd drive the Turks out of Constantinople, and what happened to the Palaiologan dynasty and the remnants of the empire after his death. This book is very well researched and it author has brought together a significant amount of information on Constantine XI. His story is both interesting and tragic, as he was a very capable ruler who however commanded a disintegrating empire which couldn't be saved despite his skill.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2007 11:55
|
|
|
ShutteredIn posted:Haha, abridged!? Isn't the Old Man and the Sea like 100 pages long anyway? Charlton Heston was a busy gun toting man who didn't have time for all your faggoty "words!" Now shut up and listen to your half book you god damned dirty ape! (Actually, in my experience, it seems like most "big celebrity" versions of audiobooks are abridged. I have no idea why. Maybe they really don't want to read a full book out loud.)
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2007 12:53
|
|
|
Shanghai Baby By Wei Hui. A friend lent me this, as something to read between Dark Tower novels. It was an interesting book, if highly predictable. But seems to suffer from the typical Gonzo-femininist style, that many books of the last decade have, where the author writes a fairly banal and dragging story and fills the gaps with random thoughts on philosophy and obscure utterances along the lines of "how suddenly the sky was like the taste of a fried cheese paperclip....." Still it was an interesting look into the nihilistic young pretentious artist set of Shanghai at the turn of the century. I just found I didn't actually like ANY of the characters.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2007 18:16
|
|
|
kizeesh posted:"how suddenly the sky was like the taste of a fried cheese paperclip....." Wait, what? If that's an actual line from the book in question, I want to know just what a "fried cheese paperclip" tastes like.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2007 18:34
|
|
|
Encryptic posted:Wait, what? Yeah, it's not an actual line, that would have had a certain random coolness. Just lots of airy fairy description and pretentiousness.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2007 19:00
|
|
|
Just finished 'Snow Crash', oh my god I am in LOVE! I can see why this book spawned a whole genre.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2007 19:31
|
|
|
Moist von Lipwig posted:Just finished 'Snow Crash', oh my god I am in LOVE! I can see why this book spawned a whole genre. I want to marry my copy of that book. No, seriously.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2007 21:47
|
|
|
I just finished The Sun Also Rises by Hemmingway. I really liked it - probably more so than I normally would have because at the moment I can relate to the Jake character (or maybe robert cohn - I won't delude myself here). Before that I read Factotum by Bukowski. It was good, and quite a fast read. Inspired me to pick up a book of his poetry too (Love is a Dog From Hell). And immediately preceding that I read Tales of Power by Castaneda. It's part of his series about learning to be a "Man of Knowledge" from a Yaqui indian called Don Juan. I really like this whole series, personally. I think it has a lot of good general advice on living in between the fantastic descriptions of sorcery. I've been considering starting a thread on this series to see what you all think of it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2007 21:55
|
|
|
I just finished Dharma Bums (admittedly for the second time), and it was marvelous once again. The fact that it was the Penguin Classics Deluxe edition made it extra special. I keep stroking it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2007 22:25
|
|
|
Finished David Markson's new one, The Last Novel. Once again, couldn't help but be sucke(re)d into it. Still far more entertaining than it has any right to be after four books in his "personal genre", although the interjections scattered throughout this one really conspicuously mark it out as a conclusion to the series.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2007 22:43
|
|
|
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. One of the best books about an intersexed person that I've ever read. Plus, major accolades to Eugenides for keeping up a 50-year plotline and keeping it a fresh, compelling read every step of the way.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2007 23:28
|
|
|
Snow by Orhan Pamuk. This was the only book that's ever really made me want to cry. Beautifully written and translated, I found myself overly attached to the characters, and the near-end will bring you to tears. Pamuk definitely deserved the Nobel Prize for this one. Up next, Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2007 23:42
|
|
|
Slyvia Plath - The Bell Jar It's one of those books you always hear about so I borrowed it from my local library. This book is not chick-lit. That stuff is trash, and this book was good. The comparisons of being a female Holden Caulfield do not apply to well, I think. I feel like this book did have something to say, even though its basically Slyvia complaining for 250 pages about what has happened in her life. Kurt Vonnegut - The Sirens of Titan This is only the second Vonnegut book I've read. Also, I hate sci-fi. That said, aside from a few low points--and those points are indeed very low--this book was pretty good. The beginning was alright, but it quickly goes downhill. The ending was beautiful though, and the epilogue left me feeling pretty emotional. Not bad considering it's a rare thing for me to think about not finishing a book, which I did here.
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2007 00:47
|
|
|
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski A book about a film in which a family finds their house is bigger on the inside than on the outside. I was recommended this by the horror thread when I asked for a haunted house story. I was a little apprehensive before deciding to buy a copy as I knew of its strange formating and thought it might be too gimmicky. I absolutely loving loved this book. Zampano's thesis on The Navidson Record was extremely interesting and the attention to detail and almost obsessive compulsive footnoting and sourcing really made me "know" the character. I didn't really like Johnny Truant as I found him to be kind of unbelievable and didn't really care about what he was going though and mostly skimmed his diaries. I did read a lot of his entries but not with nearly as much attention to Zapano's work. I think Truant was waaay too smart for the type of person he had become. I literally just finished this and I feel kind of emotionally drained after the end so I'm going to go to bed now.
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2007 06:13
|
|
|
I just finished the Fagles translation of The Aeneid which was an excellent translation. An amazing epic. but...I love Rome. I would really tell anyone who wanted to read something classic to read this and read that specific translation...its modernized to a point but the poetry and the rhythm is retained...its amazing.
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2007 10:44
|
|
|
The Vote by Paul Foot. History of the disenfranchisement of the masses in the UK. First half of the book tells how they struggled to get the vote, and the second half shows how, once they did have it, it was systematically undermined and devalued by successive governments and outside agencies. The first two chapters are very slow going, but it picks up after that, and it's a fascinating read.
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2007 11:32
|
|
|
I can't believe I have only just read it, but I have just finished The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was a great book, I don't know why I never got around to reading this in the first place.
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2007 12:45
|
|
|
I just finished the Metamorphoses by Ovidius. It's basically a long poem (or collection of poems he allows to fade into eachother) about all the myths concerning some sort of transformation. I read it just before I went on a trip to Rome with my class, and it really enhanced the experience. You see mythical figures everywhere in art, architecture and whatnot there so I had fun entertaining my friends by telling the stories and pointing out the symbolism. Brief summary of the plot: Beware of mist, rivers, trees and various other inanimate objects, they will probably try to rape you, the innocent maiden. Then you will most likely turn into a tree. PiratePing fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Jul 7, 2007 |
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2007 19:45
|
|
|
PiratePing posted:I just finished the Metamorphoses by Ovidius. It's basically a long poem (or collection of poems he allows to fade into eachother) about all the myths concerning some sort of transformation. I read it just before I went on a trip to Rome with my class, and it really enhanced the experience. You see mythical figures everywhere in art, architecture and whatnot there so I had fun entertaining my friends by telling the stories and pointing out the symbolism. Which translation did you read? I've got the Ted Hughes one myself and it's pretty great.
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2007 20:10
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 11:30 |
|
|
A World of Difference by Harry Turtledove I read this because I'm such a Turtledove fanboy but was left kind of disappointed. It's set in a universe where the fourth planet from the sun is not Mars but a larger earth-like planet called Minerva, and on an Earth where the Soviet Union has survived into the 90's. When the Viking lander reveals a single picture of an alien with a spear pulling back to swing at the Viking lander, the second space race between the two superpowers is ramped up to send humans to Minerva. The whole thing reads like a 50's pulp. The conflicts presented are easily avoidable and the aliens are way too familiar to humans. It was pretty boring and I probably would have dropped it if I hadn't been reading House of Leaves at the same time. I couldn't read House of Leaves on the subway as it required way too much concentration so I needed this book for those long commutes. This book hasn't ruined me on Turtledove but I wouldn't recommend it. I recently found one of his earliest works (Agent of Byzantium) which I'll probably read in a few months and July 31st marks the release of the last book of his Southern Victory series, which I'm very excited for.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2007 00:21
|
|