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ProfessorFrink! posted:The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I think I said this elsewhere, but it's a shame that most people have The Great Gatsby hosed up for them by high school teachers. On its own, it's actually a pretty funny drama with some interesting metaphors about America, but teachers latch onto the metaphors and spend all the book beating it into the students. It's almost to the point where it's practically looked down upon because of reading it high school.
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Aug 3, 2008 06:41
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My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki A half serious expository book about the meat industry in America as told mainly by a Japanese-American woman making a documentary on the wholesome, meat-eating American lifestyle to show in Japan with hopes that Japan starts eating more red meat. It's half PETA bullshit, half satire making fun of that PETA bullshit, some good moments, some great moments, some sticky sex scenes, lots of blood and fetuses; overall, I'd recommend it. Now I'm going to go eat a delicious burger from Dick's.
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Aug 3, 2008 07:53
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Gr1mm posted:I finished Starship Trooper and I'm not sure how I feel about it, nor do I even know if I got it. All I know is that it made me feel like a pussy for not being in the military. Was that the point? Well the book just as much political as it is anything. I feel like that was the main point (you should be able to find essays on this subject on the web). Plus I found the story fun and a very fast read. It was on the USMC reading list when I was in (that and Ender's Game was the only 2 sci-fi books on the list).
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Aug 3, 2008 15:03
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Magic Hate Ball posted:I think I said this elsewhere, but it's a shame that most people have The Great Gatsby hosed up for them by high school teachers. On its own, it's actually a pretty funny drama with some interesting metaphors about America, but teachers latch onto the metaphors and spend all the book beating it into the students. It's almost to the point where it's practically looked down upon because of reading it high school. I had read it sophomore year in high school, but picked it up my sophomore year of university and loved every second of it. I agree with you that most books read in high school almost always get a bad rap. I have tried to go back and read most of the book I read in high school. They're always better the second time through. I need to post the books I have read recently. 
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Aug 3, 2008 22:21
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The Heart Of Darkness by Joseph Conrad I read the 1899 serial version, which had the "The" in the title. I reviewed the changes made for the 1902 "Heart Of Darkness" book version, and, while small, I feel they made a big difference in describing the true state of Kurtz's soul. Anyway, the story was interesting but I could never get into a good reading flow. The multi-page paragraphs and long winding descriptions of things were tough to stay with at times. I've been regularly reading 200 pages a day for a month now, but this 95 page novella took me a week. I'm glad I read it, and I find myself thinking over the themes and conclusions of the story, but it isn't something where I relished the actual reading or look forward to reading again anytime soon. Neo_Reloaded fucked around with this message at 13:47 on Aug 4, 2008 |
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Aug 4, 2008 04:12
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Yarrbossa posted:His Dark Materials Trilogy I second that. Its a really easy and enjoyable read
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Aug 4, 2008 09:14
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Read Middlemarch while camping this week. Loved it. I'll definitely have to read that book again sometime in my life, it's really complex. Although I need to stop reading books that involve a woman loving up a man's happiness if I ever hope to have a normal relationship again 
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Aug 4, 2008 09:19
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I finally burned through the last three cantos of Les Chants de Maldoror after a year or more of reading it off and on. Probably one of the hardest books I've ever read, with the insane detail on irrelevancy, illogical structures, perspective shifts, lack of macro or micro clarity topped off with pure malignant fantasy. A real schizophrenic novel, a total mess... but still pretty enjoyable considering. It has some really great passages but finishing the overall book almost feels like you've just won a mud eating contest. Not sure what to read next, I've got Semiotext(e) SF and Heart of Darkness kicking around... will probably read a bit of Baudelaire for fun in the meantime too.
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Aug 4, 2008 18:35
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Riding Rockets - The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut by Mike Mullane. Thoroughly recommendable, it's one of those biographies that really makes you wish you were there, living the life. And what's a better compliment than that?
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Aug 5, 2008 00:27
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I've finished three books these last two weeks. The first is Busting Vegas by Ben Mezrich, who also wrote Bringing Down the House. He is not a very good writer, and the book is written for adaptation, but the theme and material is interesting enough for me, so I enjoyed it. The second book I read was The Smart Money: How the World's Best Sports Bettors Beat the Bookies Out of Millions by Michael Konik. This one was really similar to the two Mezrich books in that it's about gambling, but this one focuses on sports gambling. It too wasn't amazingly written, but the material was super interesting. It was a fun read and I had a good time reading about his betting. The only problem was that the games he bet on were from around 10 years ago, so it was a bit outdated. The third book I finished was Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris. He's a popular guy on these forums, and I enjoyed the book. My brother is also a big fan, so I figured I needed to pick up one of his books. He's very funny, but sometimes I feel he's a bit too arrogant, which made me roll my eyes while reading. I know that this is a Sedaris thing, so I should expect it, but it's never been something that I've enjoyed in books.
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Aug 5, 2008 03:06
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In At The Death by Harry Turtledove. The conclusion to the "Timeline 191" series which begins way back when with the premise that Lee's order 191 was not intercepted by the Union and therefore the Confederate States of America is able to fully become it's own country. This book finishes up that timeline's "World War II" where the CSA has the Hitler equivalent. It ends on the kind of note you'd expect given the world he set up.
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Aug 5, 2008 03:14
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I just finished reading Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali which was a really interesting look at how a Muslim woman saw her faith and the world around her. It also showed how she went from a woman in war torn Africa to a member of parliament in The Netherlands. The first part dragged a little bit but over all it is probably one of the most fantastic books I've read this year and I really want to get a copy of her first book of essays. I also just finished reading The Romantic Manifesto by Ayn Rand which gave me some insight on how a character should be, and opened up the doors to some other concepts for me. I was sick and borrowed a copy of Twilight By Stephenie Meyer which was... alright. It was like reading an Anne Rice novel but creepy in a different sort of way. As much as I hate myself I will likely finish the series because it brought out the teenage fangirl in me. I also found a copy of The Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling and slammed through that. It was an interesting read and I'm glad she turned it into the bloodbath I was hoping it would be. I think right now I'm going to start reading Paradise Lost by John Milton. After reading the His Dark Materials trilogy I'm really curious to read the inspirations for that. Blue_monday fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Aug 5, 2008 |
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Aug 5, 2008 03:37
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uggy posted:The third book I finished was Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris. He's a popular guy on these forums, and I enjoyed the book. My brother is also a big fan, so I figured I needed to pick up one of his books. He's very funny, but sometimes I feel he's a bit too arrogant, which made me roll my eyes while reading. I know that this is a Sedaris thing, so I should expect it, but it's never been something that I've enjoyed in books. Look at his arrogance as contributing to his alienation and strangeness.
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Aug 5, 2008 14:02
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Just finished reading The Best American Non Required Reading edited by Dave Eggers. It was ok and pretty much what I expected out of a book compiled by Dave Eggers and a group of high Schoolers, most of the stories were fun to read but poorly executed and heavy handed with the message they were trying to deliver. The best was the Excerpt from "Whats Your Dangerous Idea?" where the Edge Foundation asks Scientists from all over what their dangerous ides is an then publish the resulting essays. If I was you I would just track down a copy of that and forget about everything else in the book.
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Aug 5, 2008 18:54
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I read two similar novels, Darkly Dreaming Dexter from which the TV series is based on, and The Wolf Man by Nicholas Pekearo. They're both about "dark avengers," unlikely heroes who hunt the predators who hunt us. The Dexter book was alright, but I enjoy the show more. The story arc ends too short and seems like a gimmick, while the series grew it out well. The book has a weak ending, but once again Dexter is a fine and interesting character to read. The Wolfman is quite good- unpolished, as it was a manuscript given to a publisher right before Pekearo, an NYPD Auxiliary, was shot by a crazed gunman. The novel is- you guessed it- about a werewolf who hunts bad guys. Sure you can sort of figure out the mystery yourself, but it's more fun listening to Marlowe Higgins, the Vietnam Vet hard rocker slob who howls at the moon once a month, bitch about life and people and things. It's pure pulp and enjoyable as such. Oh, I also read Tana French's excellent thriller In the Woods, set outside Dublin. A police procedural about a man kidnapped as a child, whose friends disappeared, who gets caught in an investigation of a murder in those same woods he was lost in. It plays a lot of tricks on you but the writing is solid and enjoyable, gripping throughout, with very endearing characters who she isn't afraid to make flawed and human. A great read.
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Aug 6, 2008 03:34
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Just finished "Surely you're joking Mr Feynman". I enjoyed it. Like most books of the sort there's a bit of ranting from the author and the quality of the essays is a little inconsistent. Overall it was an fun read.
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Aug 6, 2008 04:58
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I had my faith in Philip Roth restored a little by The Human Stain, the twist being only moderately, forgivably stupid. Roth puts on his social commentator hat and goes wild all over segregation, Vietnam vets, trivialised politics, etc etc, but remains surprisingly sharp despite the fact that his narrative decisions should've resulted in disjointed chaos. After the gratingly redundant sensationalism of The Plot Against America and The Ghost Writer, I am now ready to embrace Phil once again with minimal prejudice. Also succumbed to Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life which is a vague overview of the themes of In Search of Lost Time wrapped in light entertainment. Pictures of birds, self-indulgent anecdotes and dry English wit. I've read 20 page essays that say more than this thing, but I don't care anymore; I've become totally undiscerning. Just slap Proust on a mug and I'm there. Last thing wrapped up was Bulgakov's A Dead Man's Memoir which is just an alternate (and apparently more accurate) title for Black Snow. Bulgakov wrote it mostly as a roman à clef from his time working for the Moscow Theater to amuse his friends and broke it off when he felt he'd milked it for all it's worth. Good while it lasts (though almost skeletally thin), mostly cause it's so reminiscent of Gogol's shorter stories, but no threat to Master and Margarita. Interestingly the introduction claims that, early on, Stalin fought off censors on his behalf and had him appointed to the position in the theatre in the first place, before Bulgakov dug himself too deep a hole to get out of. I had no idea. It does make some sense though having read elsewhere that Stalin was actually pretty astute when it came to literature by virtue of how closely he read and criticised their major writers.
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Aug 6, 2008 11:02
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The Wicked Day by Mary Stewart - This concludes her Arthurian saga. Perhaps not quite as good as the Merlin trilogy that preceded it, but still worth reading to finish off her version of the Arthur legend. Interesting in that it portrays Mordred as a more sympathetic character who is doomed to cause the death of Arthur rather than being a traitor from the gate. Overall, I liked the series - it fills in a lot of the details about the Arthur legends that I didn't really know and her take on the principal characters is more down-to-earth than the image I've always had. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - It spans roughly 30 years in the life of the narrator Amir who grows up in 1970s Afghanistan, moves to America then returns to Afghanistan after 9/11. Great book, if soul-crushingly depressing at times.
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Aug 6, 2008 16:45
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Flowers for Algernon - I read the short story in school many years ago, but never got around to reading the novel. As a kid in middle school, I could not appreciate many of the themes in the book, mostly about Charlie's love life (Which if I remember correctly, the short story did not go into great detail about his romantic life). I remember being depressed when I read the short story, but I was even more so now after finishing the novel.
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Aug 6, 2008 19:15
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I've had a few weeks off, so I picked up A Game of Thrones, loved it and read the current Age of Fire and Ice books in two weeks, I just couldn't put it down. I also read The Future War, which was fantastic, although the sequels sound awful. Next on my list is the Malazan books, which i'm hoping are as good as the Fire and Ice books.
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Aug 7, 2008 01:56
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The Fountainhead. Oh, god, why? I know why. I just wanted to say I actually read something by Rand before I take another part in trashing her writing. To be honest, it wasn't as horrible as Atlas Shrugged, which I had to put down after the first chapter. Howard Roark would have been an inspiring character for me had not Rand gone overboard illustrating his unshakable resolve. And, frankly, any protagonist completely devoid of sympathy doesn't deserve mine.
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Aug 7, 2008 03:18
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The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy This was a loving incredible book. I have never picked up a Clancy novel and it will probably be a while before I read anything but a Clancy novel. The way he transitions between scenes is fantastic and keeps you from losing pieces of the puzzle. It was very entertaining and I am looking forward to continuing the Jack Ryan series with Patriot Games. Also, I'm amazed at how well the movie pulled this novel off.
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Aug 7, 2008 04:07
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Two nights ago I finished Prey by Michael Crighton. I picked it up at work and came home and finished it. This book was really similar to State of Fear in that he tried to teach more than he tried to write a good novel. It was really basic as far as thrillers go, so it was a simple page turner, but it did teach me something about nanotechnology and the like. Basic new Crighton book - tries to teach the reader something while not being a good novel.
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Aug 7, 2008 04:19
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inktvis posted:Also succumbed tp Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life which is a vague overview of the themes of In Search of Lost Time wrapped in light entertainment. Pictures of birds, self-indulgent anecdotes and dry English wit. I've read 20 page essays that say more than this thing, but I don't care anymore; I've become totally undiscerning. Just slap Proust on a mug and I'm there. The closest coffee place to my house is a B&N Starbucks, and whenever I go there I wind up browsing this book. It's pretty cute and always makes me smile, but I can never see myself actually buying it, so I guess we're sort of in the same boat. My only real issue with it is that it should have been titled How to Make Love the Swann Way.
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Aug 7, 2008 04:32
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Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. I've enjoyed all of their previous work in the Dune universe although at very much a "popcorn flick" level. This was no different until the final chapters when it turned into a  -fest. I don't doubt that it was what Frank intended (since they allegedly wrote the book from his notes) but I think between the two sets of writers, only he could have carried it out successfully. They managed to make it poor fanfic that given the setup in the Dune universe (Humans: Thinking machines are bad. Thinking Machines (other than Omnimus and Erasmus): ???) makes little sense and certainly no satisfaction. "Deux ex machina" and "ham fisted" are terms that are too polite in this case. Most annoyingly, it sets itself up for a possible sequel.
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Aug 7, 2008 14:00
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Monstrous Regiment, Terry Pratchett The story of a country so far down the road to losing a war most of the people signing up for the army are women. A bit more poignant than the usual discworld, but still just as hilarious. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole The SA Book Club's August selection. It's full of some of the funniest characters you'd never want to actually come face to face with, and spirals into the sort of insanity you'd expect out of an 80s sitcom minus the lame.
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Aug 7, 2008 16:03
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Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, Philip K. Dick I've read a fair bit of PKD now (about half a dozen novels, quite a few of his earlier short stories), and this would fall around the middle of the pack for me. It had unusually strongly developed characters and emotional depth for a Dick novel, but the tone is really uneven (from darkly comic to melodramatic) and there's some difficult to swallow plot twists even by PKD standards. That said, I still enjoyed the ride.
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Aug 7, 2008 18:40
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Still Waters by Nigel McCrery. This is a first novel and it shows in some places. It's a murder mystery in England that is pretty predictable and most of the characters are flat. The only thing notable about the detective main character is that he has synaesthesia, meaning he tastes sounds. It's obvious that the author had more fun writing the killer's scenes than the detectives. The procedure of the investigation hits all the usual spots: No idea who the killer is, some mysterious outside force trying to stop it, the detective broods over his ruined personal life, and then some minor footwork leads to the killer. For all its flaws though, the book has some intense scenes. The prologue, for instance, sucks you right into the book in a horrifying way. There are other flashes of brilliance throughout, but it's mostly a mediocre affair. Hopefully the McCrery's next book improves upon this one, because he's a promising writer who needs a little more fine tuning.
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Aug 7, 2008 20:49
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I just finished reading Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. I enjoyed reading them, although I feel like I lack sufficient understanding of what the author's purpose for writing the books was, like there is a lot more to the books than I originally thought when I read them.
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Aug 7, 2008 21:03
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ProfessorFrink! posted:The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy  LIBERALS! and GREENS! and an obsession with the length of Chinese men's penises. And I wish I were kidding about that last one.
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Aug 7, 2008 22:14
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Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman - The story of a young man living and working in London who gets unwittingly recruited into an alternate London, one that lives and breathes underground where people talk to rats and other magical poo poo. I loved it for its entertainment value and how it didn't heap the fantasy elements on too strong. American Gods is better, but this was funner. Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham - Wikipedia summarizes the story best, "the novel tells its story through the eyes of Larry's friends and acquaintances as they witness his personality change after the War. His rejection of conventional life and search for meaningful experience allows him to thrive while the more materialistic characters suffer reversals of fortune." It kept my interest all the way through even though nothing particularly interesting happens. The message about finding fulfillment in life through non-material means and the search for the spiritual self were new and fresh ideas when this was written in the 40's. I loved this book and feel like I got a little something out of it.
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Aug 8, 2008 06:56
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I just finished The Pesthouse by Jim Crace. It's sort of in the vein of Cormac McCarthy's The Road but a lot vaguer in terms of post-apocalyptic detail. And instead of a father/son relationship, Crace gives you a romance story that is surprisingly compelling given the circumstances that these characters are in. It causes you to question a number of things, notably the longevity of the American empire. It is nowhere written that it will last forever. I recommend it!
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Aug 8, 2008 07:52
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Has anyone read Danielewski's Only Revolutions? I saw it in a bookstore yesterday and was checking out, wondering if it's any good. I enjoyed House of Leaves.
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Aug 8, 2008 19:44
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Just finished The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I'd read The Three Musketeers in high school (six or seven years ago) and thoroughly enjoyed it and I just watched the 2002 movie version of Monte Cristo and enjoyed that pretty well so I thought I ought to check out the book. It was pretty good, but, like many serialized novels of the time (mid-late 1800's) there is a lot of really drawn out society stuff, even in the abridged version. When an author is being paid by the line by newspapers publishing his books one chapter at a time, brevity doesn't pay. And even with an abridged version this comes through. So, as purely a swashbuckling adventure/revenge piece the book is pretty good. It is not fine literature intended to make you think, but for a summer read it was pretty good.
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Aug 8, 2008 20:16
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Devices & Desires by K.J. Parker God drat I really didn't like this book, and I went in to it with high expectations after seeing it reccomended here. I just did not enjoy Parkers style of writing, something about it irritated me so loving much. I disliked it so much I am not even going to bother reading the rest of the series. gently caress this book, and gently caress you K.J. Parker.
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Aug 9, 2008 04:25
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Altered Carbon by Richard K.Morgan hard gritty sci-fi ... looking for more of the kind --
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Aug 9, 2008 04:57
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The Briar King by Greg Keyes. This was fluidly written, well-characterized, surprising, action-packed, and overall fun and exciting epic fantasy. It's the closest thing to a traditional epic fantasy I've read in quite a while, but there are definitely subtle tweaks and original takes on the situations - like a cross between George R.R. Martin and... Patrick Rothfuss, maybe? I'm definitely going to read the other books, and I recommend this to fans of authors like Martin, Rothfuss, Scott Lynch, Naomi Novik, etc. Keyes develops his characters well, even when some initially seem to be near-cliches, and builds to scenes of unexpected intensity. There's quite a bit of humor here, too, which I always appreciate. This is book one of four in the Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, which is complete (!), and has gotten solid reviews all the way through. Has anyone else read this? It seems rather overlooked.
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Aug 11, 2008 01:03
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The First Immortal by James Halperin Pretty decent pop-ish science fiction book about Cryonics (i.e. freezing people). Overall, I liked it; the science wasn't too bad, a bit dated (late '90s), but generally good. The only problem I had with the book was the overall feeling of just quackery emanating from the book. Sure, Cryonics seems plausible. Sure, the characters in the book express genuine skepticism and only accept the concept after examining all the evidence. And sure, the author did a lot of research for the book. But god drat it just seems like this book is a steaming pile o' incredulity. I dunno. Like I said, nothing overt, but just the weird feeling that you're reading something written by an absolute true believer...like it's one big advertisement for Cryonics. Everything in the book's future timeline is eerily utopian, even the to the point of absurdity. For example in the future, no one lies because everyone wears "Truth Machines" that are active all the time and are never, ever, EVER, wrong. (Ever!). And there's also some disturbing undertones, that irritatingly the author doesn't seem to recognize and actually presents as good things! Ugh..like, at one point , after the main character has been resurrected in the future, he clones his dead wife and has his son raise her as a daughter. They pretty much condition her from birth to believe that she's destined to the main character's wife -- seriously, an arranged marriage-type situation. Ugh.. There's also positively portrayed eugenics, zero-tolerance death penalty for any violent crime, and seemingly no ethical problems with reprogramming people's minds as they are unfrozen, in order to weed out any undesirable social qualities they have or might have in the future. And this is all presented as a genuine utopia, with utter sincerity and not a hint of irony. It's not an awful book, and I would definitely recommend it to family and friends. It's a thought-provoking book, and it certainly educates you on the science of cryonics (gently caress, it's drat near a commercial for it). The book is set in the same universe as his other novel, The Truth Machine, which goes a little more into detail some of the technology that makes his imagined future possible. Here's a link to the Amazon.com page on it. Heck, if you're interested, the book's been out for a while and you can get it for a cent (actually, $4 with shipping included).
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Aug 11, 2008 04:04
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onefish posted:The Briar King by Greg Keyes. I've read the first couple of books and have been meaning to get back to it once Keyes finishes the series. It's pretty solid stuff, not the most amazing series ever written but still good for an epic series.
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Aug 11, 2008 04:39
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A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole I've heard so much about this book but never knew anything about its actual content, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Everyone talks about how funny it is, but I don't know if I would agree with that. It certainly is amusing and there are a handful of laugh-out-loud moments, but it was more one initially humorous concept drawn out to its "logical" conclusion rather than an ever-escalating set of circumstances. Something like Catch-22 is what I consider "funny," in that the book continually surprised me throughout its entire length. Not that I didn't enjoy A Confederacy Of Dunces thoroughly. It is a captivating read, filled with rich characters and wonderful situations. Ignatius and Jones in particular are outstanding - just hearing those characters speak would no doubt be a joy, their personalities are so nuanced and entertaining. The book also succeeds in not having a strict interpretation of who is right or wrong - it's very easy to condemn Ignatius, and he's no doubt an absurd character by the time we meet him, but the circumstances surrounded his descent into lunacy grant him some pity, and even Mrs. Reilly's actions are thrown into question. The ending of the book is satisfying as well, offering reasonable payoffs to a multitude of character arcs without seeming overly contrived. A personal favorite is Mr. Levy finally standing up to his bitch of a wife. God drat did she get on my nerves.
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Aug 11, 2008 05:11
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