|
The Trial by Kafka was amazing, though very confusing and disconnected at times. I wish Kafka had finished the book, but the unfinished chapters give the book a much more dreamlike quality. Either way, brilliant writing in what there is to read. Lectures on Literature by Vladimir Nabokov was a great read while on a long car trip. It has really changed the way I look at literature, I wish I had time/energy/concentration to diagram out plots like Nabokov does.
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2009 22:24
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 15:48 |
|
|
I just finished Z for Zachariah and found it to be pretty enjoyable, if rather short. The author apparently died while writing the last chapter though, so the book was finished by his family and published posthumously. The ending doesn't stand out as being completely different from how the book progresses though so it's not off-putting.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2009 09:10
|
|
|
I just finished The Road by Cormac Mccarthy. First off, it was oddly written in that there are no chapters and he didn't use quotes. This didn't make it any more difficult to read but it was weird. I picked it up because I read that it was inspirational in the development of Fallout 3. Being post-apocalyptic I expected it to be bleak but I had no idea it was going to be ultra-bleak. Overall I enjoyed it but I can see how some might find it depressing.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2009 17:43
|
|
|
SpudNYC posted:I just finished The Road by Cormac Mccarthy. First off, it was oddly written in that there are no chapters and he didn't use quotes. Yeah, that's one of McCarthy's "things" along with extremely depressing stories and also words that mean nothing to anyone except himself
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2009 18:35
|
|
|
Just finished The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. Very good read about the Battle of Gettysburg. I like the narrative style it took and think it's probably good for perhaps getting people interested and involved in history who might not otherwise be. Doesn't bore with an overabundance of details, but recreates the battle and humanizes it by explaining what the war was about and what it meant to people. I'm just beginning to get into Civil War history and am not disappointed for having begun here.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2009 05:01
|
|
|
Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges - A complete collection of Borges' short fiction in one volume. First time reading Borges and I enjoyed it for the most part, though I almost wish I'd read each collection (Ficciones, The Aleph, etc.) separately instead of reading them straight through. Borges is a great writer and there are a lot of fantastic stories here but he does suffer a bit from revisiting the same themes at times, which becomes apparent when reading the entire body of his stories in one book. Definitely will be re-reading them at some point, nonetheless. My Wicked, Wicked Ways by Errol Flynn - Errol Flynn's autobiography that he published in the late 50s. Whether or not he made stuff up (the early parts of his life that he spent hunting gold in New Guinea, etc.), it's a good read and he sounded like he probably would've been a fun guy to hang out with. The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search To Know His World and Himself by Daniel J. Boorstin - I've had a copy of this for a while and read it some years back but didn't recall much of it. It covers a broad swathe of human history broken up into four major themed sections dealing with time, the world, nature and society. Boorstin doesn't try to cover every single major event in history but focuses on the events and inventions germane to the themes he tackles, such as clockmaking, the Spanish and Portuguese attempts to find a passage to India, the invention of the microscope, and chronicling history. Excellent read - Boorstin's style is very accessible and the vast array of historical anecdotes he relates in the course of the book are fascinating. Definitely want to read his other two books in the same vein - The Seekers and The Creators if they're half as good.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2009 05:15
|
|
|
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson Hard to fight through since it's basically the same thing, pesticides = bad, over and over and over again. It's an amazing book for the way it changed society but the message is so ingrained in our minds by now that it just seems like beating a dead horse. Of course the horse was alive and well when the book came out and it pretty much personally bludgeoned it to death with a huge amount of well researched facts so it's worth the read for historical purposes. The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson Pretty much the perfect vacation book. Sitting on the beach on some tropical island is horrible but this really made me want to do just that. Covers all the melancholy and fear of old age that comes with it but still remains upbeat and positive.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2009 17:32
|
|
|
Finished Robinson Crusoe and Ender's Shadow, both great reads. Debating whether or not I want to continue with the Ender's Game series.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2009 21:00
|
|
|
How to talk to liberals (if you must) by Ann Coulter. If she's serious about what she writes, then it's a terrible book. If she's not, then it's a great piece of satire. Sadly, she's serious. I couldn't help myself, so I copied some of the "best" quotes (though by the end I was running out of tabs, so I just didn't get some of them): P. 7: "LIberal's favorite country [is] the USSR." P.7: "Torturing the guy you know for a fact is withholding informatio actually works quite well. There MAY be good and sufficient moral reasons for not torturing people for information, but efficacy is not among them" P.7: "If conservatives have not yet persuaded liberals to give up on socialism and treason, we have at least gotten them to fake linear thinking". P.8: "About the time Baghdad was erupting in celebrations after receiving the news that Uday and Quday were dead, liberals were still hopping mad that in January 2003 President Bush uttered the indisputably true fact that British intelligence believed Saddam Hussein had tried to acquire uranium from Africa" P.8: "(Every Democrat commits adultery and lies about it - fine, they've convinced me.) Clinton also lied every time he said "God bless America," and I don't recall any Republican ever ripping his skin off about it" P.10: "...[unlike liberals] our side does not accept Klansmen, murderers, or rapists..." P.10: "[Liberal's] evil is incalculable. They stand for the godless rule of dictators. They apologize for abortion, adultery, and everything bestial in society, They support al Qaeda and the Taliban as they once supported Stalin and Mao" P.11: "[You should never] say anything nice about a Democrat. For one thing, it's such a colossal waste of time racking your brain trying to think up nice things to say to a liberal". P.13: "Nationally renowned liberal female journalists have been known to offer oral sex to elected officials just for keeping abortion on demand legal." P.15 "[Liberals] may even call you a "neoconservative", by which liberals mean "Dirty Jew". P.14: "...the vast majority of liberals are not intentionally sabotaging the nation. In fact, I don't think as many as 20 percent give a drat about the nation. That 20 percent, of course, deeply hates America." P.17: "For one thing, I am one of the most unpublished writers in America -except for my books, which sell pretty well." P.20: While talking about how Republicans have had a much better foreign policy regarding enemies: "Ten days...[after April 5, 1986, when a West Berlin discotheque was bombed my libian muslim extremists] Reagan bombed Libya, despite our ally France refusing the use of their airspace. Americans bombed Qaddafi's residence, killing his daughter, and dropped a bomb on the French Embassy "by mistake" (and on page 28 she adds "Oops! Butterfingers!" Reagan also stoked a long, bloody war between heinous regimes in Iran and Iraq. All this was while winning a final victory over Soviet totalitarianism" P.22. "Since then [9/11] Bush has won wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, captured Saddam Hussein, probably killed and certainly immobilized Osama bin Laden, destroyed al Qaeda's base, and begun to create the only functioning democracy in the Middle East other than Israel". P.24: "This [post 9/11] is no time to be precious about locating the exact individuals directly involved in this particular terrorist attack. Those responsible include anyone anywhere in the world who smiled in response to the annihilation of patrios like Barbara Olson. We don't need long investigations of the forensic evidence to determine with scientific accuracy the person or persons who ordered this specific attack. We don't need an "international coalition". We don't need a study on "terrorism"." P.24: "Airports scrupulously apply the same laughably ineffective airport harassment to Suzy Chapstick as to Muslim hijackers. It is preposterous to assume every passenger is a potential crazed homicial maniac. We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war." P.25: "Democrats are channeling their frustration with America's imminent military victory in Afghanistan into hysterical opposition to reasonable national security measures at home. (Incidentally, the war in Afghanistan ought to prove once and for all what a bunch of paper tigers the Russians were. What were they doing over there for ten years? It hasn't taken us ten weeks.)" P.26: "And that's making the rather large assumtion that [International Law] is ever relevant at all. International law is like Santa Claus. The only difference is that Santa Claus exists only in the imaginations of small children, whereas international law exists in the imaginations of law school professors. In the real world, international law is whatever the United States and Great Britain say it is". P.26: "This is the most heavily polled populace in the history of the universe; whenever certain polls are not being take, you should smell a big fat commie rat." P.28: "For decades now, France has nurtured, coddled, and funded Islamic terrorists". P.30: "We must attack. What are they going to do? Fight us?" P.31: "The only people America ever goes to war against are utter savages". P.42: "Democrats claim they haven't seen proof yet that Saddam is a direct threat to the United States. For laughs, let's suppose they're right. In the naysayers' worst-case scenario, The United States would be acting precopitously to remove a ruthless dictator who tortures his own people, gassed the Kurds and allows his sons to operate rape rooms". P.46: "Mostly, the Democrats were saddened that America was about to win a war [in Iraq]" P.49: (writing on March 28th, 2003) "Thousands of Iraqi soldiers have surrendered or disbanded, thousands more have been captured, and still thousands more have been killed. Meanwhile, American forces have suffered fewer than two dozen deaths. And if that's not enough to convince you the war is going SPLENDIDLY, just look at the increasingly gloomy expression on Dan Rather's face" P.49: "Most auspiciously, the Arab League has appealed to the United Nations Security Council to stop the war. One can only hope the Security Council will agree to intervene. I'd like to see them try to stop us." P.55: "The question was never whether Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. We know he had weapons of mass destruction, because he used wearpons of mass destruction against the Kurds, against the Iranians and against his own people". P.56: "We've [ousted Saddam with minimal casualties and quickly established a democratic Iraq]" P.59: "But someday, small children will be reading somber historical accounts about the dark night of fascism under John Ashcroft. Of course, thanks to Ashcroft, at least they'll be reading them in English rather than in Arabic." P.60: "The idea that we would involve those swine [the UN] in the postwar occupation of Iraq is so preposterous..." P.61: "Needless to say, the Democrats have no actual plan of their own, unless "surrender" counts as a plan." P. 67: "Kerry is also supported by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, who broadcasts Kerry speechers over Radio Pyongyan with favorable commentary" P.67: "No matter how many of our European allies may surrender to terrorism, America will never be alone. This is a country founded in a covenant with God by people who had to flee Europe to do it". P.68: "The Democratic candidate [Kerry] wants to represent godless Europeans" P.76: "Airlines could, for example, put undercover armed guards on all their flights. They could allow passengers to fly armed." P. 78: "Every flight should carry at least two undercover agents capapable of discharging hollow-point bullets, poison darts, and electric shocks." P. 78: "All nineteen hijackers in last week's attack appear to have been noncitizens. As far as the Constitution is concerned, visitors to this country are here at the nation's pleasure. Congress could pass a law tomorrow requiring that all aliens from Arabic countries leave. Congress could certainly pass a law requiring that all aliens get approval from the INS before boarding an airplane in the United States" P.103: "Democrats never talk about believing in something; they talk about simulating belief in something. "Americans believe in this crazy God crap that we don't, so how do we hoodwink them into thinking we believe in God?" It's part of the casual contempt Democrats have for the views of normal people" P.104: "Basically any white person who believes in God is a Republican. The only Democrats who go to church are the ones who plan to run for president someday and are preparing in advance to fake a belief in God." P.107: "All the [democrat] candidates are willing to sell out any of these other issues in service of the one burning desire of al Democrats: Abotion on demand. If they could just figure a way to abort babies using solar power, that's all we'd hear about" P.121: "[Jane Fonda is] a traitor". P.123: "The current Democratic Party is a crowd of idle, rich degenerates, the likes of which hasn't existed since the czar's court. When not occupied with abortions or strippers, they busy themselves denouncing the cossacks as "the poweful"." P.125: "[Dick Clarke is] a career back-bencher who was passed over as National Security Adviser in favor of Condoleezza Rice". P.126: "As long as we're investingating everything, how about investigating why some loser no one has ever heard of [Clarke] is getting so much press coverage for yet another "tell-all" book attacking the Bush administration?" P.126: "...many of Clarke's allegations were disproven within days of the book's release" P.127: "[Clarke is a] chair-warmer" P.154: "By openly admiting to being philanderers, draft dodgers, liars, weasels, and cowards, liberals avoid ever being hypocrites". P.158: "There is no surer proof of Christ's divinity than that he is stil so hated some two thousand years after his death".
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2009 22:57
|
|
|
Tohokai posted:How to talk to liberals (if you must) by Ann Coulter. Sadly, that is a woman with an Ivy League education, and a law degree from University of Michigan. I suppose it's true that you just can't fix stupid. EDIT: The Boondocks did a great bit about Ann Coulter, where she's secretly a liberal in a multi-ethnic relationship, who's only reason for being so crazy in the media is to give liberals - particularly minorities - someone to vilify and unite against. Tiborax fucked around with this message at 23:20 on Jul 23, 2009 |
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2009 23:18
|
|
|
The Nonexistent Knight by Italo Calvino. This is a book from his Our Ancestors trilogy. An amusing novella in the form of a folk tale. A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut. I didn't need to read this book. I've been a fan of Vonnegut for decades, but reading his crusty opinions seems to diminish him now that I'm an old man with crusty opinions of my own. He rants and raves, getting a few things right and a few things wrong, just like the rest of us. I'd rather just enjoy his novels than consider whether I'd cherish his company on a personal level, but it seems that many people either cannot or choose not to separate an artist from his/her work. I never understood that, but I guess that this is the type of person this book was written for. I Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. Reading the reviews would make you think you'll be slapping your knees and splitting your sides as you read this book, but in fact all you get are some nicely written and amusing essays. If I wanted to study up on how to write some nice, amusing essays, I'd probably not be so quick to return it to the library. But I enjoyed it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2009 00:51
|
|
|
Also, since I forgot to post it before: Palestine: Peace not apartheid by Jimmy Carter. It's a good book, wether you have some knowledge of the arab-israeli conflict or not; however, the lack of footnotes makes it look like more like a memoir than like an actual scholar study. Finally, though I agree with the main point presented in the book, he tells a lot of personal stories about israeli leaders, which in the end make it sound like he was just trying to appease the jewish people in order to prevent accusations of anti semitism (needless to say that he was -wronfully- called an anti semite anyway). Redrum and Coke fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Jul 24, 2009 |
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2009 00:58
|
|
|
Today I finished V by Thomas Pynchon. The book was already overdue at the library four weeks ago, so I renewed it, and now I'm going to have a second fine. Wikipedia was invaluable. I would have been lost without an easy way to get basic information about the history of Malta, events in German Southwest Africa, maps of Florence and the Mediterranean. The one chapter that I understood immediately was Mondaugen's Story, which just happened to cover a lot of familiar ground. If the other chapters are as rich as that one then I certainly missed a lot of stuff.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2009 02:58
|
|
|
Just finished reading Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door. Goddamn, that was a messed up ride. After the messed up thing, it had had a short story called Returns that is sad in a  way though. Previous to that, I read Clive Barker's Weave World, it was quite enjoyable.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2009 05:51
|
|
|
I finished Fight Club yesterday. Guess most of you have probably read it. I was impressed on how close the movie sticks to the book. As opposed to most other movie adaptation I actually think I like the move better. What I'm missing is some character development. None of the main characters ever really change. That's fully acceptable in a move that's only two hours, but can be tedious in a 200 page book. One other thing I can't decide on is if I like the kind of raw way of writing the author use. There isn't much detail which can both be powerful but at the same time a bit lacklustre. Well all in all it's a good book can't deny that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2009 10:29
|
|
|
markehed posted:I finished Fight Club yesterday...I actually think I like the move better. Yeah, the movie was quite a bit more epic.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2009 12:53
|
|
|
I just finished the First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie and it was good fun. Despite a lot of bloodshed it was a fairly light read and a bit of a page turner compared to a lot of fantasy that get's to bogged down in all the world building. It also had a nice line in dry British humor. I hade some issue with the structure, especially the second book, which felt like it was mostly treading water. But enjoyed how it played around with some fantasy cliche's. It particularly amused me that the whole premise of the trilogy kind of boiled down to what would happen if Gandalf was a complete and utter oval office. It felt a lot like this was the starting point and the various character narratives were weaved around that. Next Mystic River
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2009 14:32
|
|
|
Adam Gopnik's Paris to the Moon. This is by far the whitest book that I have ever read. Basically, it's a collection of essays about living in Paris and how it is different from the US. Gopnik's prose is real nice and a lot of the essays are really charming slices-of-life (he wrote for The New Yorker). Some essays are cute and some are funny and all of them are about his very yuppie lifestyle. My two big complaints with the book: 1) He over-analyzes things. He will take an Important Cultural Lesson from anything and everything, no matter how mundane or insignificant (see the chapter about soccer). 2) This is a purely personal complaint and I realize that books should not be judged for what they aren't, but I really wish that this book had been about more than just the very trendy and wealthy side of Paris. There's tons of interesting poo poo he could have written about regarding, for example, immigration, which as anyone who has been to Paris knows, is kind of an enormous deal.
|
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2009 01:19
|
|
|
markehed posted:Are you talking violated in a good way or a bad way? I have a friend who recommended that I read the book. The movie was great especially if you understand Swedish. This is late, but the book goes into pedophilia way, WAY more than the movie...like WAY MORE. I liked the movie more because it cut alot of the gruesome stuff and kept the creepy stuff. The book is just...ugh. I've tried to loan it out to people and they give it back within a day or two because it's just too much.
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2009 03:16
|
|
|
Just finished Brandon Sanderson's Warbreaker. I liked it overall, the world he built was interesting. In fact, much like with the Mistborn books, I'd have enjoyed a more thorough look into the mechanics of the world rather than the limited view that comes with the narrative structure. The story itself was alright, pretty well paced but not a tough read by any stretch. It seemed to have twists and turns simply to have twists and turns, so it became pretty safe to assume that almost everybody connected with the POV characters was the exact opposite of the way they were portrayed. I'd probably buy a sequel, but not in hardcover.
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2009 05:39
|
|
|
Dudikoff posted:Of Human Bondage by Maugham. I have to say, this is the best book that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Also high on my list is Razor's Edge, but this book has me in awe. The Razor's Edge is probably my favourite book of all time. W. Somerset Maugham is an amazing writer.
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2009 16:33
|
|
|
The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Mushashi. I recognize he was in a mountain and didn't have access to an editor, still, didn't he think that telling me that, "I must study this diligently," fifty times was excessive? Otherwise, I'll need to reread it at a later point.
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2009 17:52
|
|
|
V-Men posted:The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Mushashi. I recognize he was in a mountain and didn't have access to an editor, still, didn't he think that telling me that, "I must study this diligently," fifty times was excessive? Apparently you didn't study it diligently enough, then. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2009 18:17
|
|
|
I burn through quite a lot of books. The last batch was: I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage, by Susan Squire. Interesting and eye opening history of marriage, with a heavy focus on the contributions of the Jewish and Christian religions. Caravans, by James A. Michener. Michener is an amazing writer, with an eye for detail like I haven't seen before. War Child: A Child Soldier's Story by Emmanuel Jal. Jal is one of Sudan's 'lost boys' child soldier turned rapper. It's gut wrenching to read about war in such personal way, especially written by a person who was killing people and trying not to starve to death at the same time I was just running around my neighborhood. Next up: Hawaii by James Michener and The Blood of Lambs by Kamal Saleem.
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2009 05:35
|
|
|
IM_DA_DECIDER posted:The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson I can attest to this. I read this when I was down in Florida for my sister's wedding. Sitting on a beach with this book while sipping Coronas is one of the best reading experiences I've had.
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2009 22:13
|
|
|
The Decameron by Giovanni Bocaccio. Really fun to read, and surprisingly understandable even though it was written nearly 700 years ago. Maybe I just got a good translation (Guido Waldman), but I really enjoyed it. Essentially, the framework is that 10 young people of good birth escape from plague-infested Florence to the countryside, and entertain themselves by each telling one story every day for ten days. Thus, the books consists of basically 100 short stories. They have a huge variety of characters and specific circumstances, but they basically all involve loving. A lot. It's really surprising what's written considering the culture at the time. I think I'll continue my theme of Italian writers by next tackling Dante's Divine Comedy.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2009 04:01
|
|
|
I just finished The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway yesterday. I'm still not sure how to react to the ending. It was depressing, but not quite the kick-in-the-balls that was the end to A Farewell to Arms. I'm thinking my next Hemingway shot will be either The Old Man and the Sea, or Death in the Afternoon.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2009 04:17
|
|
|
Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut. Some of the material here was repeated pretty much verbatim in A Man Without a Country, which leads me to think that Vonnegut was slipping in his later years. He was a great writer, though, so even when he's slipping he's better than some people at the top of their game. I'd seriously skip A Man Without a Country, but Timequake wasn't bad. If you love Vonnegut, you'll probably enjoy it, as I did. His earlier stuff is still better, though.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2009 22:34
|
|
|
I just finished A Total Waste of Makeup by Kim Gruenenfelder. I like going to the fiction section and pulling a book that I've never heard about, so sometimes it can be a toss-up. In this case, I was lucky and it was actually quite good and really hilarious. A good read if you want something quick and painless. I'm on to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Really, uh, different so far!
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2009 14:28
|
|
|
Tohokai posted:How to talk to liberals (if you must) by Ann Coulter. I'm curious to know what in the book leads you to conclude that she's serious. Just the excerpts you've posted, or is there more? Thankfully, I've been spared reading anything she's written. But based on what I've seen and heard about her (mainly brief appearances on politically oriented shows like Hardball), she seems rather to be a sort of political troll, deliberately inciting anger, disdain, etc. in order to sell books and obtain lecture circuit engagements. Red Dad Redemption fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Jul 28, 2009 |
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2009 16:19
|
|
|
Eely posted:I'm curious to know what in the book leads you to conclude that she's serious. Just the excerpts you've posted, or is there more? I'm sure that the most insulting statements are just used to get attention, but the central message, the vast "liberal conspiracy" is still there. She sees liberal enemies everywhere.
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2009 01:04
|
|
|
Tohokai posted:She sees liberal enemies everywhere. That's because there's no one more "conservative" than Ann Coulter.
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2009 01:19
|
|
|
LooseChanj posted:That's because there's no one more "conservative" than Ann Coulter. I dunno, I think Michael Savage gives her a run for her money. :end derail:
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2009 01:25
|
|
|
I read the book because during a conversation about crazy people at my girlfriend's house her parent left the room and jokingly gave use the book as a present. So I read it, from cover to cover. I'm glad I did, since now I can criticize her knowing full well how insane she is; I'm also glad about the fact that I didn't pay for that crap (not that I would have). I think that Glenn Beck is crazier than her though, but she's crazier than O'Reilly (but not too much).
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2009 02:33
|
|
|
Freakonomics. I waited too long to pick it up. The KKK analogy was my favorite.
|
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2009 06:02
|
|
|
sourpuss solstice posted:Freakonomics. It's a very good book. The parts about teachers and names were pretty good.
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2009 06:41
|
|
|
I just recently finished Lone Survivor, and WOW, I dare you to tell me a more emotional and intense non-fiction war story and I will probably die an even happier person. Seriously, go to Barnes and Nobles and buy this book, it's like 10-15 bucks for the most intense story you'll ever hear about the greatest single loss in special ops history in a single day.
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2009 15:44
|
|
|
The first volume of Vasari's collection of mini-biographies, Lives of the Artists, which covers the lives and work of Renaissance artists from Giotto through to Titian. Vasari himself snuck in at the tail-end of the High Renaissance, in the first wave of Mannerism, so although he's relying quite a lot on records and oral history for earlier artists, he was a direct contemporary and friend of some of the folks at the creative zenith like Michelangelo. The author intended it to be produced alongside a sort of scrapbook showing portraits of the artists and reproductions of some of the work but the Penguin edition doesn't include any illustrations to speak of - not quite sure why since it presumably would have been relatively easy to slip in a plate here and there. That said, your knowledge of the art of the period doesn't have to be encyclopaedic to pick up on his commentary, so don't let that put you off. You'd be missing out on some gems like the story of Fra Fillippo Lippi, the sex-crazed monk, who the Medici locked in a room to ensure he got on with a painting undistracted, only to find that he'd climbed out the window and risked his life scaling down the side of the palace to visit his mistress. Also Stanley Elkin's The Franchiser which, to tread a cliche that little bit further into the ground, seems like the best novel William Gaddis never wrote. I don't even know where to start on this one - think the cultural sweep of something like White Noise, the lovely bits papered over with soliloquies taped together from improbably entertaining middle-class chatter and you're in the general ballpark. Elkin treads a pretty fine line with the grotesque nature of the satire, and every now and then it'll feel like it's spiralling out of control, but otherwise highly recommended. Throws up a hell of a lot of gristle for discussion too, so it'd probably make an ideal candidate for Book of the Month if folks can be bothered tracking it down. After that was the not-especially-uplifting short stories of This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski, a young Polish author who survived a year and a half in Auschwitz. I read through the depressing books thread we had going a while back but couldn't really see too much on par with his semi-autobiographical tales, especially those of Group Canada, the workgroups tasked with unloading the prisoner transports in exchange for food scavenged from the new arrivals. A relatively mind-safe extract from the unloading docks: quote:Here is a woman - she walks quickly but tries to appear calm. A small child with a pink cherub's face runs after her and, unable to keep up, stretches out his little arms and cries: "Mama! Mama!" Because I enjoy pain, next up was Lydia Chukovskaya's Sofia Petrovna, a novel about a mother whose only son, a star Stakanovite engineer, is arrested and sent to the camps during the Stalinist Terror in the '30s. Communicates a good sense of the total social alienation of those left behind when their family members are arrested, but there's something about Chukovskaya's flat style that undermines the emotional heft it should have. It almost functions better as a piece of journalism in novel's clothing than as an actual novel per se. If you're interested in that period the ground-level details of the Terror which might otherwise get lost in the sweep of history are worth the small amount of time it takes to read it. Kind of like One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich's Family, only Chukovskaya was no Solzhenitsyn. Last thing finished was Karl Kraus - Apocalyptic Satirist: Culture and Catastrophe in Habsburg Vienna, the first of a two volume critical biography of Kraus that Edward Timms slaved over for a good 20 years or so. Kraus was the leading cultural critic, satirist and linguistic scourge of Imperial Vienna, warning that in the absence of strong political leadership self-indulgent journalists were able to wield a dangerous amount of influence in society; in broad terms he was the early twentieth century's Jon Stewart, albeit with more than a dash of John the Revelator in there as well. He was proven horribly right of course when WWI hit and the Empire crumbled under phony bravado and self-serving opportunism. Even so he wasn't immune to blunders of his own, only realising late in the war that the conservative power base he hoped would return to arrest Vienna's free-fall were at the heart of the problem. Timms' fairly sluggish publishing record is down to the intimidating amount of research, with over 900 issues of Kraus' Die Fackel magazine alone, as well as volumes of poetry, letters and the analysis of his post-war play, The Last Days of Mankind. A surefire hit if the day ever comes that Book Barn clamours for 1000 page criticisms of Austrian journalists.
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2009 18:00
|
|
|
Just finished Dark Night of the Soul by St John of the Cross. It's a classic of mysticism in the Western tradition. Having read a fair amount of original source material on mysticism in various Western and Eastern traditions, and not having looked back at this piece for a number of years, I have to admit that the style of the writing was a challenge for me, though this may have been a translation issue.
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2009 18:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 15:48 |
|
|
I'm playing catch-up posting some books that I've recently read - here it goes: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke - A fairly swift moving space odyssey about a country sized cylindrical object gliding through our solar system. We send a crack team of space cowboys (boring astronauts) to check it out and figure out what the hell this mysterious "craft" is all about. This was my first foray into space sciFi...and perhaps my last. It was a fun read, but not of a genre that I am interested in. There was a horror-esque creepy feel at times, reminiscent of the movie Event Horizon, but that was secondary to the man-searching-for-intelligence theme, something that I've had my fill of from the movies. Towing Jehovah by James Morrow - The body of the almighty God plummets into the ocean, dead as a doornail, and the angels hire an oil tanker captain with a gloomy past to drag the lifeless corpse to an icy tomb. The heart of the story is the Captain looking for redemption, but there are also the big question of whether or not the world could handle knowing that God is dead, or even the fact that God COULD die. Why did he die? How did he die? What next? I enjoyed reading it for those themes. The plot pusher of the WWII re-enactors planning a mission to destroy the body seemed forced. I also felt that the ending was a little bit underwhelming. The Tomb by Paul Wilson - The first book of the Repairman Jack series. I had just read Of Human Bondage, so I needed something fun to read, and this was exactly that. I love the Dresden and Felix Castor supernatural detective books and was recommended this series to try. I might be hooked! This particular entry introduces Jack, a guy who fixes things, meaning he's a thug. But...he has a heart of gold, of course. He gets hired to find a mysterious necklace by a one armed Indian and his very fuckable sister, who both may be hiding some deep dark secrets that could get Jack killed in a most horrendous fashion. If that weren't enough, Jack's ex-girlfriend enlists him to find her missing Aunt. Unfortunately for Jack, these two cases are on a collision course! Anyways, the book so entertaining that you can forgive convenient plot devices and out-of-nowhere clues that turn up at the last possible second. It's not as good a the Dresden books, but it might be the closest second that I've encountered so far. Up next ... I'm actually nose deep in The Great Gatsby and it's great so far.
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2009 21:18
|
|
