|
ANGRY_KOREA_MAN posted:I just bought Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. But it seems everyone here hates her and this book. I love it so far (about 200 pages in) and can't really put it down for any length of time. Perhaps my favorite book of all time, its hard to decide though. I just bought the Anthem by Ayn Rand and Dune by Frank Herbert.
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2010 08:05
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 22:19 |
|
|
LooseChanj posted:People poo poo all over her fiction because she has a horrible philosophy, but the stories really are good. I would beg to differ. I read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged in college because I had a friend who absolutely loved them. I didn't know who she was at the time or that Objectivism even existed. I didn't know it was a whole philosophy, really, but I still hated the books. A lot of it was due to the underlying philosophy but it was also the writing style. It was very cold. I didn't feel anything for the characters. The only character I felt anything for was Peter Keating. I felt bad for him at the end because he was finally happy doing something and the author shits all over him just because he's not a supergenius at it. God. He's happy, something that no one else in the whole drat book is, let him be! I think that was the key. I got the feeling I was reading books by someone for whom happiness was absolutely extraneous and even a sign that you were a bad or stupid person, and it isn't pleasant to read books about a bunch of unhappy people, especially when someone is browbeating me with the message that these unhappy, cold and rigid people are the best people and everyone else is stupid and useless. Also, the bloat. I skipped probably 50% of Atlas Shrugged and didn't feel like I missed out on much but a bunch of lecturing. I think it's fine if authors want to put their politics or philosophies in a fiction, as long as they remember they are writing a fiction, but a lot of Atlas Shrug involved someone saying a long essay that I wasn't particularly interested in reading.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2010 10:18
|
|
|
Just started Denise Gigante's Life: Organic Form and Romanticism, and I love it when I start an academic work and you can just tell how excited the author is to be writing about the subject. Also, I appreciate how openly she describes her intent - to provide the idea of "epigenesist poetics" to help explain the form of some of the hardest poems in the language so that they're a little easier to read. And the fact that she includes Christopher Smart is badass.
|
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2010 17:02
|
|
ONE TWO THREE TIMES TWO TO THE SIX/JONESING FOR YOUR FIX OF THAT LIMP BIZKIT MIX
|
Just started The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank due to a girl I've been talking to on OK Cupid saying it's her favorite book. I'm actually really liking it so far. It's alternatively funny and sad. (note, it's not actually a guide to hunting and fishing for girls.)
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2010 06:38
|
|
|
Just cracked open The Great & Secret Show by Clive Barker. A few pages in and it's already off and running to an awesome start.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2010 16:27
|
|
|
I'm just starting Nevil Shute's On The Beach. I've been on a post-apocalyptic bender recently, having just finished Alas, Babylon and going on to A Canticle For Leibowitz once I've finished Shute's book. I've also started the French historian Emmanuel La Roy Ladurie's Montaillou for a class.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2010 20:59
|
|
|
Just started M. John Harrison's Nova Swing this afternoon; it's a quasi-sequel to Light, which I read earlier this year and really enjoyed (to the point where I feel like rereading it already  ). It's hooking me faster than Light did, which is promising, but that might be just because I know and enjoy the setting he constructed.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2010 21:43
|
|
|
I just started The City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer. I made a mistake by starting at the first story; I only got through 30 pages before I had to stop. I skipped ahead to the second story, which was significantly better than what I had read and far more humorous. So far I love it; it blends everything that's good about China Mieville with a more overstated humor than Terry Pratchett.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2010 23:20
|
|
|
girl with the dragon tattoo, by stieg larsson. bit of a slow start, but i think it'll be good. first part of a trilogy, be nice to read 'em all this year
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2010 14:10
|
|
|
I just bought The Prone Gunman by Jean-Patrick Manchette, Brownsville by Neil Kleid and Jake Allen, You Are There by Jacques Tardi and Jean-Claude Forest, The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene, Berlin: City of Smoke by Jason Lutes, and Among the Thugs by Bill Buford.
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2010 15:40
|
|
|
demozthenes posted:Just cracked open The Great & Secret Show by Clive Barker. A few pages in and it's already off and running to an awesome start. The Great & Secret Show is really good, and but I think the sequel, Everville is even better. If you enjoy both of those, Imajica is a similar style of book, and his best so far.
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2010 16:41
|
|
|
Hedrigall posted:Would love to read this, having read all of Augusten Burroughs' memoirs - to see (some of) the same stories from a different eye view. If you've read this yet, or if anyone else here has, how much does Augusten feature in the book? I'm finally a few chapters into it and Augusten is in it a fair bit. Also the "Finches" are in it and John Elder gives his own take on them from the years before his brother was involved with them which I am finding very interesting. So far there have been a few stories that Augusten had mentioned in his books (his father burning him with a cigarette in Wolf at the Table springs to mind). It has a similar feel to his brothers books, so far it's a good read.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2010 06:04
|
|
|
I just started Dave Cullen's Columbine. I was kind of how surprised that the narrative started so close to the shooting (only a couple days before, with the prom. It's not a fun read so far by any means, but it's amazingly investigated. Cullen has all kinds of little details that show he's really spent time at this. The way he's tracing how so many different people - shooters, victims, the sheriff and so forth - and how they all fit into the tragedy is something. barkingclam fucked around with this message at 06:18 on Jan 18, 2010 |
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2010 06:16
|
|
|
Earwicker posted:Berlin: City of Smoke by Jason Lutes
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2010 16:33
|
|
|
Just bought Heller's Catch-22, Marquez's The General in His Labyrinth, and Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase. Attacking the Heller first. I'm excited to be reading this at last 
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2010 22:37
|
|
|
schoenfelder posted:I read the German translation (Berlin: Bleierne Stadt; literally "City of Lead") which, among other things, does a really good job at putting the Berlin dialect in writing. This is a really great graphic novel, I loved it! Yeah, the English version also attempts to portray the Berlin dialect, "your" is written as "y'r" for example and many other words are similarly condensed. I don't speak German, let alone have any familiarity with the specific dialect, so I don't know how accurate this English version of it is, but it's interesting. Incidentally there are actually two volumes, in English the first one is called City of Stone, and City of Smoke is the second (and each of these is actually a collection of 8 episodes which were first published as individual comics). I'm not sure which one the German "lead" one is equivilent to, though it's odd that they changed it. Earwicker fucked around with this message at 00:09 on Jan 21, 2010 |
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2010 00:06
|
|
|
Earwicker posted:Incidentally there are actually two volumes, in English the first one is called City of Stone, and City of Smoke is the second (and each of these is actually a collection of 8 episodes which were first published as individual comics). I'm not sure which one the German "lead" one is equivilent to, though it's odd that they changed it. Edit for on-topic content: Bought Im Westen Nichts Neues (All Quiet On The Western Front) by Erich Maria Remarque and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen today. Have a feeling I might be ordering more stuff to add to my "to read" stack tomorrow, pretext being I need some textbook for uni... schoenfelder fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Jan 21, 2010 |
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2010 08:58
|
|
|
Okay guys, help me out. I just started On the Road by Jack Kerouac, and a fourth of the way in I find myself powering through as quickly as possible just so I can be done with it and move on to something else. What about this book should I be looking to enjoy, exactly? I find the characters insufferably smug (and, okay, given that he's writing about Ginsberg et al maybe they've earned the right to be smug--that still doesn't make for interesting reading), and even his prose style doesn't strike me as particularly compelling. It reads just exactly like one of the countless undergrad "me and my friends are so cool you just don't loving know" pieces I had to workshop in my writing classes. This isn't so much a "wah wah I don't like a classic" post as a "please tell me what you enjoyed about the book" post. I have such a dislike of what I've read so far that I'm honestly having trouble seeing past my own bias to fit this work into American literary canon. Am I some kind of Kerouac curmudgeon, or has this book just not aged well?
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2010 00:42
|
|
|
Sorry I can't give you an answer but those were more or less my thoughts when I read On the Road a few weeks ago. So I, too, would like to know!
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2010 09:09
|
|
|
I'm a few chapters into Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and well...I can't put it down. There have already been multiple points at which I've covered my mouth and thought "holy poo poo! Thats insane/scary/sad." Really interesting book so far.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2010 09:59
|
|
|
Been on an Umberto Eco fest recently. Last night I finished Hot Wars and Media Populism and sunk my teeth into The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. So far the discussion of memory and identity are making for an interesting story, as well as being an excellent device for summing up Yambo's (central character's) life and influences using fiction for autobiographical purposes (i think). Seems this book could have simply been Eco compiling "Quotes and Cartoons that influened me", but is instead shaping up to be an intriguing slab of fiction rich in intertextuality. So far, in parts, about half of what is said & thought by Yambo is from other texts, I am unaware of the origin of 90% of these references. The coloured plates are exquisite, especially considering the price of the book. Blah blah blah my eyes are frothing.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2010 01:37
|
|
|
Sarchasm posted:This isn't so much a "wah wah I don't like a classic" post as a "please tell me what you enjoyed about the book" post. I have such a dislike of what I've read so far that I'm honestly having trouble seeing past my own bias to fit this work into American literary canon. Am I some kind of Kerouac curmudgeon, or has this book just not aged well? On the Road was a book I liked a lot as a teenager, but I wonder if it wasn't more because it seemed "cool" to me. Later, when I read much more, it faded way into the background and since I last read it in college, I haven't felt motivated to pick it up again. The Kerouac book I most enjoyed was Big Sur. It seems like a much more mature book than previous ones and a much sadder book, but I felt like it was also more self-aware. The smugness isn't there anymore because he's no longer this "hey, look at us, we're so bohemian, look at how we live!" It's the aftermath of that, and deals with his alcoholism and insecurities and it shows some very changed people. It's basically the opposite end of the spectrum from On the Road. I can't say whether someone who didn't like On the Road would like Big Sur, but out of all the Kerouac I read (I took a whole honors seminar on the Beat Generation in college, so I ended up reading a lot) that was the book that I most enjoyed and felt was the most real and mature and that I could relate to the best.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2010 09:03
|
|
|
I just bough Hunter, which is this book of the month. I always did love some psychological mindfucks, so this should be loads of fun! Also, I started to read the Conan stories, with volume 1, The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2010 09:18
|
|
|
I'm halfway through The British Museum is Falling down by David Lodge, among other things. This book is fantastic, and hilarious. Initially I'd bought it because it was about a guy trying to write his thesis in the reading room of the British Museum, but it's a lot deeper.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2010 09:56
|
|
|
I just purchased The Innocent Mage and The Awakened Mage by Karen Miller. I am going to be starting on The Innocent Mage today. Anyone read these?
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2010 21:38
|
|
|
I just started The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian. I am pleased that the battles will all be historically accurate except for the usual fictions in the rest of the story. That will be fun to look up after. O'Brian would oblige me infinitely if he would simply write, "And then Mrs. Williams burst into flame." She is the worst mother in law any man could have the ill luck to receive. Every time she is near our protagonists I wish some common lethal accident would befall her or at least orders would hastily arrive just to be rid of her for a few months.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2010 16:13
|
|
|
I just got these today.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2010 23:00
|
|
|
juliuspringle posted:I used to LOVE Harry Turtledove as a kid. I'm not entirely sure why though. Thinking back, I can't think of any of his stories that I really enjoyed all that much or anything interesting that came from his writing. I think the only one that I would recommend would be Guns of the South.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2010 00:38
|
|
|
Just hit the library again today after not going for a while (since before Christmas) and snagged a load of books. Working through The Mexican Tree Duck by James Crumley at the moment. Damned shame he's no longer with us - he really was a great detective fiction writer. Also got The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington on its way in the mail. Keep hearing about it here and there and it sounds like my cuppa tea so I figured I'd snag a copy and give it a shot. schoenfelder posted:Bought Im Westen Nichts Neues (All Quiet On The Western Front) by Erich Maria Remarque Definitely one of the best books I read last year, for what it's worth. I've been meaning to read it again myself.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2010 01:49
|
|
|
Encryptic posted:[on All Quiet On The Western Front] It's really strange we didn't read Im Westen Nichts Neues in school (I'm hailing from Germany). A teacher, however, once lent me Die Brücke (The Bridge; English translation may be out of print) by Manfred Gregor which touches on a similar subject: It's about a bunch of Hitler Youth guys who get conscripted just before the end of the war and get told to defend a bridge which holds no strategic value whatsoever. If I remember correctly (it's been about 8 or 9 years since I read it) it's really depressing as these young guys are caught in the line of fire, some of them fanatic and still believing in the "Endsieg", others paralyzed by fear for their lives and resulting apathy... and slowly they lose all hope. Edit for on-topic content: Bought Dostoyevski's Der Spieler (The Gambler) yesterday and just ordered Die Zerstörung Jugoslawiens: Slobodan Milosevic antwortet seinen Anklägern edited by Klaus Hartmann (annotated translations of Milosevic's defense speech at the ICTY, his speech at Kosovo Polje, ICTY documents and other things) and Ausgehen by Barbara Markovic (a re-write of Thomas Bernhard's Gehen set in modern Belgrade's nightlife). schoenfelder fucked around with this message at 09:39 on Jan 26, 2010 |
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2010 09:13
|
|
|
It's a 32 hour audiobook 
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2010 05:06
|
|
|
Syrinxx posted:It's a 32 hour audiobook Just curious, why audiobook?
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2010 11:12
|
|
|
robomechatronsaurus posted:Just curious, why audiobook?
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2010 16:26
|
|
|
I just got Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower (very excited about this one), The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron, No Logo by Naomi Klein, The She-Devil in the Mirror by Horacio Castellanos Moya, The City out my Window by Matteo Pericoli, Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, and The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer. Unfortunately I won't have time to read anything other than business books for the next week  I'm currently reading Inspired: How to Create Products that Customers Love by Marty Cagan which is good and well written for what it is but I'd rather be reading the above!
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2010 17:01
|
|
|
Gonna finish up Under The Dome by Stephen King tonight and start reading either Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut or The Stranger by Camus next. I'll be flipping a coin to decide. Either way, those are the next two books on my list.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2010 18:48
|
|
|
Syrinxx posted:I fill up my daily commute with audiobooks, plus my ADD would never let me finish a thousand page book in less than a year. I really might need to go back and read the Baroque Cycle before I tackle this one, I don't really know how much of a followup/sequel it is.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2010 19:06
|
|
|
Sarchasm posted:Okay guys, help me out. I'm in the middle of a senior level course on The Beat Generation examined as a literary and cultural movement, and my general sense is that it served as a rallying point for an emerging counter-culture. Its literary qualities probably got blown out of proportion by the 50s beatniks and hipsters who saw it as the beginning of a new era for the underground. I have to agree with you about the book for the most part. Kerouac got to a good point in the end where the pain and disconnection of his characters shone through, but I think he did it too late to outweigh the romanticization of bohemian life that characterized the first three quarters of the novel. If you're interested in an alternate tale about all the real life figures in On The Road check out John C. Holmes' Go. He writes with a lot more realism and self-awareness than Kerouac and gets some more dramatically charged material that way. NINJEDIT: Reading Michael Schudson's The Sociology of News on the heavy side, and Jonathan Lethem's You Don't Love Me Yet on the popcorn-fun side.
|
|
#
?
Jan 29, 2010 04:44
|
|
|
Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Only got a little bit through it (just got it as a gift a week ago, have not find time to dig into it yet) and I have to say it is really interesting. The main character has such wit and humor that it makes the depressing setting seem to come alive/be believable. The dialogue seems real and the characters are also very realistic. It has been very enjoyable so far.
|
|
#
?
Jan 29, 2010 17:20
|
|
|
Blew through The Stranger in an evening and I'm now about a third of the way through Breakfast of Champions. Talk about a huge change of pace... I really enjoyed The Stranger, especially its absurdity. So far, Breakfast of Champions is the funniest thing I've read this year. The bit about the tap dancing and farting alien had me laughing for a good twenty minutes.
|
|
#
?
Jan 29, 2010 20:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 22:19 |
|
|
Bernard Cornwell's The Burning Land  gently caress yeah gonna get my sword porn on.
|
|
#
?
Jan 29, 2010 21:18
|
|
