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As mentioned in the Scifi and Fantasy thread, I just started A Song of Fire and Ice's first book, A Game Of Thrones. Its been pretty excellent through the first 40 or so pages 
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Jun 19, 2011 23:10
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Adonis Gunther posted:I just bought War and Peace Leo Tolstoy as I figured I will forever be shunned among the community of book nerds if I don't read it. I do hope I don't die before I finish. It's worth being sure you have the new translation (Prevear & Volokhonsky). It's a wonderful read: great characterization, wonderful plotting, well developed themes, and on and on. Take your time and enjoy it, even if it takes a while (though it need'nt).
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Jun 20, 2011 00:40
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Well, it did take me about 2 months, but it never really dragged all that much, and it kept me interested throughout - except for the previously mentioned last hundred pages.
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Jun 20, 2011 00:56
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Just started Where I'm Calling From by Raymond Carver. I'm an avid short story reader, and this book is really hitting the spot. However, Carver's abrupt endings - while certainly reminiscent of the way life really is - often leave me feeling stupid; as if I've missed something. I'm loving it so far.
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Jun 20, 2011 04:36
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Downloaded Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen), interesting so far. Had trouble putting down the kindle last night.
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Jun 21, 2011 19:05
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Just stated Big Man by Clarance Clemons. I had it grouped together with a bunch of other entertainment books in my 125 line, but since he passed on Saturday, it's time to dive into it.
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Jun 22, 2011 04:07
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I just started The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. My cousin has been raving about it for a while and lent me his copy. I wouldn't have picked it up on my own but I'm liking it so far.
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Jun 22, 2011 05:26
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Just started in on Dark War by Tim Waggoner. It's the third book in the Matt Richter series (zombie detective). So far... so good. This is one of my favorite series, and it's living up (  ) to the last 2 books.
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Jun 22, 2011 09:23
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Just started See A Little Light, a memoir by Bob Mould of Husker Du. So far, I'm liking it.
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Jun 26, 2011 02:17
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Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs.
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Jun 26, 2011 07:17
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The introduction to Naked Lunch is the best part of the book. The "WE have this tent and this lamp and this tent and this lamp.." section is amazing.
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Jun 26, 2011 20:41
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I started Henderson, the Rain King by Saul Bellow recently. It's the story about a bullheaded man for whom everything goes wrong. That's probably oversimplifying it, but I am enjoying the story.
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Jun 27, 2011 19:04
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I've just started The Girl who played with Fire and so far it's awesome. I really enjoyed the first book and this one is a good continuation of the originals "greatness" - anyone else had a positive experience with the millennium trilogy?
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Jun 27, 2011 22:38
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AmericanGeeksta posted:As mentioned in the Scifi and Fantasy thread, I just started A Song of Fire and Ice's first book, A Game Of Thrones. Its been pretty excellent through the first 40 or so pages I just started this also, watched the show on HBO and thought I better read all the books before the next season.
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Jun 27, 2011 23:11
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Just kicked off with Republic by Plato, and through the first book (chapter)I find myself really enjoying the format it is written in. I will admit there are a couple references in it that require looking up, but all in all it was much more accessible then I had expected.
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Jun 30, 2011 00:23
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Started The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss last night. I read The Name of the Wind back at the beginning of March when, I believe, the second book was just coming out. I greatly enjoyed the first one, and the snatches of feelings I have gotten about this book say that it's even better than the first.
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Jun 30, 2011 12:25
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So, previously I had only read through Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and stopped there. That was years ago though, so recently I read books 1-4 again, finishing Goblet last night, and now I'm starting on Order of the Phoenix. This is all new stuff to me, so that's exciting.
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Jun 30, 2011 13:53
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I was recently reminded of the film Casualties of War, which I saw only once years ago, but which made such a lasting impact on me that I still can't help but think about it from time to time. I'm not sure what prompted it, but in the last few days I had the impulse to look up any information I could on the film and found the original New Yorker article. Reading through it is every bit as difficult as watching the film was, if not more so knowing this is a more true-to-real-life account of what happened in the Incident on Hill 192. So I've also discovered that at some point Daniel Lang, the writer of the New Yorker article, also adapted the story into a book, which I've just ordered from amazon. I'm not sure what differs about the book, in terms of details. But the more I learn about this story, the more it stuns me and the more I realize how important the article and the film are. I feel like not many people know about it, but I feel that they really, really should. I don't often tear up at movies, and I don't often tear up when reading books. But this story just makes the name Phan Thi Mao and the date of November 18, 1966 take on a terrible new significance for me in ways I can't even articulate, even though it's an incident from multiple decades before I was born in a country I've never set foot in. If you haven't read the article at least, definitely pay the $6 or so for the archive access, and see if it doesn't just destroy you. Lemma fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Jul 1, 2011 |
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Jul 1, 2011 15:38
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I just went on a splurge on Bookdepository Children of the Sun by Max Schaefer (a friend of China Mieville), his debut novel, about gay men in the skinhead/fascist movement in 1970s London Luna by Julie Ann Peters, and Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher, two YA novels about transgender teens The Eerie Silence by Paul Davies, nonfiction about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide to David Brin's Uplift Universe, which is a compendium of alien species and other information from the Uplift books  When i have a little more money I'll go on a preordering splurge, there's a lot of good books coming out over the next few months that I want (new ones by Richard Morgan, Lev Grossman, Jeffrey Eugenides, Vernor Vinge, plus a duo of new Mass Effect books)
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Jul 1, 2011 17:12
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I just finished "Man's Search for Meaning," by Viktor Frankl. It was a great book, imo. I just started a book by Michael Shermer called, "The Believing Brain," and Michael Shermer is the man who created the magazine, "the skeptic." Michael Shermer writes about how we have beliefs and the reality we see is dependent on the beliefs we have. Really great book, also from what I have read of it so far.
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Jul 2, 2011 08:39
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Hedrigall posted:Children of the Sun by Max Schaefer (a friend of China Mieville), his debut novel, about gay men in the skinhead/fascist movement in 1970s London I wanted to pick that up but didn't get it because I wasn't sure how factual it was (once I found out it was a novel rather than an autobiography/investigation I was a bit displeased). Is it worth getting anyway?
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Jul 2, 2011 23:38
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pkd3001 posted:I just finished "Man's Search for Meaning," by Viktor Frankl. It was a great book, imo. It's been quite a long time since I read that, and I'd be interested to hear your impressions in a bit more detail, if you wouldn't mind expanding on this.
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Jul 3, 2011 01:29
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Recently got the first 2 books of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, was surprised at how big they were when they came though! Along with The girl who leapt through time and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest is still on its way in the post. Should keep me occupied for a while, trying to make up for a university year of not reading many books and to read some books I've wanted to read for a while.
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Jul 3, 2011 22:31
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I just started James Dickey's Deliverance. The description in this book is loving beautiful, I'm absolutely loving it. The book actually makes me want to go take a hike and camp outdoors. Of course, I haven't yet gotten to the part where they get attacked, so I'm assuming this is a passing urge.
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Jul 3, 2011 22:43
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Folderol posted:It's been quite a long time since I read that, and I'd be interested to hear your impressions in a bit more detail, if you wouldn't mind expanding on this. Oh, yeah, sure no problem. I really love existentialism, but Frankl created "logotherapy" which is a type of therapy that focuses on how "meaning" affects our lives instead say someone like Frued who was concerned with repressed memories and sexual repression. The book is all about how to find meaning in our lives despite the fact that we all suffer and we all will die one day. He was jewish and in the concentration camps during WWII, so despite the enormous suffering there, he still found meaning in his life. The book is really great and quite famous. I just like the existential themes in it, because I really love existentialism, especially Heidegger and Kierkegaard. Also I am new to Something Awful, and I keep forgetting where I post my replies, is there any way I can get email, telling me when someone responds to me, so I can respond back to them? Well, thanks, and looking forward to your response.
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Jul 4, 2011 02:16
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Just picked up Ghost Dance by Rebecca Levene. It's the second in a series that's kinda cool. Sort of cold war meets lovecraft. The first book was one of the best takes on the zombie genre I have read, so I have high hopes for this one. Also started book 2 of the Tide Lords series. Finished up book 1 today.
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Jul 4, 2011 05:36
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I'm starting Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabakov for the second time. It's absolutely hilarious but I got distracted last time and haven't picked up the book in months.  So I'm starting all over again, and this time I'm going to finish it dammit! I've also started A Holiday for Murder by Dame Agatha Christie. I've read many of her books so I'm sure to enjoy it. It also promised a lot of blood, so it should be an exciting upswing from the okay The Moving Finger, which I recently finished.
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Jul 4, 2011 07:08
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I just started reading Max Havelaar by Multatuli, a 19th-century Dutch novel. My plans this summer, in terms of literature, include a) reading as many Dutch/Flemish classics as I can get my hands on b) struggling through two Tolstoi novels I got for my birthday c) finally reading Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 so I can use the adjective 'Orwellian' and actually know what I'm talking about
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Jul 4, 2011 15:30
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Phlegmish posted:I just started reading Max Havelaar by Multatuli, a 19th-century Dutch novel. My plans this summer, in terms of literature, include Those are some great goals. I have read 1984, great book. Orwell was a smart man.
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Jul 4, 2011 21:39
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pkd3001 posted:Those are some great goals. I have read 1984, great book. Orwell was a smart man. The last chapter of 1984 is among the greatest things I have ever read.
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Jul 5, 2011 00:23
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Lurchibles posted:I wanted to pick that up but didn't get it because I wasn't sure how factual it was (once I found out it was a novel rather than an autobiography/investigation I was a bit displeased). Is it worth getting anyway? I dunno, I did say I just ordered it from Book Depository :P If it's any help China Mieville raves about it and it's gotten pretty good reviews overall.
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Jul 5, 2011 04:16
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RC and Moon Pie posted:The last chapter of 1984 is among the greatest things I have ever read. Yeah, I actually have a master's degree in philosophy, and what Orwell is getting is one of the deepest philosophical subjects out there. He is writing about the nature of evil, actually and how it happens. The famous political and phenomenological philosopher Hannah Arendt, used the often used, phrase, "banality of evil." This means, that evil happens not always, but sometimes, by psychopaths, but by ordinary people just going with the flow. In Nazi Germany how did the evil happen? It wasn't because the nation was a nation full of psychopaths, but because 30 million Germans were just "going with the flow." If you get enough people to start thinking 2 plus 2 equals, and they have actually done experiments where you get people to believe things they known are not true, then you get lots of evil. The ending is really, really, really, deep.
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Jul 5, 2011 09:26
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pkd3001 posted:Oh, yeah, sure no problem. I really love existentialism, but Frankl created "logotherapy" which is a type of therapy that focuses on how "meaning" affects our lives instead say someone like Frued who was concerned with repressed memories and sexual repression. The book is all about how to find meaning in our lives despite the fact that we all suffer and we all will die one day. He was jewish and in the concentration camps during WWII, so despite the enormous suffering there, he still found meaning in his life. The book is really great and quite famous. I just like the existential themes in it, because I really love existentialism, especially Heidegger and Kierkegaard. Also I am new to Something Awful, and I keep forgetting where I post my replies, is there any way I can get email, telling me when someone responds to me, so I can respond back to them? Well, thanks, and looking forward to your response. Ah, many thanks! I do recall the overall thrust of the book in terms of the importance of finding meaning, but it's been a long, long time and I must confess I hadn't recalled a connection to the kind of subjectively determined/realized truth that's central to Kierkegaard's writing. As it happens, I've been digging around in an old copy of Bretall's anthology of late, so now I'm inspired to disinter Frankl so that I can compare them. As for the site, I think you can set it up so that you get emails when someone PMs you, but I'm not so sure about emails when a thread is updated. Probably the easiest thing would be to mark the thread and check it on your CP when it shows new posts.
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Jul 5, 2011 10:18
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pkd3001 posted:Yeah, I actually have a master's degree in philosophy, and what Orwell is getting is one of the deepest philosophical subjects out there. He is writing about the nature of evil, actually and how it happens. The famous political and phenomenological philosopher Hannah Arendt, used the often used, phrase, "banality of evil." This means, that evil happens not always, but sometimes, by psychopaths, but by ordinary people just going with the flow. In Nazi Germany how did the evil happen? It wasn't because the nation was a nation full of psychopaths, but because 30 million Germans were just "going with the flow." If you get enough people to start thinking 2 plus 2 equals, and they have actually done experiments where you get people to believe things they known are not true, then you get lots of evil. The ending is really, really, really, deep. I've not previously read Arendt, and recently added Origins of Totalitarianism to my wish list, so I was interested to see your post. Have you read her other works, and if so would you suggest starting with a different one (e.g., The Human Condition)? My initial curiosity about Arendt was as a political author (and came in the context of a fair amount of 20th Century history and economics reading), but if she's worthwhile as a purely philosophical author, I'd probably be equally interested in her philosophical work. Red Dad Redemption fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Jul 5, 2011 |
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Jul 5, 2011 10:37
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pkd3001 posted:Yeah, I actually have a master's degree in philosophy, and what Orwell is getting is one of the deepest philosophical subjects out there. He is writing about the nature of evil, actually and how it happens. The famous political and phenomenological philosopher Hannah Arendt, used the often used, phrase, "banality of evil." This means, that evil happens not always, but sometimes, by psychopaths, but by ordinary people just going with the flow. In Nazi Germany how did the evil happen? It wasn't because the nation was a nation full of psychopaths, but because 30 million Germans were just "going with the flow." If you get enough people to start thinking 2 plus 2 equals, and they have actually done experiments where you get people to believe things they known are not true, then you get lots of evil. The ending is really, really, really, deep. I haven't actually read anything by him yet, but I generally respect him for immediately recognizing Stalinism for the criminal monstrosity that it was, which was not self-evident to many explicitly left-leaning intellectuals at the time. It's the same reason I admire Camus but despise Sartre.
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Jul 5, 2011 14:43
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Tonight, I'll be starting On the Road by Jack Kerouac. I'm borrowing it from a friend who absolutely raves about it. My mom, an AP English teacher with a huge passion for books, said she didn't like it very much. We'll see. I think I'll like it... said friend and I have very similar tastes.
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Jul 6, 2011 06:36
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Folderol posted:I've not previously read Arendt, and recently added Origins of Totalitarianism to my wish list, so I was interested to see your post. Have you read her other works, and if so would you suggest starting with a different one (e.g., The Human Condition)? My initial curiosity about Arendt was as a political author (and came in the context of a fair amount of 20th Century history and economics reading), but if she's worthwhile as a purely philosophical author, I'd probably be equally interested in her philosophical work. Yeah, I have only read "Eichmann in Jerusalem," so I can't really comment on her other works. Sorry. "Eichmann," though was earth shattering at its time, because she was Jewish and called out Jewish leaders for being complicit in some cases for the murder of Jews during WWII. Some Jewish leaders made deals with the Nazi's and this at least contributed to the Holocaust, and many Jewish people were upset with her for this. I think she is mainly a political philosopher though, although she knows lots about phenomenology also. Besides she got it on with Heidegger, and who wouldn't want that. She was also critical of Marxism, at a time when criticizing Marxism was not popular among intellectuals, but she wasn't a conservative either. She was a really unique thinker.Kierkegaard I think was an amazing philosopher, along with Heidegger. I guess I like them, because they are PHILOSOPHERS, if you know what I mean. I sometimes worry that science is going to overtake philosophy and all philosophy will be done gone. I think science misses so much of philosophy though, and their are so many existential questions that science has not touched yet, imo. Maybe science will get there one day, but it doesn't seem like it to me. I mean the facts of the universe, which science provides for us, quite nicely, tells us nothing about philosophical and existential questions, such as meaning, suffering, and awareness of our own death. I think philosophy will always have a place for these questions, or at least I hope they will. Also questions of "being" can't ever be answered science, imo. A scientist might say that is non-sense question, but I don't think it is. Oh, yes, and existential guilt, I am not sure how science can tackle that one also. Maybe it will be able to one day, but not sometime soon, because these seem to be questions of subjectivity rather than objectivity. Well, thanks, for the response.
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Jul 6, 2011 10:22
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Phlegmish posted:I haven't actually read anything by him yet, but I generally respect him for immediately recognizing Stalinism for the criminal monstrosity that it was, which was not self-evident to many explicitly left-leaning intellectuals at the time. It's the same reason I admire Camus but despise Sartre. Yeah, that is what made Orwell so cool. He was more on the left but he wasn't naive to utter horror of communism. He was a non-marxist liberal. Yeah, Camus, was awesome also, I think I like him more than Sartre. "The Rebel," is about the imperfect-ability of society, at least in part, so he was an intellectual, but not trapped in an ivory tower, so to speak. I mentioned this in another post, but Hannah Arendt, was similar to Orwell, where they both seem to recognize both political extremes have major flaws. This might be a tangent, but where are the centrists in America anymore. It's like I have to choose between the "Tea Party," who are sometimes just apologists for corporations, and their greedy ways, and "progressives" who don't seem to recognize that overall a free market works better than a planned economy. Camus and Orwell maybe were more on the left, but they were no Marxists, which is nice. Oh, and by the way, just to let Tea Party members know, President Obama is not a Marxist, I have friends who are Marxists, and he is not a Marxist. Sorry, this is kind of tangent, but it must be said! I hope your not a Tea Party member, also
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Jul 6, 2011 10:35
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pkd3001 posted:This might be a tangent, but where are the centrists in America anymore. It's like I have to choose between the "Tea Party," who are sometimes just apologists for corporations, and their greedy ways, and "progressives" who don't seem to recognize that overall a free market works better than a planned economy. Come to think of it, I don't know what you're looking for at all. Pro free market and anti corporate 'greed' is, at best, an unclear, and at worst, contradictory position to begin with. To get back on topic, my last purchases are: Double-wide: The Collected Fiction of Michael Martone --totally unfamiliar with this guy, but he writes a lot of experimentalist short/short-short fiction, his name cropped up in relation to some respectable names, and it was cheap on amazon. Sounds right up my alley. Citrus County, John Brandon --I liked his first book a lot, and for some reason amazon has the hardcover listed for $4.18. No brainer. Manhood for Amateurs, Michael Chabon --holy poo poo, the bargain rack at B&N actually had something good. Big fan, already read everything else (save maybe a children's book or two), and I think his fiction style will lend itself well to personal essays. Day of the Oprichnik, Vladimir Sorokin --I'm not usually a big futurist/scifi fan, but I keep hearing good things, and I've been meaning to read some russian fiction that postdates the stalin era.
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Jul 6, 2011 17:01
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In addition to the novels, George Orwell was also an excellent essayist and journalist; in fact, I far prefer his essays to his fiction. His most well known essays are available online here: http://www.george-orwell.org/l_orwell-essay.html. Check a few of them out, you'll get a better sense of his thinking and what made him important: clear-eyed common sense and decency in the face of party, rhetoric, and violence. To be clear, however, Orwell was certainly not a centrist, he believed wholeheartedly in the promise of socialism, and, like Marx, he believed a revolution was inevitable.
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Jul 6, 2011 17:42
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