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Kikkoman
Nov 28, 2002

Posing along since 2005
I just finished an essay on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The guy's caught a lot of flak because of all the controversy surrounding his book (Racism in late 19th century colonial Britain? Why I never!), but there's no denying the fact that the guy can write.

The first time I opened the book, I happened to be listening to some Dead Prez, so whenever the protagonist started talking about niggers it got my teeth grinding. However, once you get past the (intended?) ignorance, you can really see that the author's true intentions were to take a very critical look at colonialism as it was at the time.

Right now, I'm not reading anything in particular, mainly due to the final exam crunch that I'm going through. However once that's done I plan on finding myself a copy of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms story and checking it out.

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VoxPVoxD
Sep 5, 2005
I just finished The Fall by Albert Camus. I absolutely loved it. It was spare but dense, the way a really thoughtful and thought-provoking book ought to be. It's also incredibly quotable; I swear I found at least one proverb-caliber line on every other page. This one's my favorite:

We no longer say as in simple times: "This is the way I think. What are your objections?" We have become lucid. For the dialogue we have substituted the communiqué: "This is the truth," we say. "You can discuss it as much as you want; we aren't interested. But in a few years there'll be police who will show you we are right."

Pure awesome. Over Christmas I'm hoping to finally read Catch-22 and Lolita.

uggy
Aug 6, 2006

Posting is SERIOUS BUSINESS
and I am completely joyless

Don't make me judge you
Well, I finished another Brad Meltzer book the other day. Tenth Justice was the name, and it was another fantastic read. I think he's a good writer for thrillers and the such. I also like his books because they have to do with law and politics, so there is some neato stuff. Good reads again. Now I have to figure out a new book to read. :ninja:

percocets
Nov 6, 2006

by Lowtax
One Bullet Away, a nonfiction look at becoming an infantry officer in the Marine Corps, by Nathaniel Fick

Good because it's not the cliched look at military service as either completely evil or completely good. Fick does a good job of explaining a lot of the ambiguities of war, about the kind of choices that have to be made between individual and greater good. Pretty interesting, at least for me, because I'm thinking about becoming a Marine officer.

coolhockey
May 3, 2005

let's party like it's 1994

Bibliophobe posted:

The Tortilla Curtain by T. Coraghessan Boyle.

T.C. Boyle graduated from SUNY Potsdam (they say he majored in pot and minored in LSD) so I'm interested in picking that up..

Charity, the Clown Prostitute posted:

Beloved by Toni Morrison

I really enjoyed this one, and I didn't think that I would. Morrison's a great writer - brilliant and enjoyable - and I like the "magical" elements.

I just finished Mao II and I'm gearing up to write a paper comparing it to Catcher in the Rye (the novel seems to draw on various allusions (obvious and not) to Catcher in order to emphasize its expression of the modern world - the phony images of Holden's world pushed to a breaking point). It's probably one of my favorites.

Kapowski
Dec 21, 2000

HONK

VoxPVoxD posted:

I just finished The Fall by Albert Camus. I absolutely loved it. It was spare but dense, the way a really thoughtful and thought-provoking book ought to be. It's also incredibly quotable; I swear I found at least one proverb-caliber line on every other page. This one's my favorite:

We no longer say as in simple times: "This is the way I think. What are your objections?" We have become lucid. For the dialogue we have substituted the communiqué: "This is the truth," we say. "You can discuss it as much as you want; we aren't interested. But in a few years there'll be police who will show you we are right."

Pure awesome. Over Christmas I'm hoping to finally read Catch-22 and Lolita.

Marvelous, I bought the Penguin edition of The Fall yesterday that I've had my eye on for a while. It looks a little like this:



If I like it half as much as I liked The Plague, I'll be happy.
I'm sure you'll love Catch-22, and I hope to join you in reading Lolita soon.

Mythic
Sep 11, 2001

HA! HA!
I just finished Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, and enjoyed it very much. It's a casement into the final days of an independant Nigerian clan and the influence, and struggle against, colonialism and Christianity. But inside that is the story of a man trying to cope with life, the future, and his final failure. He is symbolic. Really it's a casement into the human condition.

It reads well, and is fairly short. One could easy get through it on a leisurely weekend.

And I just started on Moby-Dick.

Mythic fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Dec 11, 2006

nihilistic_fish
Mar 3, 2004
"Anyone in a free society where the laws are unjust has an obligation to break the law." - Henry David Thoreau

Mythic posted:

And I just started on Moby-Dick.

Let us know what you thought, I was planning on reading it soon myself.


I just finished I am Legend. It made me want to cry, I cannot say more without spoiling. In fact, it is hard to say anything without spoiling the excitement of adventuring along with the protagonist. I bought a bottle of J&B wiskey today to celebrate.

Chronic Reagan
Oct 13, 2000

pictures of plastic men
Fun Shoe
I finished 'Horror: Best of the Year 2006' a new Best Of anthology of short horror fiction. Overall I thought it was pretty average. The one standout story for me was 'The Cape', by Joe Hill. It's a story about a down and out drifter who finds his childhood superhero cape which has more power than just nostalgia. Joe Hill is Stephen King's son and I had heard some buzz about him. I will definitely be looking out for more stuff by him.

There were a couple of other decent stories - M. Rickert's 'A Very Little Madness Goes a Long Way' which is a surreal story about the loss of a child, a plague of crows and angels, 'Haeckel's Tale', by Clive Barker, which is the story of a bunch of bunnies as they get forced out of their home and look for a new place to live - (wait that was 'Watership Down', this was another Barker gross out story about sex and death) and 'Real People Slash' by Nick Mamatas which was a somewhat pretentious but funny Lovecraftian tribute.

Krinkle
Feb 9, 2003

Ah do believe Ah've got the vapors...
Ah mean the farts


Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. After a while I was excited it was nearing the end. I kept reading and kept thinking "god when are they going to get to the punishment." Maybe if I knew the punishment wasn't until the epilogue I could have gotten more into it. Or maybe it was his conscience that punished him and once he stopped believing he was a higher class of person he was free to get the right type of punishment which presumeably will leave him purified at the end of it. I'm glad I read it and I definitly have something to mull over while I digest it.

CK07
Nov 8, 2005

bum bum BAA, bum bum, ba-bum ba baa..
Son of A Witch, by Gregory Maguire. I admit that I read Wicked and loved it for its character and interesting political crap - I like alternative looks at old universes - but this sequel was boring and unsatisfying. Couple good lines here and there, though.

Also, Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman. Good lord do I love this man. As a short story collection, I found it a little monotonous in theme, but I guess that was the point. I just think that part of the charm of his short stories is finding them in anthologies where you wouldn't expect that weirdo little twist.

Delicious Sci Fi
Jul 17, 2006

You cannot lose if you do not play.
Just finished rereading The Reader's Manifesto which I read every now and then. I love it because the author blasts Don Delillo and Cormac McCarthey two authors I just can't stand. Everything Myers, the author, says in that book I agree with concerning those two.

Also finished World War Z but other than that I have been reading a lot of graphic novels. Books-A-Million was running a buy two get one free deal on all DC and Vertigo graphic novels. I picked up the last six of Preacher[b] and the last six of [b]Sandman. Those took a while to read.

Mnemosyne
Jun 11, 2002

There's no safe way to put a cat in a paper bag!!
I finished Sex with Kings today and plan on picking up the sequel, Sex with the Queen tomorrow. Sex with Kings was surprisingly really good, though it was organized horribly. Reviews have assured me that Sex with the Queen doesn't have that problem. I'd recommend it to anyone with even a small interest in historical personages.

RocketMermaid
Mar 30, 2004

My pronouns are She/Heir.


V. by Thomas Pynchon.

A good book overall with some really excellent parts, but I feel like I'd need a history lesson and a college lit class to really wring everything out of it. And some parts kept putting me to sleep on the train to/from work. It's not as cumbersomely huge and dense as Gravity's Rainbow, I'm sure, but enough so to keep me from fully grasping certain parts. Definitely a worthwhile read, though, and it has some really memorable and/or hilarious parts.

Gunga-Din
Apr 27, 2005
All Tomorrow's Parties - William Gibson. It was cool if a little slow. Great read for the subway.

Painkiller
Jan 30, 2005

You think the truth will set you free...
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Amazing book and everybody everywhere should have it permanently branded into their heads.

dancehall
Sep 28, 2001

You say you want a revolution
Guns, Germs and Steel, overdue for a read. I don't get around to non-fiction much, though.

Krinkle
Feb 9, 2003

Ah do believe Ah've got the vapors...
Ah mean the farts


Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep. I always feel like I need some kind of professional literary analysis after reading a good book. I just don't trust my analysis. Mine interpretation of the ending doesn't feel like it is good enough to hold up to the rest of the book. Once it completely left bladerunner behind (or once bladerunner completely gave up all pretenses of sticking to the book) I am left with religious implications crossed with cow tipping and I just don't know.

a mysterious cloak
Apr 5, 2003

Leave me alone, dad, I'm with my friends!


The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, Umberto Eco. A man tries to find his memories in the texts of his childhood after a stroke. It was a relatively quick and enjoyable read, and reminded me a bit of Baudolino in its inner-picaresque style. I enjoyed the many illustrations, as well.

Thesaurus
Oct 3, 2004


I'm reposting this from the "BAN ME" thread, in regards to the interaction between Author/Character/Reader:

Tonight I finished Mist: A Tragicomic Novel by Miguel de Unamuno. I can give away plot points because it is sort of an anti-conventional novel and has a very loose plot that the author himself mostly divulges.

It starts with a prologue by some guy named Victor writing about the author and other normal preface stuff. But that's followed by a post-prologue by the author himself, where he admits both that Victor is his fictional creation, and that the first prologue misrepresents him as an author etc. Essentially, what follows is a delightful, philosophical, shifting story where the author has various levels of involvement in the plot. E.g. the protagonist wants to kill himself but the author won't let him do it, because he desires to kill him off himself. Very funny and clever to boot!

Unamuno isn't as well known outside Spain as he should be. If you've never read anything by him, it's a very quick read and I highly recommend it.

In the same vein, I also recently read Unamuno's "San Manuel Bueno, Martyr" and Other Stories. Interesting Christian existentialist/Spanish fiction.

scunish
Feb 27, 2006

A doggy rescue!
I just finished the (short! sort! short!) Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Wasn't my favorite of his, but saying "wasn't my favorite" when it comes to Marquez is still similar to saying "goddamn this man can WRITE."

Zilduar
Feb 10, 2005

Let's jam.
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. I basically had gotten tired of everyone freaking out when I told them I had nevr read anything by him, so I went out and got Choke and Haunted. I thought Choke was pretty good, I like all the crazy nonsensical stuff he throws in there in the flashbacks to the guy's mom. It's not real serious stuff, but it was a fun read. I just started Haunted and I'm kind of iffy on it but I'm going to keep reading.

mallratcal
Sep 10, 2003


Underneath it All. Traci Lords' autobiography was alright but fairly forgettable. It gets a meh rating. It was a fast read though.

herr brau
Dec 20, 2005

relax, a photo's not gonna make any difference


I finally completed "Guns, Germs, & Steel" last week. I'd been slowly making my way through it for 6 months or so.

It's not that it wasn't good (it was excellent) or captivating (it was), I just kept getting interrupted by exciting works of literature like "PHP and MySQL Web Development, Third Edition" and "DOM Scripting". :rolleyes:

Last night, I read "Letter to a Christian Nation" in its entirety (90 small pages set in big type). It was good, if a bit ranty and maybe a little alarmist. Of course, I happen to agree with Mr. Harris on most counts.

I'm looking forward to "Collapse" (follow up to GGS), "The God Delusion", and maybe I'll actually get into reading some fiction after that. I haven't read any fiction in a few years.

Deadmeat99
May 18, 2004

Stupid Lurker
I just got through World War Z and Alas, Babylon. I'm now reading The Road; I guess I'm on an apocalyptic binge.

World War Z was... readable. I guess I was expecting more. It's more of a collection of short stories, almost of sound bite size, of different situations around the world during the zombie plauge, but not very cohesive. If anyone wants to read a similar style story (but much better in my opinion), check out War Day, a 1980s-era post-apocalyptic tale of two reporters that travel around the US documenting the aftermath.

Alas, Babylon was just what I've read elsewhere, the classic post nuclear war story.

Yiggy
Sep 12, 2004

"Imagination is not enough. You have to have knowledge too, and an experience of the oddity of life."
The other night I finished Jeffrey Sachs's The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities of our time. I thought it painted a pretty harrowing picture and made a compelling case of the need (and benefit to be gained) from increased effort to eliminate poverty by 2025. Maybe if I were an economist I would be on better ground to analyze his arguments, but from where I stand it seems pretty solid. I really wish the US was doing its part.

Heres the review I posted on Librarything for a brief synopsis.

This work begins by recounting the history of extreme proverty and by elucidating the current state of poverty in our world today. Sachs then goes on to outline a method for eliminating this situation, and takes the reader through several case studies of different countries grippling with poverty on their own terms. Endorsing a method of differential diagnosis to carefully assay the needs and failures of each country, Sachs shows the kind of approach he has in mind and how he has augmented this approach with lessons from his past.

Sachs's message is inspiring, but the caveat is in the book title. Economic possibilities of our time remain just that, possiblities, unless there is a groundswell of support for the ideas outlined in his book. Personally I felt his arguments were pretty solid, and clearly many nations are not doing their part, creditors and debtors alike. However it remains to be seen whether or not these plans reach fruition. I hope they do.

Maybe more people reading this book will help speed that along, because even if you don't agree with Sachs solution his book will definitely convince you that extreme poverty is an issue that affects us and is highly deserving of our attention. Then, finally, we can all sit down and hammer out an answer.

Several Goblins
Jul 30, 2006

"What the hell do they mean? Beefcake?"


I finished A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin this week and it was amazing. I heard about the series here at SA and all I can say is: thank you Goons. The book was absolutely epic and very refreshing in comparison to the other fantasy literature I've read (Salvatore and Tolkien). I plan on picking up the next book in the series as soon as possible.

Also read through what matters most is how well you walk through the fire by Charles Bukowski and it was also fantastic. I've always been a huge fan of his poetry and it never fails to disappoint.

Now I'm off to finish The Catcher In The Rye for the nth time.

Eloise
Jan 9, 2004

Only some find the way, some don't recognize it when they do, some don't ever want to.
Killing Yourself to Live, by Chuck Klosterman.

I heard Sex, Drugs, and Cocao Puffs (same author) was excellent, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

Yiggy
Sep 12, 2004

"Imagination is not enough. You have to have knowledge too, and an experience of the oddity of life."

Wreath of Barbs posted:

Also read through what matters most is how well you walk through the fire by Charles Bukowski and it was also fantastic. I've always been a huge fan of his poetry and it never fails to disappoint.

I really enjoy that one too. Have you read any of Mockingbird Wish Me Luck?

Several Goblins
Jul 30, 2006

"What the hell do they mean? Beefcake?"


Yiggy posted:

I really enjoy that one too. Have you read any of Mockingbird Wish Me Luck?

Not yet, but I've heard nothing but good things about it. I plan to pick up a copy as soon as I finish Bukowski's Run With The Hunted.

Actually, how would you say Mockingbird stands up against his other work? I might start it first if it's as good as I hear.

BrainParasite
Jan 24, 2003


Just finished Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig. It's the story of a humble officer who befriends the crippled daughter of a wealthy aristocrat. Most of the actions is internal. This gets a bit tedious when the main character gets. Overall it kept my interest and there was usually something in the air to keep your attention through the dull bits. It dealt with the themes of honor, love, sexual attraction, duty, bravery, and social status quite nicely.

Next up: Lolita

Yiggy
Sep 12, 2004

"Imagination is not enough. You have to have knowledge too, and an experience of the oddity of life."

Wreath of Barbs posted:

Not yet, but I've heard nothing but good things about it. I plan to pick up a copy as soon as I finish Bukowski's Run With The Hunted.

Actually, how would you say Mockingbird stands up against his other work? I might start it first if it's as good as I hear.

I can't remember which I bought first, Mockingbird or Walking Through The Fire but for all practical purposes it really doesn't matter. The first one opened my eyes and the second cemented me as a fan. Part of it was his love of horses and horseracing, part of it is just his language I guess. I've never really gotten poems (I'm hardly the arbiter of good taste!) but for some reason Bukowski always resonated. I've got South of no North, I need to go through it again.

Anyways, yeah I think Mockingbird is pretty good. My favorite poem is in this one.

Charles Bukowski posted:

rain

a symphony orchestra.
there is a thunderstorm,
they are playing a Wagner overture
and the people leave their seats under the trees
and run inside to the pavilion
the women giggling, the men pretending calm,
wet cigarettes being thrown away,
Wagner plays on, and then they are all under the
pavilion. the birds even come in from the trees
and enter the pavilion and then it is the Hungarian
Rhapsody #2 by Lizst, and it still rains, but look,
one man sits alone in the rain
listening. the audience notices him. they turn
and look. the orchestra goes about its
business. the man sits in the night in the rain,
listening. there is something wrong with him,
isn't there?
he came to hear the
music.

pazetihutih
Nov 6, 2005

by angerbotSD
I just read Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire and I cannot understand why anyone likes this novel. I'm into alternate history, magical realism, and I've read other authors who are usually classified as the same style as Maguire but I just thought this book went nowhere and was utterly useless besides watching the author rush through and attempt to shock readers while still staying close to the lfrankbaum reality.

Am very close to finishing Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter though I think it may take a few rereads to get an good understanding of it all. Anyone have anything similar to this would really appreciate.

I think I shall be reading Guns, Germs, and Steel next to round my reading out some.

Several Goblins
Jul 30, 2006

"What the hell do they mean? Beefcake?"


Yiggy posted:

:words:

I had a similar introduction to Bukowski. I read his Dinosauria, We poem and loved it, bought Walking Through The Fire and was an instant fan. I've never enjoyed poetry as much as other literature, but Bukowski hit me harder than the rest I had read. His style helped open my eyes that poetry did not have to be pretty and rhyme for it to be amazing, meaningful and occasionally hilarious ('I Hear All The Latest Hit Tunes' is a great example of the latter).

And Rain sold me on buying Mockingbird. I'm going to drop by the bookstore tomorrow and see if they've got a copy. :hfive:

Jekub
Jul 21, 2006

April, May, June, July and August fool
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev & G. Weston DeWalt

Both are books about the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, Into Thin Air is the more dramatic and gripping book and worth reading first as it gives an incredible sense of foreboding and really gets into your head. Jon Krakauer, a journalist and mountaineer, was a client on one of the expeditions and was on assignment to cover the climb.

Having read it I became interested in finding out more, and discovered the controversy which Thin Air caused. The Climb is in part a defence of Boukreev who came in for heavy criticism from Krakauer and in part a clarification of events. It is written in a more technical style and fills in a lot of questions.

Both are well worth reading and have left me with a taste for more real life tales of adventure and disaster. If anyone can point me towards more books like these I would really appreciate it.

Prothius
Apr 29, 2003
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card(yall know that)

Awesome. I havent read that many pages in that short of a time in forever.

Total Party Kill
Aug 25, 2005

Vibes Spliff posted:

Alas, Babylon
War Day

These are now on my list.

TheFuzzyLumpkin
Sep 15, 2003

But you are a person, and I can't say I'm awfully fond of that.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. It's an alternate history wherein two magicians return magic to England after centuries of disuse, written in an 18th century literature style.

This book really was a huge disappointment from a very promising premise. The style is dead-on, absolutely nailed, but the plot and characters fall drastically short. Clocking in at approximately nine hundred pages, four hundred of them could be lost with no detriment to the story whatsoever; more than half the book are vignettes about the characters (one of which, Mr. Norrell, is so decidedly unpleasant that you can't believe she's trying to pass him off as one of the protagonists) that have little to no bearing on the actual plot. The main villain and the protagonists meet for the briefest of moments, thus bypassing any actual conflict they might have; the villain himself is nonsensical and two-dimensional and takes great delight in torturing two minor characters who are given so little characterization before their torture begins that you don't give one whit about what happens to them.

Combined with references to characters who sound drat awesome but never actually appear in the book (hello John Uskglass, why isn't this book about you?) all over makes for an ocean of wasted potential. This could have been a stunningly awesome book, but as it is it's just a tedious bore.

It sucks to see such a talented writer screw the pooch so badly plot-wise.

BrainParasite
Jan 24, 2003


azthth posted:

I just read Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire and I cannot understand why anyone likes this novel. I'm into alternate history, magical realism, and I've read other authors who are usually classified as the same style as Maguire but I just thought this book went nowhere and was utterly useless besides watching the author rush through and attempt to shock readers while still staying close to the lfrankbaum reality.

If it makes you feel any better, I had pretty much the same reaction after reading it. I didn't notice the shock, because I didn't really find any of it that shocking. It felt like there was supposed to be more about judging people by appearances and animal rights, but those themes never really coalesced into some sort of point.

I hadn't thought about this before, but it kind of shows what kind of particularly cruel and unjust system you could produce if you built it upon a childish sense of justice. "No silly, it doesn't matter if a donkey talks, he still has to pull a cart, that's what donkey's do." "Ugly people scare me and therefor are evil." If that was the point, I think it's pretty heavily buried in ephemeral distracting vaguely angsty poo poo.

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Yiggy
Sep 12, 2004

"Imagination is not enough. You have to have knowledge too, and an experience of the oddity of life."

TheFuzzyLumpkin posted:

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke sucked

Aaaahhhhhh. Your view is completely diametrical to my own, I really liked it =( Especially Gilbert Norrell. My interpretation: I never felt like the Fairy King was torturing those characters at all, at least not out of malice and intention. Though mad, I felt he strongly covetted Stephen Black and Arabella; hes not delighted in their pain, hes enamored with their presence and existence, and quite assuredly insane.

Oh well, different strokes.

Yiggy fucked around with this message at 09:36 on Dec 15, 2006

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