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I didn't just finish it, but over the summer: 1984 and Animal Farm, both by George Orwell. First time reading both of them. 1984 (incidentally, my birth year) was a deeply disturbing read; especially in this political environment. I've read most of the books in Stephen King's canon, and honestly, none of them were as unpleasant to read. It's bizarrely ironic to me that so much of 1984's slang - doubleplusgood, doublespeak, etc - have fallen into fairly common use that the power of reading them in this book has been somewhat reduced. Animal Farm was not unpleasant like 1984, but it was sad: the story of a promising political movement that was co-opted and corrupted by cynical opportunists until it became a parody of itself. Even more disturbing and sad was to see how easily the barnyard animals were manipulated by smooth-talking spokespeople. The human brain is so depressingly malleable and impressionable. All it takes is a lie repeated often enough, with passion. In a world where "deep fake" video is on the horizon and "fake news" is a concern, Animal Farm seems less like an allegory than a premonitional warning. Probably not the most original thing to be said about either novel, but the real-world analogues are abundantly obvious. Both were excellent novels, but I could only see myself revisiting Animal Farm. F_Shit_Fitzgerald fucked around with this message at 07:12 on Aug 24, 2018 |
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Aug 24, 2018 07:08
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All of the original five (or so) books of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, ending with Mostly Harmless. They were all contained in a single volume I bought from Barnes and Noble a month ago. Very good, entertaining reads. The Hitchhiker universe was so interesting that I kept reading long after I had intended to stop. The last story ended on a really bleak note, though. Is Douglas Adams dead? I'd like to read more Hitchhiker books if they exist. I really enjoyed the originals.
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Apr 9, 2019 04:33
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Thanks for the suggestions; I'll check them out! Is the Hitchhiker's movie worth watching?
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Apr 10, 2019 15:46
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Finished Dune, the original book for the first time last night. Good book. I came into it expecting something a bit like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but it was a much more serious story than Hitchhiker's; much more akin to Star Wars. Even having read the whole thing, and enjoyed it, there are parts where I feel sure that I'm not getting deeper symbolism that Herbert must have been intending. An example is Paul's relationship to prophecy and foreseeing jihad being done in his name in the far future, as well as his future plans for Arrakis. I'm not sure whether other books in the anthology expand on that or not (I've heard that some of the other books are hit-or-miss). One subtlety I did get was Jessica beginning the story being embarrassed that she was "merely" the duke's concubine. But at the end of the story, she told Chani that Irulan would be a wife to Paul but never experience the love or historical attention that she and Chani would enjoy. The ending of the book is interesting. In some ways, it's rushed (the final battle for Arrakis mostly happens "off screen"), but I also enjoyed how Herbert drew out the fight between Feyd-Rautha and Paul. There was a very satisfying sense of things being "set right" and the villains of the story "getting theirs". I'd be interested in continuing the story with the next books in the anthology.
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Feb 7, 2020 16:13
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C-Euro posted:Hi Mel Cool; thanks! I'll check it out. I think I read somewhere that some of the sequel books feature Paul more prominently than others. Dune is one of the most unique books I've ever read. I don't know of many other books that have a sense of plopping you down in the middle of a story thread in a sprawling universe.
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Feb 7, 2020 17:10
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Sham bam bamina! posted:How did that happen? Not knowing much about Dune in advance except vague things about "desert planet with huge worms". For some reason, that translated in my mind to Hitchhiker's-like farce.
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Feb 7, 2020 17:34
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After hearing it mentioned a lot in DnD, I bought Nixonland and finished it last night. Excellent book that puts a lot of context to a lot of the hyperpartisanship we're seeing today; it all began with Nixon and his "Silent Majority" dogwhistling.
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Nov 18, 2020 18:30
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Lockback posted:Fwiw, you might be interested in reading up more around some Gilded age stuff where hyper-partisanism definitely existed, it just looked different. I agree Nixon is a moment where the trajectory changed but I'd be careful saying that was the origin. No, that's true. Hyperpartisanship has always been with us in various forms. I do think that the Nixon years were the beginning of Southern Strategy dogwhistling and drumming up resentment against so called "cultural elites" becoming more mainstream in politics. Reading Nixonland, it was eerie how much a lot of the rhetoric felt familiar: Agnew blaming the press for doing its job and reporting on bad news from Vietnam, "dirty hippies are out to get you, the 'law-abiding' Middle Americans", racial backlash against busing, etc. Nixon took John Birch-style racial resentment mainstream.
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Nov 18, 2020 20:58
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Disneywar by James B. Stewart, a chronicle of Michael Eisner's rise and fall as the chairman and CEO of Disney. Disneywar is supposed to be a business book, but doesn't really read like one. Its narrative style made it an entertaining and interesting read, despite my apathy towards big business and corporate politics. Stewart was unflinchingly tough on Eisner and dutifully reported his many missteps throughout his tenure - Katzenberg, Ovitz, passing on CSI and Survivor for ABC - but I thought he was very fair in his assessments. It's hard to deny that Eisner presided over some of Disney's biggest triumphs of the past forty or so years, but to get there Eisner stepped on a lot of other people's backs and left behind people that should have been allies (like Katzenberg and Pixar Studios). You can't be a CEO of a major company without being a huge bastard.
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Sep 16, 2021 02:37
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A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. I found it at a used bookstore this past Monday and found it such an interesting read that I could barely put it down. Ignatius J. Reilly is an absurd mix of part Hyacinth Bucket (in terms of being self-deluded) and Chris-Chan (in terms of almost everything else). I would have liked to see his lies and disruptive behavior catch up with him at the end, but F_Shit_Fitzgerald fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Jan 28, 2022 |
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Jan 28, 2022 23:07
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LooksLikeABabyRat posted:One of my all time favorites. There’s a statue of Ignatius in New Orleans btw. That's pretty cool! I've read that many people consider the novel to be one of the most accurate depictions of New Orleans and its dialects than almost any other book. There might be symbolism in selections of neighborhoods and places that flew over my head because I've never been down to Louisiana.
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Jan 29, 2022 00:44
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The Comics, Before 1945 and After 1945 by Brian Walker. I've been a big comic strips fan since I was a kid, and as a matter of fact, the ongoing comics thread in BSS is one of the things that drew me to SA. These two massive hardcover volumes cover all of the history of the comics, from their beginning in 1896 Hearst papers all the way to just after 9/11. Along the way are samples of strips - some I had never heard of, some old favorites (like Calvin and Hobbes) and some I was aware of because of the comics thread here on SA. One of the coolest book purchases I've made recently.
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Feb 10, 2022 16:29
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Jedit posted:If you liked that, or if you like the sound of it but think it's a heavy read, you might want to look at The Comic Book History of Comics by Fred van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey. It covers much the same ground, but in the form of a comic strip using illustrations in the style of whatever it's currently discussing. Thanks; I'll add it to my 'Books To Read' list! The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein - The latest in the 'Nixonland' books that were recommended to me by a goon (I don't remember who it was, but many thanks for the great recommendation!). There's a lot I could say about this book, which is excellent, but here are a few takeaways: 1. Reagan was a bastard. I knew this already, but Perlstein makes me hate Reagan's worthless guts even more than I already did (sorry if this is getting too political for Book Bran). 2. Many of the problems we're facing today -  -obsessed politicians letting the rich and powerful walk, racist populism, flag-waving nationalism, among many others - have definite echoes in 1970s post-Watergate America. A common phrase on SA is "history rhymes" and "time is a flat circle", and reading this has shown me how true that is.3. Nixon, Kissinger (to some extent), Richard Viguerie, Roger Stone, and Jesse Helms (the Mitch McConnell of his day) all have a lot more of a hand in creating the world in which I - and probably many of the others who post here - had to grow up in. Looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Reaganland, which covers 1976-1980. F_Shit_Fitzgerald fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Mar 1, 2022 |
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Mar 1, 2022 23:26
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He started off as a sports announcer, so that's pretty plausible, actually. I could see Reagan giving Joe Rogan a run for his money with charming homilies about how people on welfare are all cheating scum.
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Mar 3, 2022 02:16
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The End of Policing - Alex Vitale. One of the best books I've read recently, other than the Perlstein ones I've mentioned recently. Vitale tackles five or six of the major issues with policing - the "War on Drugs", school policing, gang suppression, etc - and gives an in-depth analysis on why the police suck so bad at their job. At the end of each chapter is a set of 'good government' reforms that are intended to fix the problems (but often don't make an appreciable difference) and then alternatives to the current militarized police model. I can't recommend this book enough. A lot of it is infuriating, but it's a clarion call for action to defund and abolish the police once and for all.
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Mar 5, 2022 21:10
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BaseballPCHiker posted:Sounds super interesting. Will check that out. A word of warning: Reaganland, at least for me, is proving to be a tough read. I'm having to take it in bits and pieces because I get so upset reading about loving Anita Bryant and Phyllis Schafly. Definitely not saying 'Don't read it', but just be aware that this book is where Perlstein really gets into the rise of the so called "New Right" and the culture war grievance stuff that we still deal with today. MathMathCalculation posted:Thanks! This has been in a pile of mine for a while, thanks to the Verso book club. I'll bump it up on my tbr. Cool; thanks! This sounds right up my alley.
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Mar 16, 2022 00:26
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Diamonds Are Forever - Ian Fleming. Great book; better than the movie (cliche statement, but it's true). What's interesting is how many elements of the book the 1971 movie retained and how much it dumped. Many of the characters Bond fans will recognize are here: Tiffany Case, Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, Shady Tree. Parts of the book's plot are also here, as there is a relatively short portion that takes place in Vegas (and the Nevada desert) and the book involves a diamond smuggling ring. But the rest of it is completely unique and involves fixing horse races and two-bit gangsters with accurate recreations of "Wild West" towns. The book even brings Felix Leiter into the mix (iirc, he's not in the movie at all). Although I'm not sure that he's one of the great writers of the 20th century, I like Fleming's prose; he has a very descriptive writing style that I like. Even though I've seen the movie adaptation several times, the book had me gripped from beginning to end. A very enjoyable read.
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Mar 8, 2024 17:29
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White Coke posted:Do any of Fleming’s books have the super weapons and doomsday devices that pop up in the movies? I own three of the originals: From Russia With Love, Diamonds Are Forever and For Your Eyes Only. Though I haven't read FYEO yet, not that I've seen so far. They're more grounded than the movies tended to be.
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Mar 8, 2024 21:26
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