I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
"Wicked" by Gregory Maguire.
Not lately, but I tout ``The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay'' whenever I get the chance. Michael Chabon.
Heh - synchronicity; I just posted some recs on my blog, Prairie Angel. (Warning, Chick Lit!)
Reading Lolita in Tehran. Wonderful book about living in a religious dictatorship.
It also makes me want to read Nabokov. The author is an excellent English professor with a true love of literature.
"Moanin' at Midnight : The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf" by JAMES SEGREST & MARK HOFFMAN. It's wonderful.
"Moneyball," by Michael Lewis. Even if you're not particularly interested in major league baseball, a fascinating read.
I like mystery and comedy. "Fluke" by Christopher Moore, "Monkeewrench" by P. J. Tracy, "Ten Big Ones" by Janet Evanovich (though its not as good as the first nine). Then I'm going to give Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time" a try.
It's not new by any stretch, but I recently finished "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt," by Dutch's friend Edmund Morris. Interesting to note the similar social backgrounds of Roosevelt and the current president, and then contrast their accomplishments.
Just got a copy of Jack Germond's "Fat Man Fed Up" after seeing him eviscerate Buckley on Meet the Press last week. Looks like a good read.
Just finished "The Confusion" by Neal Stephenson. I think I may be in love with that man.
"Corporate Warriors" by P.W. Singer. Hey we're living it, might as well read about....
A graphic novel: "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Kim Deitch.
Mein Kampf.
A wonderful read.
Now THERE was a leader mit vision!!!
My favorite book: "A Confederacy of Dunces"
"What's the Matter with Kansas?" by Thomas Frank and, apropos of "Moneyball," I plan on reading "The Numbers Game" by Alan Schwarz...
several that i have just finished while traveling:
1. the assassination of julius caesar. michael parenti. isbn: 1565847970
2. the weekly war: newsmagazines and vietnam. james landers. isbn: 0826215343
3. welcome to terrorland: mohammed atta and the 9-11 cover-up in florida. daniel hopsicker.
isbn: 0970659164
and the most fascinating of them all...
4. the flouride deception. christopher bryson.
isbn: 1583225269
no works of fiction, these.
I'm re-reading "The Alienist" by Caleb Carr, just finished "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer and "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larsen.
"Tales of Ordinary Madness" Bukowski.
Nothing like a little Buk to take yourself away from all this political rhetoric. And it's great to drink a beer or 10 to.
Now THERE was a leader mit vision!!!
Heh. A lot of people thought so.
Funny how hard it is for some people to tell the difference between a dangerous vision and an enlightened one.
I just read "Curious George Goes Berserk". Great story, almost as compelling as the classic "My Pet Goat".
"The Death of Vishnu", by Mani Suril. It's on the bargain shelves at Borders for $4.98.
"Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman. He is the master storyteller, and for anyone whos has enjoyed the London Tube, this is a real gem with a wicked twist. Of course, for really lazy reading, just check out his Sandman and Hellblazer graphic novels... wonderful stuff.
albert, I can always count on you to lend a cheery note to the discussion.
Are you always that serious?
Hated Wicked (shallow and incomplete) and both of the latest Stephenson books (in desperate need of the Big Red Pen of Editorial Smiting), so I can't second their recommendations.
I can support, however:
Fiction:
Little Children by Tom Perrotta (author of Election)
honorable mention to Ilium by Dan Simmons and Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa; and
Non-Fiction:
Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile
I'm reading Reading Mastery - Level 2, SStorybook1. I can't put it down!
_The 'X' President, Philip Baruth, _The Letters of Gertrude Bell_ and _Imperial Spies Invade Russia_. All goodies (Gertrude Bell is especially suitable for summertime in Phoenix.)
i just read a great mystery novel called 'one step behind' by the swedish novelist Henning Mankell.
The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
Krakatoa by Simon Winchester (ok, but didn't give enough eyewitness detail about the explosion itself).
"Rouge State: America at War With the World" by T.D. Allman
I heard him on NPR on night and he was fantastic and he writes just like he speaks! I finished reading it and started over, it's that good. I highly recommend it, by the time you have finished you will hate the Bushies like you never hated anyone before!
If you ever get to hear him, he's as profound as Chomsky but a lot easier to listen to.
Someone gave me the Secret Life of Bees, which I thought was just strange, overwrought sisterhood stuff.
Hark! by Ed McBain
Don't go playa-hating on me, but I'm reading:
RN:The Memoirs of Richard Nixon
The Hellfire Club by Straub
and Pale Fire by Nabokov
just bought this one
http://tinyurl.com/3okxh
Can anyone recommend any books on trade/WTO/NAFTA? from pro and con authors?
I thought Chalmers Johnson's book "Sorrows of Empire" was just excellent. Finished it last week.
High Steel---Jim Rasenberger.
--With the birth of the steel-frame skyscraper in the late nineteenth century came a new breed of man, as bold and untamed as any this country had ever known. These "cowboys of the skies," as one journalist called them, were the structural ironworkers who walked steel beams -- no wider, often, than the face of a hardcover book -- hundreds of feet above ground, to raise the soaring towers and vaulting bridges that so abruptly transformed America in the twentieth century.
"The Kingdom of the Wicked", by Anthony Burgess. The apostles spread Christianity throughout the Roman word as the early Emporers get kinky. Burgess has a very sneaky sense of humor.
On seeing Buckley on MTP last week my first thought was 'What a shame he's gotten senile'.
Then I realized he was always like that.
Much of the sequel to Carr's "The Alienist" was ripped off from an old episode of the Steve McQueen TV series "Wanted: Dead or Alive".
I kid you not!
hey there Moneyballers, in the realm of baseball books I just today finished A Pitcher's Story: Innings With David Cone, by Roger Angell. Interesting case of a biography written as the life is being lived, in the process becoming a book neither author nor subject had expected. Next up, turning back to politics, I've started re-reading The Boys On the Bus by Timothy Crouse.
I highly recommend "The Black Man's Burden" by Basil Davidson. Also, if you can find it, "Firepower" by Chris Dempster and Dave Tompkins. Of course, now might be a good time to re-read "Price of Power" by Seymour Hersh.
I'm re-reading "Mythology", by Edith Hamilton.
It's a great book on Roman and Greek mythology. It's amazing how the themes of these myths are so timeless. Each myth is introduced by the author with an overview of the nature of the myth. Good summer reading.
Bushwhacked by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose; lotsa stuff by Lois McMaster Bujold; Zingerman's Guide To Good Eating by Ari Weinzweig; the "Unthinkable" and "Authoritative Action" collections of Fantastic Four; and every single issue of Girl Genius by Phil Foglio and The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius by Judd Winick. Clinton's My Life on deck.
Just finshed "Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883" by Simon Winchester. (Literally just finished, with the last half-hour.)
Not exactly a compelling book unless you are interested in the development of tectonic plate theory and the history of Dutch colonialism, which I'm not particularly. Only about 1/3 of the book is on the eruption itself.
I got it to while away a couple of transcontinental flights and the library's sole copy of the new Alexander Hamilton biography was checked out.
I'm on a Sagan kick. I've just finished _The Demon-Haunted World_ and am about 3/4 of the way through _Cosmos_ (which I've actually never read before).
aw - I read that one recently - funny I had already forgotten about it. Agreed it was a chick book, but at least it was well-written. I can overlook a lot if the writing is good.
Great thread! I am very much enjoying the Colleen McCullough (author of "The Thorn Birds") novel, "The First Man in Rome." It is part of her six-volume set, "The Masters of Rome." I'm finding it to be an excellent wormhole into a completely different time and place. This woman can write!
Since I listen to electronic books, my version is from audible.com. I am a huge fan of audible, and sing its praises everywhere.
Dutch colonialism -- mmmmmmmmmmmmm.....
Recently Read:
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Chasing Shakespeares by Sarah Smith
To Read:
anything by Sara Diamond
Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America by Amy Johnson Frykholm
BLUE BLOOD by Edward Conlon, about life in the NYPD. Good, revealing stuff.
I'd like to stick up for Stephenson's Quicksilver and The Confusion. They are indeed elephants, not novels... but that's part of their charm.
Also, "The Years of Salt and Rice" by Kim Stanley Robinson.
I'm rereading Bujold's books. This is because I'm teaching nine hours this summer and have no brain power left to read anything new.
Also I love Bujold.
And Connie Willis won't write anything new. What's wrong with that woman?
i'm not nearly as smart as i'd like you to think i am.
"The Unofficial Guide to the Art of Jack T. Chick: Chick Tracts, Crusader Comics, and Battle Cry Newspapers" by Kurt Kuersteiner
"Latino Wave" by the number one Spanish anchor. Pichiflay
"What's the Matter with Kansas?" by Thomas Frank and, apropos of "Moneyball," I plan on reading "The Numbers Game" by Alan Schwarz
I read and enjoyed [maybe "appreciated" is a better word for Frank's book] these three.
In fiction, recently read Edward P. Jones's "The Known World," followed by Valerie Martin's "Property." It was a good pairing of good books.Jones's is better, I think.
Also Richard Powers' "The Time of Our Singing," thought it well-done and very different from his usual.
Greetings,
I second lull's recc...Stephenson's Confusion, although I am not in love I would certainly like to have him over for dinner! 8-)
Also,
Mind Wide Open:Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
by Steven Johnson
Helps me understand a little better why people think,act,and respond the way they do..perhaps even freepers!!
foilist
A second to "What's The Matter With Kansas?" by Thomas Frank - the best political book I've read in a year-plus full of good ones.
Also for history buffs, Richard Evans "The Coming of the Third Reich".
Bob Edwards' "Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism" is the perfect airplane book . I'm always suspicious of nostalgia for "the good old days", but Murrow was clearly a giant compared to the current crop of mediocrities and worse. (Which reminds me of how little I pay attention when I've got "Morning Edition" tuned in since they got rid of Bob Edwards. His replacements are the radio equivalent of New Coke. Dumbest thing NPR ever did... )
Although I haven't dug into it yet, Robert Hughes "Goya" looks like it's going to be good. I generally don't give a shit about art history, but Hughes makes it interesting.
Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Has anyone read "Ghost Wars" about searching for Osama bin Laden?
The last good book I read for pleasure was "Money for Nothing" by Donald Westlake. Kinda reads like hte ultimate Alfred Hitchcock movie.
I'm knee deep in TAing and studying for my PhD preliminary exams, though, so pleasure reading has been a rare thing. Right now I'm taking a break from grading papers. Oy....
By perpetual recommend list:
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
Joseph Heller, Catch-22
John Kennedy Toole, Confederacy of Dunces
Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, The Illuminatus Trilogy
Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas/Campaign Trail '72
Terry Pratchett, Small Gods or Guards! Guards!
Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Good Omens
A. A. Milne, Once on a Time
Philip K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said and pretty much everything else...
I got a new coloring book called "Slappy Seal Goes to the Aquarium."
"American Dynasty" Kevin Phillips
and now I'm reading "Theodore Rex" by Edmund Morris.
Rereading two novels:
Middlemarch, G.Eliot
The Honorary Counsel, G. Greene
Love reading cookbooks: Jasper White's book on Chowdahs.
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Have you read Patchett's book about her friendship with Lucy Grealy: "Truth & Beauty" [at least, I think that's what it's called].
I'm tempted to read it, having read Patchett's novels and Grealy's "Autobiography of a Face," but I don't generally read memoirs.
The Rule of Four, by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason
Can you say Hypnerotomachia Poliphili? I didn’t think so.
Queen of Scots by John Guy, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore, and Skinny Dip by Carl Hiassen. Next up:
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan by Ben Macintyre, and Who Let the Dogs In? by Molly Ivins.
.
"Into The Wild" - Jon Krakauer. Read it a few years ago and have reread it recently.
Am also reading "Charlie Wilson's War" currently.
Favorite, (of course), Catch-22.
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. His stuff is kinda samey, but it's a sameyness that I like. I picked it up at Unclaimed Baggage, which is the coolest store in the world. It's where all the lost and unclaimed stuff from U.S. airlines gets sold to a good home -- lots of clothes, books, personal electronics, etc. The Gibson was $3, Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude was $2, and an old edition of Hemingway's A Moveable Feast was $1.50.
Oh yeah, Unclaimed Baggage is in northeast Alabama (Scottsboro). And they just opened Unclaimed Freight across the street.
I highly recomend "The Stories of John Cheever" It's a thick book of Cheever's short stories and is great if you only have a short snatches of time to read. Some of my faves from this is "The Enormous Radio" and "Who am I This Time?"
Non-fiction--"Jarhead" by Anthony Swofford. It's an insider's view of Gulf War I and the culture of the military.
Delegar: Yeah, I reread Lois's stuff constantly. Especially the two Cordelia novels, the last four Miles books, and the two set in Chalion. For some reason, the space opera itself never really hooked me, but her political intrigue and problem solving, along with all that deep character evolution, is just amazing.
And her dialogue is great. "Butter, meet laser beam. Laser beam, butter. Oops."
Just finished "The Forset Lover" which was very good and "Rule of Four," which really wasn't that good, although it's set in Princeton, where my son went, so I enjoyed the references to places I knew. Loved "Why I Wake Early" by Mary Oliver, whose poetry I've always loved
Working on Clinton's autobiography, a history book called "The Triumph of the Moon," and planning to start "Romancing the Shadow" -- by several jungians.
Whoever it was who said that they were thinking of Madeline L'Engle -- she's great; I love her!
Wartime, by Paul Fussell.
Also My Pet Goat. Had me so mesmerized, I stared straight ahead for seven minutes straight. A little intense for children.
In fiction, recently read Edward P. Jones's "The Known World"
Great book.
I tried reading "The Crying of Lot 49" but couldn't understand a goddamned thing Pynchon was talking about. It was like going to a dinner party with a stack of English grad students.
"The Corrections" by Johnathan Franzen is good.
"The Brothers Karamazov" is rock solid, too.
I want to read "What's the Matter with Kansas" next.
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. Facinating study on the blury line between religious fundamentalism and insanity. Very well researched and a real page turner.
perfect airplane book
Oh, best airplane book I picked up at an airport bookstore was Antonio Damasio's "Looking for Spinoza."
I like the one I wrote. The Men We Became.
"Absolute Friends," John Le Carre. Actually, now I'm re-reading all of Le Carre.
Why, oh why, won't Connie Willis write anything new? I LOVE her so... and "Passage" or whatever it's called was damn disappointing.
If anyone hasn't read her, and you want a happy, brilliant, hysterically funny and sweet madcap romance science fiction novel, her "To Say Nothing of the Dog" is just lovely. A truly fun book.
My Pet Goat
I can somewhat immodestly recommend this book: Silent Screams of a Survivor. The book is a wonderful story of a Polish Catholic boy's experiences through the Holocaust. The story begins with the invasion of Poland when Mitchell was seven and ends with their arrival in the USA when he was 14. In the book Mitch details how he was left for dead three times, separated from his family numerous times, and ultimately ends up in the Nazi experimental hospital at Treblinka. (The fact that I co-wrote the book should in no way sway your opinion.) For more information, please see: http://www.silentscreamsofasurvivor.com
Bob (Yep the same one. )
Of course, Stephenson's recent books make (a little) more sense if you've read Cryptonomicon.
And I'd also recommend Kim Stanley Robinson's newest book, "Forty Signs of Rain," a (somewhat) more realistic take on global warming than "The Day After Tomorrow" (and also the first part of a trilogy called The Capital Code, even if that fact is nowhere mentioned).
"The Rum Diary" - Hunter S. Thompson is a fav. I hear it's going to be a movie with Depp as Hunter again. I love all of Hunter's work.
Just started "The Battle For God" by Karen Armstrong.
Have "Quicksilver" by Neal Stephenson waiting in the wings.
Good fiction:
'The Time-Traveller's Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger; and 'Crossing California' by Adam Langer. Both set in Chicago, both by Chicago authors. Both excellent, IMO.
Non-fiction:
'An Army at Dawn' by Rick Atkinson (the North African campaign 1942-43) is a good read but not (for me, anyway) a fast one.
Just started 'Dante's Cure' by Dr. Daniel Dorman.
David R. Griffin's The New Pearl Harbor...It's devastating..Very scholarly and presented in low-key argument style.
Fanatics and Fools By Arianna Huffington was also very good and should have been given a higher profile.
For those who are have a fantasy/sci-fi bent and need a political break, I can highly recommend Gene Wolf's latest work "The Knight", book one of his diptych The Wizard Knight. I was very sorry to see it end...and have to wait the long year or two until the second book appears. Well, something to look very forward to besides the downfall of Bush and Cheney.
Smelly the Troll
You might notice the Sequels to it all ended up badly. There is a lesson in there somewhere.
"It must have been something I ate" a series of food review essays by Jeffrey Steingarten, the Vogue Magazine food critic.
If you're a foodie who also happens to like intelligent banter and dry humor, this is your book.
John James Audubon: Writings and Drawings
Amazing man, incredible life.
(When you're not reading it, it also makes a great doorstop.)
Oh, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Greg Palast.
Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad;
Really good documentation...I'm becoming more an more apprehensive about "lost years" of punk rock documentation...But I thought the coverage contained in this book re: the Pigfuck hardcore bands like the Butthole Surfers and Big Black; as well as the idealism, DIY nature and pragmatism/suspicion of this era of music inspirational. Makes you wonder why there aren't more bands like the Minutemen around...Anyways, it just came out in paperback, but i scored a hardbound copy for 4 bucks in the clearance section...I was really surprised at how much I liked it...It was true Summer REading.
I can read only one-page books. Anybody know any good ones?
Tecla -- I hope you'll understand if I pass on the Gene Wolfe. I love his shorter works, and he himself is a great guy (I've met him twice at cons, he wouldn't know me from Adam)... but I've been put off his longer stuff ever since The Shadow of the Torturer, when I realized that the entire last two-thirds of the book was a guy going from a building inside a city to the city gate....
Old Hat - Give the Crying of Lot 49 another chance. Its a fantastic book. (also, I've always wanted to tell you that you were right about AAR and talk radio on the AM, and I was wrong. And Randi Rhodes is great.)
The Prince -- Niccolo Machiavelli
The Book of Revelation -- St. John the Divine
The Gnomon of the Pentagram -- The Elder Society of Five, S.R.
Mein Kampf -- Adolf Hitler
Anything by Nietzche.
The photographs Matthew Brady took on the Civil War battlefields with all the dead bodies.
Under the Tuscan Sun
I've been rereading Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail -- the parallels to this election are goddamn eerie. Sometimes I'd rather not think about it.
Old Hat - Give the Crying of Lot 49 another chance. Its a fantastic book. (also, I've always wanted to tell you that you were right about AAR and talk radio on the AM, and I was wrong. And Randi Rhodes is great.)
OK, I'll give it another shot.
And what did I say about AAR?
loaded dice by james swain. anything by swain is great, murder mystery with gambling cons as the hook.
also, getting into the lucas davenport series by john sanford.
for the record, i liked wicked but not the alienist.
I can read only one-page books. Anybody know any good ones?
Gorje Dubbya Busch
Oh. My. God. Seriously hilarious idea. Let's get together, like, a hundred bucks, and get all the Bathroom Readers and Uncle John's Bathroom Readers and send 'em to Dubya. One of three things will happen:
1. He'll be incredibly insulted and give 'em to the first Compassionate Conservative photo-op he can find.
2. He'll actually gain some small granule of knowledge about some stuff.
3. He'll spend a lot more time in the bathroom, which is frankly in the national interest.
Recently read "Call it Sleep" by Henry Roth, & highly recommend it. Lower east side Yiddish-speaking immigrants in early 1980's.
Am halfway through Wil MacCarthy's "Bloom", nanotech terror in deep space. Very cool.
Also, for great nanotech thriller "Acts of the Apostles", follow link below. (wetmachine.com)
Can anyone recommend any books on trade/WTO/NAFTA? from pro and con authors?
Joseph Stiglitz's "Globalization and Its Discontents" might be a good place to begin, though it might be more general [or maybe too specifically about the IMF] than what you're looking for. Here is a link to a review of that book that ran in the NYRoB.
Anything by Tim Powers. Anubis Gates, The Drawing of the Dark, currently reading Last Call which is very topical what with all the poker on TV these days.
L'Engle is so great...she saved me when I was little.
ANother really great book I recently read is Neil Gaiman's "American Gods." I strongly recommend it.
And Eliot's "Middlemarch"--you're lucky to be reading that for the first time--that's one of the ten. Best. Novels. Ever. Written.
This is rude to break into a nice thread like this, but I just caught this addendum by Juan Cole to his post of the Sydney story about Allawi:
Cole: "Allawi was once a Baathist hit man in London who fell out with Saddam and then directed terrorist operations against Baghdad. Some reports suggest that one of his operations once resulted in the bombing of a schoolbus in which school children died."
Of course, it's an allegation, but Cole is about as well-informed on the region and it's key players as they come.
Just when you thought they had hit bottom... (Maybe the choice of Allawi was to give Negroponte someone he would feel comfortable working with.)
"Wonder Boys" by M. Chabon
"Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance," a great biography of Poe by Kenneth Silverman
And, when I'm sitting on the--I mean, in my office, I pick up "Careless Love," the second half of Guralnick's two-volume Elvis biography.
I'm reading some good "Dora the Explorer" books with my three-year-old, too. That Swiper the Fox! What a nut!
Oh, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Greg Palast.
He keeps updating and re-releasing that book; I wish he'd just write another book, already.
Wind Up Bird Chronicle (by Murakami) - Re-read the book for the third time about six months ago and I can't stop thinking about it. It's a sci-fi, mystery, conspiracy theory, and historical novel wrapped together in an engrossing package. Japanese fiction at its best.
I second the Moneyball recommendation. It's the best book on investing - and politics - you can read, really.
Also, Thomas Jefferson's Notes on Viriginia. Amazing to think that we once had a genius for a president.
filkertom - What??? Did you read the whole Book of the New Sun opus? The first 4 books are among the finest things I've ever read, the fifth coda less so. True, The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories is full of genius, and Fifth Head of Cerberus? Fantastic. His short stories are great, but so are his longer works. His style has changed in the past 2 decades, less to my liking, but still worth the read.
At the very least, your criticism doesn't apply at all to the Knight. (nor is it apt for Shadow of the Torturer, and the rest of that series, but I won't argue it)
Into the Buzzsaw, ed. Borjesson,Prometheus books.
About 15 working reporters tell about the difficulties they had getting their investigative work published. Lots of nuts and bolts detail. This is not about network news or NYT - Wapo front page, but about specific stories such as No Gun Ri, Florida 2000, the DuPont crime family, POW's, the drug war, Tailwind, etc.
Tends left but there are some Clinton stories on the list.
I second giving "The Crying of Lot 49" another try. It's worth it.
Although it's extra strange now, in this age of the Internet...
I second the rec. for the "Wind Up Bird Chronicle" by Murakami. Unputdownable. However, everything else you read by Murakami after that will be a big disappointment.
Just finished a couple of historical novels by Bernard Conrwell, one set in the American Revolution, and the other in the Hundred Years War. Entertaining, which is what I want nowadays when I read a book.
I'm too modest to mention my own new novel.
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It's not new, but I'm reading Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying etc." for a second time. It's even better this time out.
On deck: John Edwards's "4 Trials."
My Life, by Bill Clinton. Molly Ivins and Larry McMurtry were the only reviewers who understood it.
I'm too modest to mention my own new novel.
Do it.
Tecla -- I'm willing to take your word for it, but I genuinely don't know if I'll ever read it. I've read SotT twice, and it was interesting enough, but not enough to make me pick up that second volume, where the story really begins. Kinda like with Clive Barker -- love the short stuff, simply cannot get into the novels.
"The Three Billy Goats Gruff"
Grisham's "A Painted House"
The Hawking thread from yesterday got me interested in the "Brief History of Time" after several years, so I pulled it out and started on it again.
The Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiassen has a series of mysteries set in FL that are freaking hilarious. He leans left of center and is a staunch environmentalist. Highly recommended.
I'm about finished with The Ugly Americans by Ben Mezrich. It's a great read! It's about a Princeton-educated former football player who works in finance in Japan and how he and other Ivy League types take the Asian markets by storm. It's also an interesting portrait of Japanese culture and the attitudes of the Japanese toward Westerners. I highly recommend it. He also wrote that great book about the MIT blackjack team, Bringing Down the House, another great and exciting read.
Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton is quite engrossing. I'm about a third of the way through.
"Red Thunder" by John Varley, about a do-it-yourself mission to Mars. Billed as a cross between Robert Heinlein and Carl Hiaasen -- and damned if it doesn't work!
For that matter, "Basket Case" by Carl Hiaasen -- I laughed out loud, something I rarely do.
I've been thinking about picking up Clinton's book - has anybody listened to the abridged audio version read by the Big Dog himself ? That sounds kind of cool and probably includes all of the best stuff... If I dig through 900 pages on my own it's gonna be "Anna Karennina".
Roddy, Got Damn. That is weird. About Hiassen, I mean. He is about my favorite author. I laughed out loud at "Basket Case" also. Hiassen is great.
I also like Nelson DeMille a lot.
Monica nyc -- Antonia Damasio's books are all good. "The feeling of what happens" and "Descartes' Error" are others.
Herman Melville's The Confidence Man predicts a lot of the optimistic, greedy, pious frauds we see now. One character proposes putting out the Christian missions on a contract basis and selling stock on Wall Street.
Great topic. Here are three must reads:
The Prince - R.M. Koster
The Jungle - Theodore Dreiser
Bang the Drum Slowly - I forget who the writer is!!
Boys in the Bus and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, which a lot of people have apparently read, are also excellent. I am currently reading Ireland in the 20th Century by Tim Pat Conroy. I just got back from Ireland and may go back there for good if things don't work out the right way in November.
I'm too modest to mention my own new novel.
Do it.
Ouch! My arm, my arm!
Okay.
It's Business Secrets from the Stars, a comic novel with oodles of political satire and even some sex and violence.
I hope I did that link correctly.
Stoffel on a Sagan kick - check out Microcosmos by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan
I'd also reccomend Pilgrim At Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
I'm reading Scar, an sf novel (and follow-up, but not a direct sequel, to Perdido Street Station) by by China Meiville, who is claimed to be "the sexiest man in British politics". He lost the election, but who cares? PSS and Scar are pretty intense stuff, highly recommended.
I actually read the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili this Spring. A seriously peculiar but hypnotic book with some beautiful illustrations. I haven't read the Rule of Four, however. Might be a little anticlimactic now.
Incidentally, if you like exceedingly strange works, you might enjoy the Codex Serifinianus, a sort of picture encyclopedia of an alternative earth that an Italian artist cooked up some twenty years ago.
Me and you and a Dog Named Boo by I.P. Freely. Based on the early 70's song by Lobo, it's about a guy and his chick traveling and a livin' on the land. It's also about three ways with Boo humping the chick while the dude potks the dog from behind. YUMMY!!!!!
filkertom -
no prob. It's a big undertaking to read the whole series (Book of the New Sun), and you can't really appreciate the opus from reading only book one. What Wolfe did there was really breathtaking, to me.
Brucds - I checked out "My Life" from the library, and returned it unread. Couldn't build up any enthusiasm for it. I downloaded the abridged audio version from the newsgroups and will prob give it a listen, because I do like listening to Clinton talk.
David Brock's Blinded by the Right and John Dean's Worse than Watergate. Dr. Justin Frank's Bush on the Couch is on its way!
Being and Time -- Heidegger
It turns out in the end that Jesus survived the crusifixion.
reason i didn't like the alienist:
i was expecting doctrow, and got doc savage.
I started "Safety Tips for Mountain Biking," but I never finished it. Lotsa big words. Sux.
Same thing for "Avoiding Personal Injury While Eating Pretzels." Good plot, but it was a little long.
I found myself agreeing with delagar about Connie Willis, at least until I remembered reading "Titanic" - I mean "Passages", but then swung back thinking about To Say Nothing About the Dog, Doomsday Book and Bellweather.
Wartime, by Paul Fussell.
Excellent book. Read it instead of assigned stuff during a WWII class in college.
I'm re-reading Heinlein's "Friday", along with Dean's "Worse than Watergate" and Adam's "Examples".
I was kidding about reading "Caterpillar" this summer, although I adore it.
Embedded: Weapons of Mass Deception by Danny Schechter
The Problem of the Media by Robert W. McChesney
The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
Galileo by Bertholt Brecht
"Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72" by Hunter S. Thompson, and
"David Copperfield" by Charles Dickens.
I just finished Franken's "Lies and the Lying.....". I read Buhswhacked earlier this year, and as Molly says in the intro "If y'all had read the last book there would be no need to write this one". So for now I am re-reading "Shrub" and damn if they didn't call it just about dead on.
The Great Influenza by John M. Barry. Includes some truly depressing passages on what Wilson did to civil liberties during WWI in addition to a fascinating history of the transformation of American medicine in the early 20thC.
You asked, so don't blame me for answering!
"Instruments and the Imagination" (a book on the cultural meaning of scientific instruments in the 17th century).
"Memoirs of My Nervous Illness" by Daniel Paul Schreber (a memoir of Daniel Paul Schreber's nervous illness).
"Owls Head" by Rosamond Purcell (a study of a junk-covered property in Maine).
"The Annotated Soul of the Ape" by Eugene Marais (a great book by this South African naturalist, which I re-read because I found a copy of the "annotated" version).
There were a few things I'd recommend instead, except that they cost me three figures on ABE, and I don't want to lure anyone else towards bankruptcy...
I actually read the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili this Spring. A seriously peculiar but hypnotic book with some beautiful illustrations.
I second that! A great book, and now available in a smaller, more affordable edition.
For lighter, well written books I highly recommend: The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold.
"That Old Ace in The Hole", by Annie Proulx
Best troll shield yet, pie!
Im reading the August 6,2001 Presidential Daily Brief"Bin Laden Determined To Strike In US",but I cant even understand the title.......Chimpy the Wimp.
To answer monica_nyc: "Truth & Beauty" by Ann Patchett is definitely worth reading.
We all should have friends as loyal, patient and loving as Ann Patchett.
Herman Melville's The Confidence Man predicts a lot of the optimistic, greedy, pious frauds we see now. One character proposes putting out the Christian missions on a contract basis and selling stock on Wall Street.
zizka
Another fave of mine. Really does my heart good to see it show up here! Viva Eschaton!
I'm reading 3 books right now which means I cannot really do justice to any of them:
1. Signposts In A Strange Land--Walker Percy.
2. The Plague--Albert Camus
3. A Man For All Seasons--Robert Bolt
For anyone who is a fan of southern authors I highly recomment Dr. Percy!
Wow, I've been hoping someone would do a thread to give me more reading material - thanks, I hit the library Monday AM with the above list in hand!
No joke - I really enjoyed The Collapse of the Fact/Value Distinction by Hilary Putnam - clear, crisp philosophy of science.
For fiction, I'll second Years of Rice and Salt and anything else by KSR, also second Tim Powers. Powers is more intense/intricate though, if you're looking for lighter stuff, save his stuff for later. Christopher Moore is perfect summer reading but it goes too quickly.
For Monica_nyc I'll second the Stignitz, also suggest Peter Singer's One World - the ethics of globalization. It's readable.
"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman.
If you think the country is polarized between right and left, you should see how ancient pagan deities and the modern avatars of Commerce and Television loathe each other.
I did, however, enjoy "Whistling Show Tunes as You Bike" and "Bro Boom Bah: Cheerleading the Male Way!"
That second one took me back to my days at Yale. What fun we had there with coat hangers!
Ah, good times . . .
Is it me, or is finding a good "new" novel this summer as hard to find as a good movie at the video store? Recommendation welcome. I usually read a couple of books weekly during the summer, but seems to be a drought this year. Thanks!
"Gardens of the Moon", Steven Erikson. Tremendous fantasy novel. "Deadhouse Gates", the next book, is even better. Tragic, funny, scabby soldiers, no elves. Don't know if that one's out in the States yet though.
After a year of sociology/poli sci classes, I really wanted to get away from those genres for a summer. So I read 'The Perfect Mile' by Neal Bascomb about the race to the four-minute mile, and I'm currently reading 'Points Unknown', a collection of adventure stories from the last 100 years. And because I couldn't completely get away from current events, I'm also deep into 'How Soccer Explains the World: An unlikely theory of globalization' by Franklin Foer of New Republic fame.
"The Book of Revelations," by God. Laura's getting tired of reading it to me, tho.
I am into the Stephenson Baroque cycle as well. Just started the Confusion, thought I would try to time it so I didn't have to wait too long for the System of the World.
I have given up on the Bush bashing book genre, have read enough for now. Only thing I haven't yet read in that genre that I would like to is the prosecutor's account of his trial for war crimes, lying to congress and being a complete Dufus.
"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman.
I have that in my pile (I got it for a dollar at the Fletcher General Store), but won't get to it for a while. Love Gaiman, though (graphic and other novels).
I recently finished Karl Polanyi's _The Great Transformation_. It's mostly a critique of 19th-century political economics. Very relevant these days, what with the return of old-school "liberalism" in the policies of the IMF, World Bank, etc.
I like Polanyi's political/philosophical orientation -- he's what I guess you might call a centrist socialist, in that he defends state power from the attacks of the liberals, without tending towards hypertrophy of the state in the Marxist manner.
In a way that makes him a "liberal" in the late-20th-century U.S. meaning of the term. The book came out in 1944, btw.
Just finished reading Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (can't believe I never read that before), and second the recommendation of The Great Influenza by John Barry (when that one comes out in paperback, I'm buying it).
Currently reading The Sewing Circles of Herat by Christina Lamb (a British journalist writing about Afghanistan; it's so heartbreaking that I can only read short stretches at a time) and Molly Ivins' new one, Who Let the Dogs In? (it's sort of a Greatest Hits, but the scary thing is reading about George H.W. Bush and knowing what we now know about his son).
Last book read: Hana Yori Dango, volume 5. It's my favorite series. 
mike royko's "boss: richard j. daley of chicago"
exc prose, exc analysis...see how the daley machine single-handedly reeked havoc on an entire city
well - "I'm too modest to mention my own new novel. Do it." - if he can, so can I. Although I did, and nobody noticed.
I've been pouting instead. But it's really, really good. Also topical. Honest. And I get a dime in royalties. You could just send me the dime and I'd tell you about the important stuff.
Damasio's books are all good. "The feeling of what happens" and "Descartes' Error" are others.
I agree. Also a second for "Into the Buzzsaw" and McChesney's and Schechter's books.
"Instruments and the Imagination" (a book on the cultural meaning of scientific instruments in the 17th century).
That sounds really interesting.
The title reminds me of a contemporary book about cadavers, the title of which escapes me now.
"Memoirs of My Nervous Illness" by Daniel Paul Schreber (a memoir of Daniel Paul Schreber's nervous illness).
Read that several years ago, after Freud's "Three Case Histories."
"Beautiful Ghosts" Eliot Pattison
Rick Perlstein's "Before the Storm," about the Goldwater campaign and the origins of the modern conservative movement.
All Carl Hiaasen fans owe it to themselves to read Tim Dorsey - I heard someone describe his writing as inhaling nitrous oxide and jumping out of a plane with no parachute - you know the ending is going to be bad, but you laugh all the way down. I've been reading too much political stuff - Black Box Voting, Stand Up, Fight Back, Worse Than Watergate - and not getting enough of my professional reading done. Working on Empire Falls and Lying Awake for a book group. Got a preview copy of one called Why Dogs Chase Cars - great set of father/son short stories set in rural South Carolina. Look for it in September - sorry, the author's name escapes me and I've already passed the book on. I'm also looking forward to reading Shadow Divers, about two ordinary guys who discover the wreck of a previously unknown German U-boat off the US coast and try to learn about it.
Love the thread!
"Devil in the White City" by Eric Larsen (Trying for figure out is "W" closer to Burnham or Holmes?)
"Dreadnought" by Robert Massie
"Rise and Fall of the British Empire" by Lawrence James
"Ataturk" (ironically enough) by Andrew Mango
"Plagues & People" by William McNeill
All over a year old I think, but good reads.
I have that in my pile (I got it for a dollar at the Fletcher General Store), but won't get to it for a while. Love Gaiman, though (graphic and other novels).
Bump it up. Best work he's ever done, and that's coming from somebody who likes Sandman and Good Omens way more that is healthy.
Anyway, I'm reading Robert Ludlum's Bourne trilogy - halfway through Supremacy, and even if the pacing is crap (you can't continually build toward a climax for 600 hardcover pages), Cold War suspense in and of itself is interesting to me as a student of history who was barely out of second grade when the USSR collapsed.
As the name suggests, I'm also waiting for the next installment of the Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin. It's a heavily political war/fantasy series that keeps yuo guessing with the way it uses its occult elements. It doesn't hurt that the author isn't afraid to kill off major characters.
Finally, I'm catching up on X/1999. I bought the books six months ago, but fourteen graphic novels is kind of a daunting pile to look at.
Oh--and now I'm reading Death of a Red Heroine, a mystery by Qiu Xiaolong. I've had it for years, but never got around to it. Next up: Asimov's Foundation.
Vanity Fair is permanently on my nightstand. I haven't been able to read much more than a page of it without falling asleep. I save it for those sleepless nights. And when that doesn't work, I read Mr. LJ's D&D Player's Handbook. Zzzzzzzzzz
Read it years ago, but "The Stainless Steel Rat For President" has some excellent pointers on how to fight back on dirty elections.
All the Stainless Steel Rat books by Harry Harrison are great-suprised no one has made any movies about them yet.
Although some Heinlein and Asimov is making it to the big screen, so there's hope...
And Eliot's "Middlemarch"--you're lucky to be reading that for the first time--that's one of the ten. Best. Novels. Ever. Written.
Dang. This one has been on my TBR pile for years. I keep meaning to read it, but some other new book always distracts me from it.
Right now I am on book 13 of the Aubrey / Maturin series by Patrick O'Brien. Remember the movie, "Master and Commander - The Far Side of the World"? Well "Master and Commander" is book 1 and "Far Side of the World is book 10, and the movie only hints at the depth of the history, the stories, and the characters involved.
I never imagined that a series of turn of the nineteenth century nautical adventures could be so engrossing.
1: Master and Commander
2: Post Captain
3: HMS Surprise
4: The Mauritius Command
5: Desolation Island
6: Fortune of War
7: The Surgeon's Mate
8: The Ionian Mission
9: Treason's Harbor
10: The Far Side of the World
11: The Reverse of the Medal
12: The Letter of Marque
13: The Thirteen Gun Salute
14: The Nutmeg of Consolation
15: The Truelove
16: The Wind-Dark Sea
17: The Commodore
18: The Yellow Admiral
19: The Hundred Days
20: Blue at the Mizzen
Hard stuff to put down...
I'm also waiting for the next installment of the Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin. It's a heavily political war/fantasy series that keeps yuo guessing with the way it uses its occult elements. It doesn't hurt that the author isn't afraid to kill off major characters.
I'm getting the update from my husband, if it EVER comes out. I don't think I can drag myself through another Martin. That is the most convoluted, depressing series I've ever read.
Bump it up. Best work he's ever done, and that's coming from somebody who likes Sandman and Good Omens way more that is healthy.
Jeebus, that's a ringing endorsement if I've ever heard one. I absolutely dig Sandman, and Good Omens had me in stitches (Neverwhere is actually my fave, though for some reason Stardust makes me all tingly inside).
BTW, did you see the latest Onion: Nerd Has Most Obscure Crush Ever?
I'm reading Clinton's biography and Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton, which is very good.
Invisible Cities / Italio Calvino
I just LOVE Akunin.
Of all the books I have read this year these three would I highly recommend:
John Fante:Ask the Dust
Jiri Langer:Nine Gates to the Chassidic Mysteries
Mariengof:A Novel Without Lies
Right now I am on book 13 of the Aubrey / Maturin series by Patrick O'Brien.
Good god, a wonderful series. So sad that O'Brien won't be around to pen another tale.
I teach telecom for a living, and it is so great to escape into a world of wood, rope and canvas. Not to mention violin/cello concerti, toasted cheese and capital port.
I thought the movie did an excellent job of capturing the spirit, though it obviously was very different from the books. Different medium, different sensibilities.
Have to admit that I love Horatio Hornblower, as well. Both the books and the A&E minis.
well, i love this one....
i'm not nearly as smart as i'd like you to think i am.
albert champion | Email | Homepage | 07.17.04 - 8:09 pm | #
not my msg. who is the troll, here?
Wonderful thread.
My personal recommendation in the way of mystery novels are the Aurelio Zen books by Michael Dibdin. Dead Lagoon is evocative, Cosi fan Tutti is funny. If you can't get to Italy, these are the next best thing.
albert champion, I knew that wasn't you.
You are serious...and smart. Smarter, by far, than that troll.
Really not a good comparison though.
Anna Karenina - 15 years later, it's still a pretty darn good book.
Going Nucular - Geoffrey Nunberg. "Language, Politics, and Culture in Confrontational Times" - I just picked it up today and think it will be a swell summer read.
V For Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd (my favorite comic book ever)
From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell (the graphic novel is MUCH better than the movie)
Cerebus By Dave Sim and Gerhard (now that this 26-years-in-the-making-opus is complete, it's time to re-read it again)
Theatre of War and 30 Satires by Lewis Lapham
Buffalo Soldiers 1866-91 by Ron Field (did you know that 178,000 African-Americans served in the US Army during the Civil War, and that 32,000 (one sixth) died in uniform? That 22 of them received the Congressional Medal of Honor for extreme bravery and courage under fire?)
I don't read books.
Condi tells me everything I need to know.
I thought I was the only one who ever read "To Say Nothing of the Dog."
I stand behind Tim Powers, although it's best to start with his easier stuff and work your way in. Start with "Drawing of the Dark" and "On Stranger Tides," then work you way up to the America trilogy: "Last Call," "Expiration Date," and "Earthquake Weather."
Ya know, and this probably reflects badly on me, I don't read as many actual paper books as I used to or probably should. If I'm not working, playing music, writing or (mostly) sleeping, I read stuff off the net. Wikipedia, Project Gutenberg, piles upon electronic piles of newspapers, magazines, etc. But still...
I'm re-reading Hunter Thompson's output, mainly stuff from The Great Shark Hunt and Fear & Loathing On The Campaign Trail. I do that about once every six weeks, two months or so, just to get my head bad again. I'm also re-reading The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and making a second muddle through Bryan Greene's The Elegant Universe, to see if I can understand it this time.
The odd (sometimes very odd) Terry Pratchett book, the latest being The Thief Of Time and Night Watch. Always recommended. As an avowed Whovian, I pick up the Virgin and BBC novels when I can, though I like the Virgin ones better.
Not too long ago, one of the two indie bookstores in town closed, and they sold paperbacks at a buck a pop, so I picked up a shit ton of stuff I read in high school and college. I've been making my way through The Great Gatsby, The Invisible Man, Farhenheit 451, The Grapes Of Wrath and a couple others. When I get tired of one, I go to another. I'll never get anything accomplished this way. I also have Stephen Hawking's The Universe In A Nutshell and Everything You Know Is Wrong (I forget the author at the moment) on order.
My brother and I have a couple collections of favorites like Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Hunter Thompson and H.L. Menken, so when nature calls, I usually grab one of them. For those who like Guralnick's stuff (I saw it above), I recommend Your Cheatin' Heart by Chet Flippo or, for a really interesting life, Dr. John's autobiography (the title escapes me for the moment).
Finally, I've been trying - with moderate success - to re-learn some of the basics of music theory, since I've gotten back into playing semi-professionally. My brother - a music major - has several textbooks that have been most helpful, as has (and don't laugh) Bass Guitar For Dummies.
Like I said, though, I don't spend as much time with books as I should, and way too much time reading about string theory, heretical early Christian sects or Doctor Who online. And people wonder why I don't date much.
A few random titles I like:
E L Doctorow's Ragtime.
Thomas Pynchon's Mason & Dixon
David Wojnarowicz's Close to the Knives.
And yes, Middlemarch is one of the best novels ever written.
Backslider:
Under a Hoodoo Moon. Dr. John kicks ass.
Hey Jennifer,
Have you seen the movie Adaptation ? I rented it last night. Its about adapting The Orchid Thief for a movie. I will have to read the book now to see if its crazy like the movie.
Oh, and while I'm at it, Toni Morrison is a lot more creative and a lot less florid than Oprah might lead you to believe. "Song of Solomon" really blew me away.
If horror is your thing, "The House of Leaves" manages to be both creep-inducing and a fairly good send-up of academia, but Alan Moore's "From Hell" does the same thing and is much, much, much more horrible(in a good way).
And as far as graphic works go, I could spend an entire day reading Sandman from start to finish and count it a very good day.
"The End of Work" by Jeremy Rifkin has just been updated and reissued. Let's hope Rifkin has it totally wrong or the next 30 to 50 years are going to be really crazy times.
If you want to escape briefly from the hell-hole world the Bushies have created, I highly recommend Phillip Pullman's trilogy called His Dark Materials.
The three books are The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.
Beautiful books filled with great adventures, gripping plot,amazing creatures and complex themes. Not just for kids!
The three books are The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.
My wife loved those. I haven't read 'em yet.
rorschach,
That's it and he does. It's also a wonderful introduction to the world of New Orleans rhythm & blues, which is threatening to overtake Muscle Shoals/Memphis as my truest musical love.
Currently re-reading Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, Ameirca and International Terrorism by John K. Cooley (written pre-9/11 by experienced Mideast correspondent with decades of experience in the region. Fascinating because it is one of the few books to put BCCI into perspective of the whole damn Al Qaida / Pakistan / Afghanistan mess)
Currently reading No Man Knows My History by Fawn Brody (biography of Joe Smith, fraud, con-man, prophet and founder of the LDS -- for fun next time you are in a book store in Salt Lake City, ask for a copy.)
Last finished Death on the Fourth of July: The story of a killing, a trial, and hate crime in America by David A. Neiwert (Orcinus' new book. I wish this had been available ten years ago. If you think you know about hate crimes, read this book and then see how accurate your previous knowledge was.)
Penultimately finished Yakusa: the explosive account of Japan's criminal underworld by David E. Kaplan and Alec Dubro (the first major investigative study of the yakuza. Essential reading to understand the relationship between Rev. Moon and his Japanese sponsors)
Oh, yeah. Say Attaturk, how did you like the concept of "macroparasitism" in Plagues and Peoples?
Shocke,
My last girlfriend (and she's quite possibly that) was a big fan of Morrison. She tried to turn me on to her (and Amy Tan) and I tried to turn her onto HST. Neither of us were successful (precursor to how the relationship turned out, I suppose), but I did find Morrison an enjoyable diverson, if not quite my cup of meat.
Random comment: none of the regular trolls - apart from the gutless name stealer - have piped up. No Toby or Patterson or Thug. Interesting.
Backslider--One of my few claims to fame is the fact that I have gotten high with Kermit Ruffins in the 9th Ward. A magnificent night.
House of Bush House of Saud and I am waiting for Imperial Hubris to arrive.....after that I have "My Life" waiting for me....
Nothing that exciting.....I guess!
Ezra
I have to be really careful reading Toni Morrison. She leaves imprints on my mind that cannot be erased. To this day, when I hear someone mention a milk man, I think of why the Milk-Man character from Song of Solomon got his name.
And Beloved seriously warped my mind forever.
Hunter S Thomson and Toni Morrison and Amy Tan all rock, in very, very different ways.
Oh, another graphic novel I love is The Watchmen. But I imagine that may be rather obvious.
I'm just curious as to whether any other theory-heads hang out here: Anyone else a fan of Zizek?
kiki - Oh, baby - I read Pullman's trilogy two summers ago and I have tried to force everyone I know who reads to read it too. I think it is amazingly profound and one of my all time favorite reads.
Someone mentioned Michael Chabon back near the top of the thread. I read Cavalier and Klay 2 summers ago, as well, and I liked it very much. I recently bought his book Summerland on tape to listen to while driving to various dentist and periodontists on the western slope, and I'm enjoying it, too.
I read Wicked (Gregory McGuire) over the winter - It's wildly popular, but I was not totally taken with it. Right now I'm reading a fantasy about cats that is well written but I'm oversaturated and want it to end; and Graham Greene's Travels with My Aunt.
Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid. A novel exploring the darker elements in urban Pakistani society.
"none of the regular trolls - apart from the gutless name stealer - have piped up. No Toby or Patterson or Thug. Interesting.."
Is it obvious backslider? Repug trolls don't read.
brucds:
Listened to the Clinton 'My Life' CDs on a 15-hr drive to northern Minnesota. They went by amazingly fast.
As per Molly Ivins, what my wife and I both noticed was Clinton's generosity of spirit when talking about others.
Listening to it makes me want to read the book, but we've already shelled out $30 for the CDs, so I think we'll wait for it to hit Daedalus.
If you're looking for a different mammoth work with insights into America, I recommend 'Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America.'
It is -- among other things: the story of how the Army Corps of Engineers established its tradition of doing the wrong thing in face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary (particularly cringe-inducing for this current Corps employee); a devastating portrait of Jim Crow in action; a social history of New Orleans Mardi Gras; and a case study of government by corporations, for corporations.
Amazon has it for $11 in paperback.
Anything by Kinky Friedman who, btw, is running for governor of Texas in 2006.www.kinkyfriedman.com
After all, we need all the help we can get to help pull Texas back from its third-world status.
I'm with Jimbo2K4 and ntodd on Aubrey/Maturin series. Movie was ok, but Pete Postalthwaite should have played Killick.
Right now I am red-reading Oliver Sacks' The Island of the Colorblind.
I just finished "Skinny Dipping" by Carl Hiaasen. Not bad. I've read everything he's done. This one was good -- and might be deemed great by someone who is new to Hiaasen. I think most people's favorite Hiaasen is their first.
This one does break significantly from the formula in one important way that I won't reveal here.
Fun read.
Take a break and stretch -- or temporarily lose -- your mind: The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Physics, by Julian Barbour.
Well, for classic great Western Canon novels, that are also actually really great and fun and interesting to read, you've got Eliot's "Middlemarch," of course; James' "The Portrait of a Lady;" and Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain." (Although this one depends on your sense of humor--endless, wordy jokes about phlegm, dead bodies, and the space-time continuum. Among other things. It helps if you like fictionalized physics. Or, I should say, dramatized physics theory.)
I also recently read a very good strange sci fi novel by the great Bruce Sterling, "Zeitgeist," where the science in the fiction, if you follow, is post-modern lit crit theory--that is, deconstruction (instead of the usual physics or tech). Very well done, funny and weird.
And for people who are interested in religion, Yann Martel's "The Life of Pi." A lot of people HATE it. I love it with a, um, consuming passion.
I'm surprised that with all the Gaiman fans, no has mentioned 'Stardust.'
An absolutely delightful, gentle work of fantasy, everyone I know who has read it has loved it.
Also, Gaiman's 'Coraline,' a very effective little horror story. Bought it for my 10-year old, read it, then picked up copies for all my nieces and nephews.
Bush on the Couch
by Justin A. Frank, M.D
A psychoanalytic take on George W. Bush, President of the United States.
Excellent.
Fiction: "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides. Pulitzer prize winner, 2003. This is one of those books where you find yourself constantly going back to re-read sentences or paragraphs because they are so beautifully written. A great work.
Non-Fiction: "Under the Banner of Heaven" by John Krakauer, mentioned frequently above for good reason. Finished this about 9 months ago but best Non-Fic I have read recently.
This time of year I'm getting psyched up for Pennsic, so the fiction to-read stack is mostly historical mysteries set in the Middle Ages; nf tends towards archaeology. Molly Ivins's latest will get shoehorned in soon. Bujold and Pratchett are pounced upon with cries of joy whenever either gets anything new out and reread frequently.
Oblivion by David Foster Wallace...
Being Upright by Reb Anderson...
Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman...
Hyper literary fiction, Buddhist precepts and the future of web design
=
Shut in geek
phelix,
I'm a big fan of the Kinkster myself. Was listening to my mix CD of his ovure (got everything by Under The Double Ego on CD) not more than two hours ago. My personal favorites are A Case Of Lonestar, Elvis, Jesus & Coca-Cola and, of course, the Willie Nelson-centric Roadkill. I'd vote for Kinky for governor (if I lived in Texas, of course), but only if he appoints Captain Midnite and Joe Bob Briggs to cabinet posts.
And for people who are interested in religion, Yann Martel's "The Life of Pi." A lot of people HATE it. I love it with a, um, consuming passion.
Ooh, my wife loved that one, too! She keeps admonishing me to read it (and Da Vinci Code, of all things), but I'm a creature of habit and find it hard to read new stuff when I have so much Heinlein, Herbert, Niven and Stanley Robinson to re-read.
These days all my wife reads is books on tracking. I've been stuck mostly on my SciFi and photography stuff.
Mebbe the trolls are posting under different names, because in this thread they wan to participate in a conversation. Mebbe.
Anyone else a fan of Zizek?
I am. Many years ago, one of the jobs I had was in an office whose requirements were so undemanding that I was able to read "The Sublime Object of Ideology" for hours at a time. Looking forward to reading "Iraq: A Borrowed Kettle."
I would suggest "The Iraq War" by John Keegan, published in May by Knopf.
I'll put in another plug for one of my favorites: "The Third Policeman," by Flann O'Brien. I laughed so hard throughout, I had to keep putting the book down, to catch my breath and so forth. Hilarious, strange, Irish. WHat more could anyone ask for?
The Story of V: Opening Pandora's Box, by Catherine Blackledge. It's... a kind of technical manual.
Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson. I don't what Gibson's books are about, anymore, but I still like tham.
"Guns, Germs & Steel" by Jared Diamond.
Re-reading A Peace to End All Peace. A better cast of characters than the current gang of idiots, but a similar capacity for self-delusion.
Grant - I have Barbour's book, and I have read about a third of it. Would you like to send me some home made Cliff notes on it, or something? Or do me some annotations? I heard an interview with him, and it caused me to get the book. It is not an easy book and I haven't finished it. But what I've read is pretty elegant.
monica--I'm in love. "The Sublime Object" was the first work of his to draw me in. I just bought his book on Lenin, and am very much looking forward to it, whenever I can squeeze it in.
Not to be brutal but I thought "The Da Vinci Code" sucked. The subject matter was interesting (but not a new idea) but I thought the dialogue was stilted and the characters were flat. It was written like a bad screenplay, like he wrote the book with the movie deal in mind--which does not make for a good book in my mind.
NTodd, from checking out your blog and reading your comments around the net, I think you might really like "Life of Pi."
Also, you should always listen to your wife.
(Although I am sorry to say I found "The Da Vinci Code" tiresome--well, I mean it's a page-turner, all right, but there's no there there. I can see why people like it though.)
Toni Morricon's "Song of Solomon" is absolutely great and beautiful--don't be put of by Oprah.
Not to be brutal but I thought "The Da Vinci Code" sucked.
I've heard that from a lot of people, but I'm one who likes stuff that has cool ideas, despite the bad dialogue (else why would I love Highlander?).
Decline and Fall by Otto Friedrich. It's about the end of that Philadelphia institution, the Saturday Evening Post.
What If? edited by Robert Cowley, counterfactual military history. A bit right wing but engrossing.
Maigret and the Bum. George Simenon, you know it's going to be good.
Rule of Four was a big disappointment.
Anabasis of Xenophon. It's exciting
"My personal recommendation in the way of mystery novels are the Aurelio Zen books by Michael Dibdin."
Hey, for mysteries try any of these guys (if ya haven't already):
Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald - sort of the trinity of literate crime writing.
Robert B Parker -- earlier stuff is better
Robert Crais
Sara Paretsky
Loren D. Estleman
Michael Connelly
Lawrence Block
Eric Ambler, if you can find him (suspense rather than mystery)
I just reread the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Not something that one would recommend which doesn't mean it isn't very entertaining, even for those who are still alive.
NTodd, from checking out your blog and reading your comments around the net, I think you might really like "Life of Pi."
Also, you should always listen to your wife.
It seems I will like Pi. Alas, I have trouble listening to my wife--at least, that's what she keeps telling me. I'm just like our dog: passive-aggressive.
Stoffel, by coincidence, I also read Demon Haunted World last week. I'd forgotten how necessary Sagan was to the war against superstition.
kiki,
My brother borrowed The Da Vinci Code from his current chercher la femme, and I leafed through about half of it. I agree, it reads like it was written to get a movie deal. Reminded me of John Grisham (who, though a fellow Magnolia stater, I loathe) or Michael Crichton's later stuff. It's fluff and easily digestible, thus decent for what it is, but nothing to bang a gong about. What kills me is how many yay-hoos think it's for real.
Baloney - Until about 3 years ago, the only version of Anna Karenina in English available was the Constance Garnett translation. About 3 years ago, a husband and wife did a new translation. I read it a year or so ago. I loved it. I've read the Garnett 4 or 5 times over many years. The new translation was markedly different in feeling; not quite so Victorian as the Garnett.
Just to add some balance to this thread, I should mention that I hated Gaiman's American Gods, especially the quasi-Spillane hero, and I think that he didn't do enough with the basic idea which was very good.
The Coming Anarchy by Robert D Kaplan - deep background on international affairs. Also In the Wake of Plague by Norman F Cantor - fourteenth century history.
Both seem relevant these days.
sjh
My choice for best recent book read : The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
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Can someone archive this thread? There are too many books to write down and many sound just great.
I'll put in another plug for one of my favorites: "The Third Policeman," by Flann O'Brien.
YES!
I'm rereading it now.
An indispensible book.
An indispensible book.
Thersites
I like that book too. And it's funny you call it "indispensible," because I just noticed with some irritation that my copy is missing!
Some of the Myles na Gopaleen collections are great too...but I have to confess that the attraction of "At Swim-Two-Birds" comes very close to eluding me...
The new translation was markedly different in feeling; not quite so Victorian as the Garnett.
I like her, though...she did a particularly good job on Tolstoy's "Resurrection"...a very interesting book itself.
Reminded me of ...Michael Crichton's later stuff.
Shit, all of Crichton's stuff is fluff. Don't get me wrong: I've loved everything I've read by Mikey ('cept his whiny, egocentric travelog), from Terminal Man (OMG, how dated) to Airframe (which I read on a flight from EWR to BTV) to Timeline (pedestrian and as obvious as everything else). But geesh, he's always a dreadful writer--I just love his conceptual world.
Avedon - I have "Scar" - talk about intense. I finally put it down for a little bit. It was causing me to have very strange dreams. I had a hard time with all those people who been surgically altered.
I think most people's favorite Hiaasen is their first.
That's a good observation. One's first exposure to Hiaasen's zaniness is the most striking, and no subsequent book of his, no matter how good, can have the same effect.
I remember my first Hiaasen experience. (Perhaps I should rephrase that. ...) Years ago, I used to go to the local public library and pick out a few novels almost at random from the new books shelf. My instinct was to look for the familiar, and I was forcing myself to broaden my horizons. One book I took out that way was Tourist Season (his first novel?), and after that, I was hooked.
Citizenship Papers,, by Wendell Berry.
Thoughts in Time of War, by Chris Hedges.
The Serenity Prayer,, by Elizabeth Sifton (daughter of Reinhold Niebuhr, author of the prayer).
Men in Black Dresses, by Yvonne Seng.
God: A Guide for the Perplexed, by Keith Ward.
I want to get my hands on The Life You Save May Be Your Own, a sort of joint biography of Walker Percy, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and Flannery O'Connor. Haven't read it then, but have heard good things about it.
And I'm enjoying, by fits and starts, Fernando Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet, Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu (although I have the older translation; there's a new one out that makes Proust even more readable), and there's also a new translation of Don Quixote I want to get my hands on.
Oh, yeah. Actually read Dracula a while back. Damn fine book. Much better than any of the movies.
And I'd recommend Bobbie Ann Mason's biography of Elvis. And Schott's Original Miscellany. Always good for the odd tidbit of useless information.
Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald - sort of the trinity of literate crime writing.
Or alternatively, James M. Cain, Patricia Highsmith, and ...I don't know...maybe Horace McCoy. Or David Goodis.
Chandler I think is pretty overrated, but to each his own. "The Dain Curse" and "Red Harvest" are pretty great though.
OK, I gotta stop this. I told myself if this turned from "last books read" to a discussion of favorite books/authors, I wouldn't get caught up in it. And look at me now...forget I said anything!
I couldn't get through "At Swim-Two-Birds," to my sorrow and shame.
For fluff/murder mysteries/beach reading (does anyone actually READ at the beach?), I vote for the Queen of Cozy, Agatha Christie.
It's tea time and there's a body in the library... oooh I love me some Agatha.
Shadow Divers - it's going to be a great movie.
I have a pile of books that I pick up and put down as the mood strikes:
Karen Armstrong - the Battle for God
David Halberstam - War in a Time of Peace
Barbara Tuchman - The March of Folly
P.G. Wodehouse - Something Fresh
I just finished Janet Evanovich's Ten Big Ones and went back and reread a bunch of the earlier ones.
Also am rereading all the mysteries by Sarah Cauldwell - just finished The Shortest Way to Hades
NTodd,
Pretty much. I don't mind fluff or braincandy. Hell, one could argue Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams or Kinky Friedman (three favorites of mine) are little more than extra-clever brain candy. It's just that feel of "this will make an excellent movie for Will Smith" I can't abide. Same thing with comedians who bust their asses so they can wind up as the whacky neighbor on some mindless sitcom. It's like drinking stale Coke: it gets the job done and is still fairly pleasent going down, there's just no pop left.
NTodd, from checking out your blog and reading your comments around the net, I think you might really like "Life of Pi."
Oh, Life of Pi, how could I leave that off?
Or the entire trilogy (now tetralogy; well, as of August, but I've read the fourth one already), of the Jasper Fforde series about literary detective Tuesday Next. The first two are excellent, the third drags the series down, but the fourth redeems all. If you haven't read them, imagine an English major living in a world designed by Monty Python, where book characters can be real, mastodons and neanderthals and dodos are resurrected by genetics, corporations run almost everything, and the satire is so delicious you want to eat it.
Oh, on the same subject: Jennifer Government, by Max Berry (IIRC), is good, too.
Phila & mg_65
Gotta give Swim-Two-Birds another shot--the key is the relationship between the story-within-the-story-within-the-story and the frame narrative--the failed rebel nephew who sinks all his rebellion into his characters, though they end up running scared too. A beautiful narrative for the revolutionary morning-after of Ireland in the 1930s.
I'm reading through Nick Hornby now, and just finished Memoirs of a Geisha (blech). I keep trying to start DaVinci Code, but it seems so formulaic and reminds me of an MST3K movie in which Leonardo DaVinci is part of a secret cult. But people keep asking me if I have, so I guess I should.
Hammet's Red Harvest is a splendid first novel. Lovely stuff.
I confess to having used the plot line as the template for some anti-fascist actions once or twice.
And what other novel has been made into a movie so many times?
Mr. Dynamite (with Dick Powell as the Continental Op - I've never been able to find a print. Don't think it ever made it to video.)
Yojimbo
A Fist Full of Dollars
Last Man Standing (yuck)
I like that book too. And it's funny you call it "indispensible," because I just noticed with some irritation that my copy is missing!
I have extras. Email me an address and I'll send you one. (No shit; I have two odd teacher's review copies.)
Chandler I think is pretty overrated, but to each his own.
Philalethes and I may have to step outside....
Oh, anything by Wodehouse. Anything. Absolutely anything. And everything. Read it all.
As well as anything with Horace Rumpole in it.
Obviously you can't get me started on this subject.....
Philalethes - well, I would not have known enough to quarrel with the Garnett Anna, but I became a Vladimir Nabokov fantatic some years ago. I've calmed down a bit now, but one of the books I acquired during that time was a collection of his lectures on literature from his tenure at Wellesey. He really disliked the Garnett Anna - and I respect his command of both English and Russian enough to trust his judgment. So I was excited when I read about the new translation. What is cool is that in the forward, the translators talk about Nabokov and his interpretation of the novel. So for me it was a great experience to read this version. I think Tolstoy touched perfection more times than any other writer has. I wish I had never found out any of the details of his life. He wasn't a nice person at all, and he really got off track when he got religious and then gave up writing.
While I'm not a huge fan of the mystery genre per se - and the Kinster's books barely count as mysteries - I've always been fond of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe character. Anti-social, eccentric, sharp-tongued and one who delights in indulging his whims. My kind of cat. I've also dug the Fletch series.
About Hiassen, I look at him like I look at Elmore Leonard: not exactly soul-shattering stuff, but high quality diversions. When I was in the J-School, Hiassen came to speak to one of my classes (Specialized Journalism, or as we called it, Gonzo 101). He was pretty cool and dug the fact I wrote about drug dealers, rock & rollers and the weirdos of humanity.
He also told me to watch out for "writer's groupies". That is, be wary of women (and men, I suppose) who are attracted to writer's and their "depth of involvement in humanity and its desires". I didn't have the heart to tell him that if such women existed, it's probably because his books are made into movies. I have never, EVER gotten any play from being a writer. Heard lots of hot air concerning it, but it's never come across when the dime is dropped.
Then again, it could be my other "character traits" are overruling them. Who knows?
For hard-boiled style crime novels, I think Jim Thompson cannot be beat. The Killer Inside Me and the Getaway are brilliant.
Usually just lurk, but thought I'd comment on this one:
Just finished:
Reason by Robert Reich
The Clinton Wars by Blumenthal
Baudolino by Umberto Eco
Notes from Underground by Dostoesky
The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum
Now reading:
Crime and Punishment by Dostoesky
Slouching Towards Gomorrah by Bork
Wow, you guys are reading some heavy stuff, considering it's summertime. I just finished Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. I recently reread Enemy at the Gates by William Craig (about the Battle of Stalingrad), and I also recommend Bush in Babylon by Tariq Ali. And I just picked up The Moon is Down by
Steinbeck and Roald Dahl's autobiography at a used book sale
P. G. Wodehouse = god.
Basically.
OK, Philalethes, no more my favorite books. It's so hard to resist, though, isn't it?
Currently reading a Julian Barnes novel, as well as re-reading all Le Carre. Next up: "If On A Winter's Night A Traveller," by Italo Calvino. ("Baron In the Trees" is wonderful. Sorry--I had to say that. For context.)
After that, "House of Bush, House of Saud."
Someone asked for good globalization/trade books. THE SELLING OF FREE TRADE by Harper's publisher John R. MacArthur is stunning, about the passage of NAFTA. Democrats who are Clinton-lovers should especially read this one; it may make your jaw drop and your head spin. The whole thing really rather corrupt.
Everyone must, must, must read Tom Frank's new book WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS. I've read dozens of books on conservatives, and this is the first one that I think really moved me to a truly deep understanding of the subject (including my own...)
Loved "Notes from Underground."
Have been completely incapable of penetrating either "Crime and Punishment" (got tired of using the correct but tedious italics tags) or "The Brothers Karamazov." Even in the newest, highly touted translation.
I figure it's a personal failing. And while I love "Dubliners" (especially "The Dead"), I can't stand "Ulysses," either. But I've been told to read it in chunks, not in serial, until it starts to make sense, so, some June 16th soon.....
Am reading a great sf novel - Iron Sunrise by Charlie Stross.
Older books I'd recommend - Silverlock by John Myers Myers and Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse. Take a look on Amazon for reviews.
P. G. Wodehouse = god.
Basically.
I was completely obsessed with his books when I was around 12, then got into S.J. Perelman...always thought that two-first-initial thing was strange, but luckily the trend pretty much ended there.
Re-read "Something Fresh"--which someone else mentioned upthread--and was surprised how well it held up. I was also surprised at his political acumen, which I obviously didn't notice when I was a kid. He really sticks to the fascists and Nietzschean supermen that were infesting London in those days. And to the upperclass Communists too, for that matter.
Interesting...
"My Pet Goat" is no longer coming up on a title search at Amazon.com.
Was the book just too good a target?
NyMary--don't bother with the Da Vinci Code, it's a waste of time. Thank you for the Swim-Two-Birds hunt. I'll try it again.
Another book sitting on my table that I keep putting down is Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy (in one volume--the book is the size of a Buick). It's really good, and interesting, and well-written and just all around fab, and I keep putting it down and picking up other books. I can't figure out why. It's rather dour and grim, but that doesn't usually bother me. I mean, I'm picking up Le Carre!
Robert M Jeffers, thanks for mentioning the Jasper Fforde series--that sounds EXACTLY like the kind of stuff I love.
"Sea of Glory" by Nathaniel Philbrick (2003). It's the true account of the 1838-1842 scientific voyage sent out by the US govt; six ships which included botanists, geologists, cartographers, biologists -- and a crackpot captain who alienates the entire contingent. Almost reads like fiction, but isn't. They sailed around S. America, up to Puget Sound and the Columbia River, then to Antarctica, numerous stops in the Pacific Islands, NZ, Australia, back to the Antarctic, the Phillipines, South Africa and back to NY. A really decent story of discovery -- and odd personalities.
For a great historical novel, try Zoe Oldenbourg's *The World is not Enough*--lots of juicy (and sometimes icky) details about medieval life, and an utterly unromantic view of the Crusades. I'm on my third copy, having read one to tatters and given the second away.
I also second a lot of recs here: just talking tonight about *Catch-22*, which strikes me as a crucial text for our current moment: war for profit. And *Lolita*, because it's always a good idea to remind oneself how easy it is to get stuck in someone else's mania and forget to see it for what it is.
Robert, *Ulysses* is a project, but one worth the effort, eventually. Like *The Magic Mountain* and *The Satanic Verses*, it's one of those books about everything. Intimidating, but rewarding.
I'm currently in the middle of Ghost Wars by Steve Coll and Clash of the Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads, and Modernity by Tariq Ali.
Mr. Jeffers,
I'm with you on The Dubliners versus Ulysses. There's apparently a big brouhaha in the Irish literary world concerning a differing opinion of Joyce's talents and his standing as the Emerald Isle's main man writer. Have you ever read Finnegan's Wake, and if so, have you ever managed to get through it? I swear, one day, I will whip that book.
bouncing in from a dinner party.
for the life of me i cannot figure out why someone would want to besmirch the books that i have read recently.
only thing i can think of is the theme of the books - deceit on the part of the government.
i suppose that there are trolls who do not want the usg questioned.
as we speak, i finish another book that reveals the deceptions, the prevarications of the usg.
INVENTING THE AXIS OF EVIL.
so it goes.
I was completely obsessed with his books when I was around 12, then got into S.J. Perelman...always thought that two-first-initial thing was strange, but luckily the trend pretty much ended there.
Yeah, I read Wodehouse fairly early on, and thought: Well, that's that.
A year or so ago, came across an anthology "Weekend Wodehouse." And devoured it. And went looking for more.
Actually, the Bertie/Jeeves stuff, although it's great, begins to wear a bit thin after a while (some of the later novels, written long after the era they describe). But the entire ouevre is so good, and some of his one-off novels (v. the Bertie/Jeeves or..oh, bother, I've lost the other series he did....) are as brilliant as anything he did.
It's amazing what he could accomplish with a small cast of basically interchangeable characters in largely repeated scenarios.
Damn. Gotta go haunt a bookstore tomorrow, find some more Wodehouse....
I can't stand "Ulysses," either. But I've been told to read it in chunks, not in serial, until it starts to make sense, so, some June 16th soon.....
I've read it three times, with increasing exasperation and decreasing admiration. I think it ultimately comes across three (?) decent short stories cobbled together in a contrived way, and overlaid with an fairly trivial intellectual conceit.
I realize I've probably lost any well-wishers I had here, but uh...to thine own self be true, I guess. Even when thine own self is kind of a big jerk!
A book I'm digging right now is John Charles McQuaid: Ruler of Catholic Ireland by John Cooney. McQuaid was an authoritarian Archbishop who dominated Irish politics and culture from the late 30s to the 60s.
It absolutely made my July to learn that McQuaid got Tampax banned from Ireland because he thought if Irish women were sticking stuff up their vestibules it would inevitably lead to impure thoughts.
Yeah, I have weird hobbies, like exploring the preoccupations of religious authoritarians. Keeps me from trying crystal meth, though. Great book, anyway.
I love Roald Dahl - a more twisted human probably never lived. I read one he wrote about crossing the ocean with this boatload of totally barking mad fellow English passengers. One of the funniest things I've ever read.
Speaking of twisted - anyone else read "Geek Love"?
NYMary--I mean, thanks for the HINT. Greetings from Hell's Kitchen, by the way.
Stupid keyboard.
OK, two more faves and then I'm off to bed.
P. G. Wodehouse, "Leave it to Psmith," very funny and sweet, and for poets and dreamers and people who like their language lush and their metaphors profuse, the gorgeous and mind-bending "Street of Crocodile," by Bruno Schulz.
Another book sitting on my table that I keep putting down is Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy
Stick with it! That's another one I read a few times as a kid, and am long overdue to re-read soon. Although I confess that the last volume's kind of lame.
Whoever was talking up the Philip Pullman books upthread...those things really are great, and this post notwithstanding I don't go in that much for the fantasy genre.
Bruce Sterling's Zenith Angle is brilliant, a real thriller that would have been cyberpunk five years ago and today is just a seriously well informed page-turner.
Sue Monk Kidd's "The Secret Life of Bees," pretends to be a women's novel but each sentence has the clarity of spring water and tastes as good. Like, that Finch girl, the heroine of this story is on the verge of the civil rights movement in time, and personally on the edge of self-discovery.
Terry Pratchett is maybe the best writer in English today, possibly the best-selling British writer outside of Rawling. He used to be relegated to the s-f/fantasy shelf, but now he's just the best satirist living. Any novel would be a terrific read, as full of insights as of puns, as hilarious as brilliant. Don't think he's not serious either. Try THE OMEN, his collabortion with Neal Gaiman, the funniest take on the Biblical apocalypse ever.
More recently, Pratchett wrote The Thief of Time, a novel so good there is no reason for anyone else ever to write another. Loaded with more humanity and insight than you expect or deserve. Featuring, among others, the original Fifth Horseman ("I'm Ronnie") and a bird named Quoth. What kind of bird I'm not gonna say, but I bet you can guess.
As of late I've been reading the following:
• "Homegrown Democrat" by Garrison Keillor. I'm but 3/4 of the way through this quick read, but I've deeply touched as to how Keillor puts into perspective what being a liberal Democrat means. It's not only heartfelt and funny, but ultimately illuminating in a way most "current affairs" or "political" books never are. There's a humanity to this book (which is so much of what the Democratic Party is traditionally about) so many others lack.
Keillor's lengthy ruminations from a neighborhood St. Paul coffee house about society, civility and politics are absolutely superb, surprisingly cogent and completely on mark. His take on present and past day civics, both contrasted, is manna from heaven.
Anyone from Minnesota...or anyone whose matriculated through a land grant college... will immediately warm to the author's heartfelt ode to his alma matter, the University of Minnesota. An instituiton where any Minnesotan has been traditionally afforded the opportunity to better both his or herself, but also the state as whole. Republicans can't fathom this.
NOTE: Reading Keillor's ode to the U of M (an instituition supported by "big government", which the country as a whole benefitted from) and all the great possibilties it afforded its students (whether they be of lower or upper class status), I'm reminded of the story my dad told me of when he was a graduate student at the U of M in the 1950s. There at the U of M in a sequestered lab, as a humble grad student from a lower middle class home, he had the opportunity as a physics student to sit down and actually chat with Robert Oppenheimer, the father of American atomic bomb. At the time, possibly one of the most important scientists in the world. Thanks to the U of M and the democratic politics inherent with land grant colleges, it was a reality.
• "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. A remarkably touching book about an Afgan expatriate. Though slightly flawed (IMHO) within its narrative, this book squarely touches upon issues relevant to things going on in Iraq. Let's just say: "How is it might we be good again"?
• "Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics : The History of the Explosive That Changed the World" by Jack Kelley. A great, fascinating overview on the history of gunpowder from the Chinese to the present. Fascinating.
• "The Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. A great, page-turner. Simply engrossing. Part thriller, part mystery, part romance, part gothic novel, part coming of age story....it goes on. For those who love books. What a complete treat this book is. You'll be up all night reading it! Stephen King (of all people) picked it as one of three books you should read this summer. Just great reading!
Robert, *Ulysses* is a project, but one worth the effort, eventually. Like *The Magic Mountain* and *The Satanic Verses*, it's one of those books about everything. Intimidating, but rewarding.
One day, I will read it. But probably after I finish Proust (another life goal!) and Don Quixote, and finally conquer my fear and loathing of Dostoevsky. (Although I read "War and Peace" in jr. high, so I don't get it...)
I'm with you on The Dubliners versus Ulysses. There's apparently a big brouhaha in the Irish literary world concerning a differing opinion of Joyce's talents and his standing as the Emerald Isle's main man writer. Have you ever read Finnegan's Wake, and if so, have you ever managed to get through it? I swear, one day, I will whip that book.
"FW" comes after the books above, but, yeah, I've got it, and I'm determined to whip it.
But for the moment, I rest Joyce's reputation for Ireland on "The Dead," and "Araby." But it's still a contest with Yeats, in my mind. Maybe after I conquer "Ulysses..."
Oh, and if one is up for the effort, I think Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow is to postmodernism what Ulysses (which I love for a number of reasons) is to modernism.
Ooooh Tena-- yes, Katherine Dunn's monstrous, bizarre and moving "Geek Love." Quite a ride. I have, I am proud to say, a first edition. The paperback versions I keep "lending" to people. A great one. A deeply and peculiarly American novel.
I really have to stop now.
Usually I just read the comments and don't post, but I do love books so.
Can't... tear... self... away... from thread...
Tomm,
I think you mean Good Omens. Excellent book. A rose by any other name and all that.
Oh, and y'al wanna talk about confusing shit that all comes together at the end? Robert Anton Wilson. Three full readings later, and The Illuminatus Trilogy still makes me jump sideways. And NYMary's recommendation of The World Is Not Enough puts me in mind of my personal favorite "historical novelist" and one of my spiritual book-ends, the late Ambrose Bierce. His Civil War stuff is outstanding, though of course not as much fun as the still-relevent The Devil's Dictionary.
Have you ever read Finnegan's Wake, and if so, have you ever managed to get through it? I swear, one day, I will whip that book.
There is no apostrophe in Finnegans Wake.
It's useful to know this, in case like me you occasionally like to act the smug literary prick.
I do like Ulysses. On rereading it I find the book funnier and funnier.
But then, Backslider once (quite accurately) called me a "pervert," so take this as you will...
To all the Neil Gaiman fans upthread - me too. I have the entire Sandman and I reread it frequently. There's so much going on in that series I almost always find I've forgotten several stories - so it's like new. I love Gaiman - including "American Gods," Echidne. But I liked "Good Omens" better.
Love Pratchett, too. But was disappointed with Monstrous Regiment, last one I read and I think the last one out. I love Inspector Vimes - Carpe Jugulum was a lot of fun.
The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra
Thersites,
I can dig. People who write the name of my favorite band as "Lynard Skynard" drive me up the wall. Makes me insane, I tell you...
And apostrophe or not, the goddamn thing's still a mother to get through.
I risk my reputation as a Joyce lover to say so, but there's not a lot of point to *The Wake,* as it's known in my neck of the woods. (And I wrote my MA thesis on it, so there you go.)
Two others (I'm as addicted as anyone else, obviously...): *The Tin Drum* by Gunther Grass (breathtaking, terrifying), and *Midnight's Children* by Salman Rushdie (ditto).
Just heard about Garrison's book; thanks for the recommendation.
Berry's book, "Citizenship Papers," deserves a longer commendation than I gave it. A series of essays, many in response to events since 9/11. Berry is an iconoclastic thinker in the best American tradition. He argues we have to think locally, and act locally, since local is concrete and known, and "global" (or anything beyond local) is abstract and ultimately just a projection of our own egos, and a desire for our reach to exceed our grasp (pace Browning).
A very clear and cogent writer, with many sharp things to say both to conservatives and to progressives (he eschews all "movements" because they soon become their own reason for existing). A very fine novelist, too, but this collection of essays is one of his best: timely, pungent, sharp, clear, well-considered, and cleary-eyed. He doesn't deal in bullshit, and he doesn't put up with it. A Kentucky farmer with the wisdom and insight of a poet, and the heart of a true patriot.
I'm a big fan of Berry's work, in other words....
Sleeping Where I Fall By Peter Coyote.
Interesting inside look into the 60's counterculture and a good bio to boot.
Joe Wilson's autobiography, "The Politics of Truth". The story of his life before Plamegate makes for great reading, particularly his work to get American nationals out of Iraq before the invasion in 1991.
"The Professor and the Madman", by Simon Winchester. On the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. Much much better than that sounds.
OK, I said I wouldn't do this...but I guess I have to plug one of my favorite 20th-c writers, who's woefully under-read nowadays: Henry Green. I'd recommend "Back," "Party Going," "Concluding," and "Loving" to just about anybody.
The writer I think is possibly the best, and most little-known author, I won't divulge until I track down the last few titles I'm missing...damn things are impossible to find, and cost an arm and a leg when I do find 'em. I want no competition! None!
Over and out. I really hate it when I promise myself I won't get sucked into threads like these, and then do it anyway!
Last week finished "What's The Matter With Kansas" by Thomas Frank. His intent is, as the intro is titled, What's the matter with America.
Very good, you won't be able to set it down.
For GWPDA in an earlier post; you might wnat to try A Perfect Babel of Confusion: Dutch Religion and English Culture in the Middle Colonies
Have read about a quarter of Bill Clinton's My Life. I think much better than the critics say.
Well, they are not novels, but if you need a good laugh, just about any of Bill Bryson's travel writings will do.
Working on The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama and just got The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ by Lynn Pickett and Clive Prince.
Final word on Joyce, if only to save my reputation (hem-hem...which reference reminds me to recommend Molesworth to one and all; or I would, if it wasn't out of print. My condolences to you all.)
Anyway...my failure with Joyce is perplexing, as I read Derrida and Kierkegaard for leisure, and Kafka and Beckett when I need cheering up. I think it's brain chemistry, or something.
There, I feel sufficiently snooty now to carry on.....(yar boo sucks!)
Tena--Yes, the Sandman series is breathtaking in its complexity. And its foresight. The last time I reread some of it, I noticed that when Morpheus captures Azazel and tosses him into a chest, the contents of the chest include a city in a bottle--which as you will know is the outcome of "Ramadan," which wasn't written until much, much later.
Amazing.
As far as Finnegans Wake goes, Joyce himself said it took him years to write it and it should take years to read it. And I pretty much suspect that that I can use those years to better effect reading a bunch of other novels rather than this one.
And, yes, Midnight's Children is amazing.
I'd like to add that any of Pratchett's Sam Vimes novels are not only hilarious, but frequently outdo the hard-edged action genre they're parodying at their own game. The scene where Sam is pursued by werewolves in "The Fifth Elephant" is more exciting than anything the Governor of California has ever done.
If you're a Douglas Adam's fan and haven't picked up "Salmon of a Doubt," do so without fear. I was worried it would be like so many other collections of a deceased author, junk dredged together to make a quick buck. Turns out, it's all gems.
THING KNOWLEDGE
--Davis Baird
And apostrophe or not, the goddamn thing's still a mother to get through.
It's actually not; you need to hang on to three or four basic principles and then let the music of the thing have its way with you, or not.
The last 100 words or so of the book are somehow exquisite: I get maybe half of 'em, but they run through my mind a lot at weird moments when I need to hear something strange & beautiful.
Corny, maybe. But I like FW. Incomprehensible, annoying, in flashes transcendent. Like life, kinda.
Shocke,
Agreed on both counts. Salmon Of Doubt is, in my opinion, a fine tribute to a fine writer. Have you ever read Last Chance To See? DNA travels the world, writing about animals that are on the very edge of extinction. Heartbreaking and riotously funny at the same time.
As for The Night Watch series, it's probably my favorite of Pratchett's little world and I'd probably say The Fifth Elephant is my favorite of those (Small Gods still ranks as my top Pterry book). I did the cops beat for a couple years, and the Watch has it nailed perfectly, if a bit skewered. I nearly wet myself reading the bit in Jingo where the gnome Wee Mad Arthur head-butted a bull into submission. I still don't understand why that's so funny to me; I'm giggling now thinking about it. Must be all the pot.
Mr. Jeffers,
You read Kierkegaard to relax? Far out...course, I read Faulkner (another personal demi-god) to chill out, so I guess I can dig where you're coming from.
A guilty pleasure - George MacDonald Frasier. The Flashman novels are a treat, but his early army short stories are very good. I think his best is Mr. American -- eliptically bittersweet.
I think I've re-read Pynchon more than any other writer except Arthur Conan Doyle.
V - if you're going to read them all, start with the first. Otherwise you'll miss some of the jokes and allusions.
Crying of Lot 49 - short and fast paced. Don't Ever Antagonize The Horn.
Gravity's Rainbow - his best
Vinland - didn't hang together well.
Mason & Dixon - started writing by the self-indulgent pound (a problem that Neil Stephenson just developed as well). When these books start showing up, the author is writing to keep himself busy and has lost sight of his audience.
oops, memoir not bio.
Great thread, good suggestions...
The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
The Narrows by Michael Connelly
Skinny Dip by Carl Hiassen
The Art of the Commonplace (Wendell Berry essays)
The Essential Agrarian Reader
Plan B by Lester Brown
Philalethes,
is it... Richard Yates? The suspense is killing me. You see how I can't tear myself away? I just got back from updating my Amazon wish list and now you're being cryptic.
Warbaby--Have to disagree with you about Mason & Dixon. I think your assessment of all his earlier novels is right on. (Vineland is just bloody awful.) But M&D I find not at all self-indulgent. And I think it has more human emotion in it than any of Pynchon's earlier novels.
(Disclaimer: I've published on the book, so I may be a bit partial.)
(Plus it inspired the excellent song "Sailing to Philadelphia"...)
Thersites,
Ehh, I'll probably wind up giving it another shot someday. Baby Brother's gearing up to retackle Ulysses, and I think that's plenty of Joyce for one household.
There's not been too many mentions of books on music. I don't read music criticism as much as I did when I was a music critic, but I do highly recommend a couple books. Peter Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music is the definitive book on soul, R&B and the development of black pop music from the '50s to the '70s. Lost Highway does a decent, if not as good take on country music. Robert Palmer (no, not that one) has the main take on the blues with Deep Blues, discussing not only the history and the personalities, but also some neat stuff on the technical side. Anything by Stanley Booth is a treat - particularly anything his written on The Rolling Stones - and Greil Marcus' Mystery Train is a fascinating look at the ties that bind several different aspects of pop music. It's also a seminal influence on my own theories of the development of American popular music in the 20th century.
Finally, for the more sensitive among us, Oscar Levant's biography A Talent For Genius (the author escapes me for the moment) is highly recommended. Like the Dr. John tale mentioned above, it's a stunning look at a fascinating figure and probably the sharpest wit of the 20th century.
Little, Big. By John Crowley. Amazing book, has cheered and haunted me for years.
I read Derrida and Kierkegaard for leisure, and Kafka and Beckett when I need cheering up...I feel sufficiently snooty now...
Was it Kierkegaard or van Patten who said, "if you label me, you negate me"?
God, my philo major goes to waste, but my study of popular film pays off...
Kinky Friedman is amazing. I flew through a bunch of his stuff earlier this month. Also, props to Avedon for mentioning Perdido Street Station. It messed with my head for over a week! I hadn't heard about Scar, but now I will definitely go out and get it. For anyone interested in supernatural/horror type-stuff, I recommend Nalo Hopkinson (particularly Skin Folk) and Ramsey Campbell. I just finished Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake this week, and my love/hate relationship with Ms. Atwood's work continues. It's worth reading, though. I plan on relaxing soon with some Lawrence Block (the Matthew Scudder mysteries in particular) and Dave Barry (also running for President this year). Thanks for all the suggestions, and happy reading!
Recent reads that I enjoyed:
The Great Game - The Struggle For Empire in Central Asia by Peter Hopkirk
This book taught me that the invasion and occupation of Iraq with clearly bogus justifications is nothing new. This is a great, great book.
Secrets - A memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsburg
--Great book, starts out a little slow then proceeds to scare the crap out of you when you see the group think parallels to today's Iraq problem.
Backslider,
Can you recommend a good history of the music industry in the 70's & 80's?
Charlotte,
Have you ever dug on the Kinkster's music? I have to admit, his twisted take on country music and his wry, often boorish humor are right up my alley. Dug out my copy of his self-titled second album - I'm making my next band cover "Miss Nickelodeon" from it; I'd cover "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore", but I'm afraid I'd get lynched - and Sphincter Records (you heard me right) has recently released the long out-of-print Under The Double Ego.
Despite all their other weirdness, Texans make good music. Kinky Friedman, Townes, Guy Clark, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Terry Allen...I could go on and on, but I'd seriously derail the thread.
another big second for Life of Pi, Ntodd.
What a great thread - you've filled my dwindling library list.
dont' miss ANYTHING by Barbara Kingsolver or Margaret Atwood. Both are writers beyond compare. For fun, Reginald Hill is a great, witty mystery author. I also found Richard Clarke's book a page-turner, though (albeit justifiably) a bit self-congratulatory.
Backslider--I must confess to a level of disappointment at getting no response to my brief vignette on smoking up with Kermit Ruffins in the 9th Ward, mentioned way upthread...
rorschach,
I may just be me, but I found Mason & Dixon good in spots, but uneven. There were long stretches that just felt padded, as if Pynchon was producing as a mechanical exercise to fill up his time.
I ended up deciding that he kept changing his mind about what he was writing and because it was so ponderously long, wouldn't go back and mend the earlier parts.
Maybe I missed something, but the book kept shifting around and not coming into focus.
Can you recommend a good history of the music industry in the 70's & 80's?
Not to steal backslider's thunder, but I'd recommend "Hit Men," by Frederick Dannen.
Yes, Kinky Friedman does in fact rock, but I have to say my best music moment since moving to Austin was seeing Steve Earle sing "Jerusalem" at last year's Austin City Limits music festival--he went on a little tirade about Bush that made my day.
To keep my tin-foil all shiny I reach for John Zerzan's Future Primitive, that Quinn stuff and Who Rules America? by G. William Domhoff
Backslider,
Can you recommend a good history of the music industry in the 70's & 80's?
NYMary | Email | Homepage | 07.18.04 - 12:25 am | #
Well, depends on what area you're interested in. For disco, mainstream pop and, I hate to admit, funk, I really can't help you. Someone above mentioned Our Band Could Be Your Life, and I highly concur. If you're interested in nuts-and-bolts industry stuff, I suggest Charlie Gillet's The Sound Of The City or Fred Goodman's Mansion On The Hill.
As for specific genres or musicians, you'll have to be, well...more specific. I can tell you that I've yet to come across a decent book on '70s and '80s country music, though. Apart from the Outlaw stuff - Willie, Waylon, Tompall Glaser - and the demi-gods like Johnny Cash or George Jones, those two decades are the bastard step-child of country music. The hipsters hate it because it was "mainstream" and searched for "crossover appeal" and the fans of modern country weren't listening to it.
And, of course, it's probably my favorite slice of country. It's what I grew up on, after all.
"Last and First Men" by Olaf Stapeldon... It was written primarially between the WWI and WWII, and has a very interesting viewpoint IMO. Should be required reading.
Stephenson's Baroqe cycle so far is really good IMO too. Certainly not for eveyone, but it has so many great tid-bits in it, I have no problem with the length and, well, baroque-ness. It also provides some of the really cool historical background of capitalism and the enlightenment. Given the anti-enlightenment political movement (aka freepers), I think it is some food for thought.
it's a great line, but a typo
at 12:30am my post should begin with the word "It".
An experiment:
trying to type in white.
Damn, I love this thread. I'm stuck between shouting "Yes, YES!" to so many things - notably Ann Patchett (she's solid proof that smart people can be incredibly kind), Hunter Thompson, Hiaasen, Ross McDonald, Lawrence Block.
I just found a favorite in hardback at a used book store - "If On a Winter's Night A Traveller" by Italo Calvino. I won't even try to explain it - it's brilliant and a favorite of anyone who loves to read.
I read it on a train going from Florence to Vienna and it captures me every time I read it.
Also - great for smart summerish readng (or anytime)
"The Flanders Panel" by Arturo Perez-Reverte and I hear his latest one ("Queen of the South" ) is very good. Art, chess, history and mystery.
"The Secret History" By Donna Tart. I haven't reread it but it was great the first time.
"The Laughing Policeman " and others in the series by Sjowall and Wahloo.
Not to be confused with the bad Americanized movie of the name.
Jnwillem Van De Wetering is a favorite, too.
"Never Mind the Pollacks" by the one-of-a-kind Neal Pollack. I shouldn't read it at night - I keep laughing out loud.
Ditto with the new Molly Ivins. I'm also tucking into one of the four volume in the set of George Orwell's essays. It's just the thing for these propaganda filled times.
Reviews are good on the new Carl Hiaasen and one called "Ghost Writer" by John Harwood . Those are on my wish list. With a whole lot of other things.
Oh - and I'll add a perennial favorite -- "Bird by Bird" by Annie Lamott. It's a small wonder.
Hey, I wanted to clarify whhat I said upthread about "Ulysses," lest I face the wrath of Rorschach or Thersites.
I think everyone who's interested in literature ought to read it, definitely. Joyce was a fine writer and there's a lot of good stuff in it...even to someone like me, who doesn't accept its masterpiece status. I got a lot out of reading it...including the aspects I didn't like.
I just know that sometimes people get psyched out by a book's reputation...especially a "difficult" one. Sometimes people don't feel there are valid reasons NOT to like a book so influential, and they won't trust their own feelings...which is too bad. I think it's just as unfortunate to unthinkingly admire something as to unthinkingly reject it.
Personally, if I want linguistic inventiveness, classical allusion, postmodern playfulness, emotional depth, brilliant writing, philosophical profundity, and lots of bad puns...I'll just go and read old "Krazy Kat" cartoons! But that's just me...your mileage may vary.
Well, pooh - I wanted to make a comment about Cryptonomicon but I wanted to make it spoiler-safe; can we not use html to change font color?
I want to second (third or fourth) the rec for the Pullman trilogy. I have no idea why that's marketed as a kids' series, other than the fact that the protags are youthful. Wonderful fabulous glorious etc etc.
Backslider--I must confess to a level of disappointment at getting no response to my brief vignette on smoking up with Kermit Ruffins in the 9th Ward, mentioned way upthread...
rorschach | Email | Homepage | 07.18.04 - 12:29 am | #
Must've missed it, my brother. Very cool, though still not as cool as me smoking up with Willie BY GOD Nelson on his bus. But very cool nonetheless. And as for Steve Earle's rant at Bush, hell, he does that every show. I love his music - have since I heard the first chords of "Guitar Town" in my mom's car back in '86 - but I do wonder if he's getting a bit too polemic with his stuff. His next record is called Revolution Starts Now apparently. Next to Billy Bragg, he's the closest thing we come to a modern Woody Guthrie, but still...
Not to steal backslider's thunder, but I'd recommend "Hit Men," by Frederick Dannen.
Philalethes | Email | Homepage | 07.18.04 - 12:30 am | #
Ah, excellent recommendation. Anything by Dannen is required reading. Vicious and brutal but all too unfortunately truthful.
Philawhatever - do you have anything against slithy toves?
Phila & Backslider:
Waaaaaaay OT: You want specific? I want the scoop on Elektra 1977-1982. Thinking about a writing project based on it.
"Mystery Train" by Greil Marcus - one I forgot. It might be worth it just for the story about Little Richard being on the Dick Cavett Show.
"In Patagonia" - by Bruce Chatwin.
Pure magic.
Phila--I understand what you are saying, and I think I might have wound up with the same opinions, except that I had the privilege of reading the book at one point under the direction of a genius Marxist who had written a couple of books on Ulysses.
He got all the modernist tricks, and got why they were so completely revolutionary especially in their time, and got the anti-imperialist threads that run throughout the book and yet tend to elude most critics.
Plus, he got the jokes, which may be the most important thing.
Anyway, de gustibus non disputandum.
Great thread. Wonderful suggestions.
What I've read so far this summer (in the order in which they were read):
Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World - by Adrienne Mayor
Rome and the Barbarians, 100 BC - AD 400 - by Thomas S. Burns
Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era - by Nicole Etcheson
Whisker of Evil - by Rita Mae Brown
Ten Big Ones - by Janet Evanovich
The Accusers - by Lindsey Davis
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling (a re-read after seeing the movie, wanted to check out what they had changed in the screen adaptation)
Tom Jones - by Henry Fielding (half-way through it right now)
On other points in the thread:
I give three thumbs up for the Aubrey/Maturin novels (hell, I'll borrow a thumb to praise these. I've read the first 18 and they are wonderful. I can't bring myself to read the last two because, well, when I finish them, there are no more. Perhaps I'm insane.
For a really odd mystery novel, I like the Mongo series by George C. Chesbro. What's not to like about a former circus acrobat midget turned criminology professor/detective? The series starts off as just a rather quirky detective series, but then lurches into science fiction with books like "The Fear in Yesterday's Rings" and "The Beasts of Valhalla." I used/borrowed/stole the midget professor aspect in a series I once pitched at Universal. They liked it well enough to commission five scripts, which were all written, but then the project fell apart.
Philalethes, if you don't like the books I like, you're just a big giant dork! Worse: a dorky-dork dorkhead from the Planet Dork.
(As you can see, I am a black-belt master of Literary Argumentation. Hi-keeba! (I of course in reality see your point an accept it in a style befitting my rank as a gentleman. Or something.))
Do you want to know who is a real genius? Pie. She snookered the trolls brilliantly tonight -- they are being baited and embarrassed in the thread above while here we are in the basement having a pretty fun and largely unpestered talk. ALL HAIL PIE!
My last, I swear. But here's one for the ages. And for fans of Krazy Kat.
Any of Don Marquis' "Archy and Mehitabel" books.
Therites--I'll second that. Yesterday the tag-team nailed them with Hawking and theoretical physics, and today it's literature.
Substance: The anti-troll.
Waaaaaaay OT: You want specific? I want the scoop on Elektra 1977-1982. Thinking about a writing project based on it.
NYMary | Email | Homepage | 07.18.04 - 12:42 am | #
Wow. That is specific. Hmmm. I'll have to think on that one. Again, I recommend the above mentioned books on the development of the rock music industry from a business side, just for background. Elektra founder Jac Holzman, along with Gavan Daws, has written a history called Follow The Music. I haven't read it, so I don't know how quality it is or how slanted. You might want to check for individual biographies of the bands on the label - notably Linda Ronstadt, Metallica, Warren Zevon, X, Motley Crue, and The Eagles. The only bio of any of those groups I've read is Crue; even though I loathe the band and it's brand of brain-dead, mysoginistic rock, it's pretty enlightening read, particularly concerning the early '80s L.A. poodle metal scene.
Now, if you're serious about the paper, I can personally help you in one way. The Georgia Satellites - my personal favorite rock band from the '80s - were on Elektra, and I'm on a "howdy, how ya been" basis with frontmen/guitarists Dan Baird and Rick Richards. They both told me they were treated okay when "Keep Your Hands To Yourself Hit", but the label's intrest evaporated after that, and the band's final album In The Land Of Salvation And Sin was basically sat on. I can put you in touch.
OK, I keep thinking of things, too.
Great for traveling from your armchair or a blanket on the beach --
"Notes From a Small Island" -- How Bill Bryson manages to be sweet and cranky at the same time eludes me but he does it. And everything else I've read by him was good to excellent, too.
And anything by Calvin Trillin - but his books on food are truly hilarious. I'm looking forward to getting the new one of somic verse about Bush.
Well known fellows, but sho knows. Maybe people have missed them.
"Kings of Infinite Space", "Mountains Beyond Mountains" and "Caesar" by Christian Meier.
Drop me an email & I'll tell you what I'm working on.
First man in Rome was an excellent series.
Politics of Truth by Wilson and Against All Enemies by Clarke. Some have said they come across as self-congratulatory and smug, but I don't think they could have spoken with any other kind of voice. I appreciated the insights into the nuts and bolts of politics and diplomacy.
Stupid White Men by Moore reads just like the man talks. His negative take on Clinton surprised me (wasn't aware of Moore in 2000, came to this party late). (Saw Fahrenheit 9/11 and all is forgiven though.)
Mysteries? Dick Francis, Reginald Hill, Dorothy Sayers.
Taking note of Middlemarch and intend to read it sometime in January after President Kerry sends the neocons to Gitmo and I can stop obsessing over these blogs.
Pie is doing wonderful things tonight.
I just wandered up to the next post and she is just mopping the floor with the trolls.
And here, things are lovely. Just lovely.
Splendid pie
Everybody's Somebody's Fool by Ed Gorman,
Desert Wives by Betty Webb,
Sweet Caroline by Con Sellers,
and just started reading Acts of Vengeance by Frank Smith
Fiction (?): Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood. Dystopian prophecy aside, the woman has a wicked wit.
I've never read Geek Love. But I have read Freaks Amour, a 60's cult classic.
By the way, My Pet Goat can be found in the Reading Mastery Level 2 Storybook 1 (for ages 4-
. Funny thing, I was reading the reviews earlier and now Amazon is recommending it to me.
Backslider - I haven't heard any of Kinky's music yet, sadly... maybe after my next paycheque, I'll pick some up.
If I may pipe up again... If on a Winter's Night A Traveller was fabulous and delicious. And the mentions of Krazy Kat got me thinking also of the Peanuts Collection, and Little Nemo in Slumberland by the incomparable Winsor McCay (his Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend is good for a laugh, too). Oh! and Lynda Barry makes me laugh and cry, often at the same time. And Aaron McGruder's Boondocks collection, A Right to be Hostile. Whew!
Charlotte,
Get his self-titled second album. His debut, Sold American, was recently re-released with some live bonus tracks, but I still think Kinky Friedman is the best collection of songs. Also, Old Testaments & New Revelations is a good place to start. Not so much a greatest hits or best-of, as it's a collection of live versions of most of his better tunes, including a version of "They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore" from the Don Imus show.
Someone upthread mentioned Graham Greene and I think that we're back living in his world. Given the news Salon is reporting about Haiti and the meddling the Republicans have done in that sad state, I recommend "The Comedians". It's sad that Greene has become relevant again. I would also recommend "The Power and the Glory" in honor of the hacks W has hired to look after Central America and in honor of our clients in Iraq and the accuracy [sic] of their stories of WMDs -- "Our Man in Havana". Of course "The Quiet American" is a little painful to read these days as the rose petals fail to appear in Iraq.
I hate to say this about a fellow poster, but "NYMAry" has made some very questionable choices in her personal life which should cause reasonable people to doubt her sanity. Specifically, she is closely associated with certain half-baked characters of dubious reputation.
I will say no more.
Ellroon
I love Dorothy Sayers, though I think the Wimsey series declined a bit after she got too heavily into Harriet Vane.
I like Dick Francis a lot, but mainly the stuff from the first half of his writing career. Unfortunately, I think he's gotten a little stodgy with age.
Ever read any Desmond Bagley? Some of his stuff is very good, particularly "The Snow Tiger" and "Running Blind."
Charlotte - Calvino AND Lynda Barry. That is excellent taste. I have a framed poster of "Poodle With a Mohawk" ("He's small, he's black, he's mad as hell.")
I bet no one else here can claim that.
Kinky Friedman is great. I met him briefly a few years ago and he was very nice and very funny. I said I liked the cover of his new novel and he said it was too "Goddamn much like a Tama Janowitz cover" to suit him. Or words to that effect.
Great guy, all around.
Wow, I missed a great thread! Without reading all the above, I didn't see mention of Mann's The Magic Mountain, long and dense, but transporting, at least to me. I reread it every few years, in the summertime. I'm also rereading a lot of Bruce Chatwin this summer; What Am I Doing Here?, a collection of short travel writings, is a good intro for the unfamiliar.One of the most strangely calming writers ever.And I need all of that I can get these days..
Oh, great. Outed by Thersites. I knew we'd regret the damn wireless router and dueling laptops....
No more yellowcake for you, Thersites.
Toonscribe,
About 2 weeks ago, I re-read Janet Evanovich's Four to Score. I think I got up to Eight in her Stephanie Plum series. I love those books. You can re-read and re-read.
Alfred Hitchcock presents magazines publishes short mystery stories. My favorite auther there is Jas A. Petrin. Some years back, he wrote a fantastic story. The main characters had an adventure with a Komodo Dragon. Oh, it was the funniest thing I had ever read!
Somehow I've been unable to read the Illuminatus Trilogy more than 5 times. Over the years I've read a lot of followon books--but I have to confess I only got through the first 50 pages or so of FW.
Just finished "The Victorious Opposition" by Harry Turtledove, which is alternate history and in it's telling of a Hitler alternate in America has a lot of parallels to the present era. But it is well into a long series wherein the South won the Civil War.
I also recently reread "2018, or the King Kong Blues" which is unfortunately out of print--satire from the 70's that effectively forecasts our current society (except the Internet, which it missed).
Mann's The Magic Mountain, long and dense, but transporting, at least to me.
I'll second that. A funnier book than it's often given credit for.
Can't resist other suggestions:
Empire Falls by Richard Russo - you'll be hooked.
Lisa Carey - Love in the Asylum was great fun, can't wait to read others of hers.
Jodi Picoult - Second Glance - riveting. She has some gems with a few dogs (the Pact comes to mind) but is so worth it when she connects (keeping faith, song of the humpack whale.)
Elinor Lipman - always fun.
Cloudsplitters and everything by Russell Banks - pure genius, though not uplifting.
Russo's Straight Man is also brutally funny, especially for academics.
I like Dick Francis a lot, but mainly the stuff from the first half of his writing career. Unfortunately, I think he's gotten a little stodgy with age. -- Toonscribe
I like Dick Francis, too....No, I really like Dick Francis, too. I have a bunch of his books which are kept with the Robin Cook books. Those both can be re-read many times... There was another jocky who wrote a book, maybe more, which was on the same mysterical lines as Dick Francis. I think his name is Shumacher? I know it started with S The one book I have of his was quite good. I went online one time to see if he had written anything else, but didn't find any.
You guys/gals do know that you are on a watch list now that you have shared your reading habits right?
Fuck-em:
Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush
by John W. Dean ISBN: 031600023X
Just finished: (for the second time)
The New Crusades: Constructing the Muslim Enemy
by Emran Qureshi, Michael A. Sells, Michael Anthony Sells ISBN: 0231126670
Illiteracy is a kind of blindness.
-- Ruth Rendell
Russo's Straight Man is also brutally funny, especially for academics.
The line about getting tenure being akin to winning a shit-eating contest is one of the funniest things I've ever read in my life.
"Nobody's Fool" is good, too - but not as biting.
Uncle $cam--
All I can picture is a rethug trying to get through The Magic Mountain looking for its subversive content. Now *that* would be piss funny.
I really liked Angels and Demons by the guy who wrote The DaVinci Code. It was better than DaVinci code and deals with the culmination of an alleged 500 year old feud between the Vatican and the Illuminati, a secret society of scientists and free thinkers with a mandate to avenge the persecution by the Vatican against Galileo.
Like the Davinci code, it's a fiction that attempts to link up bits of historical fact through a contemporary narrative.
You know, a great book that nobody has ever read - and is out of print - is "Satan and His Psychoanalysis, by the Unfortuneate Dr Kassler, JSPS" (by Jeremy Leven).
It's a fantasticly funny and sad and thoughtful novel, in the realm of Confederacy of Dunces and Catch-22, by a former neurologist who also wrote "Creator" (turned into the movie of the same name) and went on to write and direct Don Juan DeMarco. If anyone chances across it at a used book store, like Powells (they usually have a copy, sometimes in lit, sometimes in sci-fi), pick up a copy. It's worth your while.
hey, cool. just checked amazon and it's back in print now, for the insanely high price of $27.00. Click on "homepage" below to take you to the amazon page if you're curious. Anyway, you should be able to get a used copy for a buck or two.
I saw The Tin Drum mentioned up-thread, so I have to also recommend "Cat and Mouse" and "Dog Years" by Gunter Grass -- the other two parts of the Danzig Trilogy.
I also must recommend "The German Lesson" by Siegfried Lenz -- about a boy in reform school in post-war Germany who has to write an essay about The Joys of Duty and everything that happened in his small town during the war flashes back to him. Very powerful.
All of Stephenson's books since the Diamond Age have been in need of extreme editing. Bloated and egotistical. His reputation is almost as puzzling as Bush having an approval rating in double digits. Although not nearly as dangerous.
Yes, this is a fun thread. I see so many of my favorites mentioned by others! I don't mind Joyce at all, but he's not in my heart. Dostoyevsky is. I read The Crime and Punishment when I was fourteen, and it changed me for life.
Then I read everything else by him in a quick succession, but none in English. He may be a writer who is hard to understand without some immersion in the culture? Not that I'm Russian, either. And Turgenyev may be another one of those. He's a great writer, I think.
Jane Austen was totally crap as a translation, whereas in English her language has genius. So maybe some writers translate very poorly?
I am reading White Russian by Tom Bradby, a murder mystery set during the Russian Revolustion of 1917.
On deck, I have Skinny Dipping by Carl Hiassen and Lullaby by Chuck Paluhniuk.
Echidne--Interesting point about translation. I can completely see Austen losing everything when going into another language. Also, an interesting coincidence: I read C&P at 14--an early foray into non-required "heavy lit" for me.
Thersites and NYMary--For god's sake, didn't you see "Spiderman"? Don't you know how dangerous it is for superheroes to reveal the identities of their significant others?
(The movie ref leads me to make a political comment: Schwarzenegger actaully called his political opponents "girly men" in a speech today.)
As far as Thomas Mann goes--I can understand it, in a distant way, but generally find reading him to be a bit of a slog.
I am not a vampire literature fan, but a friend insisted I needed to read Laurell Hamilton's books. I think I read 4 or 5 of her Anita Blake vampire slayer books and found them pleasantly frightening.
Thomas Mann seems to me like two different writers depending on which book you read. And rorschach, I think that translation is a problem for all writers who are called stylists and obviously also for poets. But that's one of the nice thing about learning foreign languages: all the extra literature that opens up then.
Good night!
Rorschach
Point taken, but it's well known that supervillains stop reading blog comments at around 11PM.
Okay, I don't even have the patience to scroll through this whole thread, and I'm adding to it?
Chalk it up to ego.
I've also been reading a lot of disappointing stuff lately.
But the last three good books I've read:
The marriage of Sense and Soul, byKen Wilber;
Sunwaifs by Sydney van Scyoc;
The Moral Intelligence of Children, by Robert Coles
For dipping into briefly while waiting for things to load: The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear.
Before I started reading this thread, I thought I was the only one whose fate was sealed long before his birth by the invention of moveable type...
Recent studies indicate that people aren't reading as much as they used to, but you wouldn't know it on this site.
it is not a book. but it needs to be re-viewed.
VIETNAM: A TELEVISION HISTORY.
now available from pbs on dvd.
i had watched this when it first aired back in 1983, i think. amazing how much i missed. especially view disk 2. will make you think that gwbush model has been that great democrat, lbjohnson.
listen to the cadences. listen to the cant. that is what we have been ignoring - gwb has modeled himself on lbj.
Have to side with warbaby vs rorschach on the question of Mason & Dixon. Slow to get started (although the opening page is actually quite beautiful) but I was actually moved to tears by the end. Vineland is definitely much weaker than any of the others. On the other hand, I wouldn't trade a sentence at random from the first three books for all of Stephensons last 3 books.
Also, I second third etc the Pullman trilogy. And check out Sabriel, Lireal and Abhorsen by Garth Nix.
Oldwhitelady
Yeah, Willie Shumaker (not sure about the spelling) perhaps the greatest American jockey. He turned to writing after being paralyzed in his DUI car wreck. I think he wrote four or five books, but I also seem to remember that he died a couple of years ago (though I could be wrong). I've got a couple of his books buried in the house here somewhere. My wife has read them and says they're pretty good, but I haven't gotten to them yet.
By the way, I read that Kinky F. is running for Texas Gov. with the motto " How Hard Can It Be?". Any truth to this, Texans?
===============
Any of Don Marquis' "Archy and Mehitabel" books.
mg_65 | Email | Homepage | 07.18.04 - 12:48 am | #
ohmygodiminlove...
Albert Champion
Actually, it is also a book. Sitting on my bookshelf is "Vietname: A History -- A Companion to the PBS Television Series" by Stanley Karnow. This is not your usual companion book -- 670 pages of text with 82 pages of appendices and an index.
Have to side with warbaby vs rorschach on the question of Mason & Dixon. Slow to get started (although the opening page is actually quite beautiful) but I was actually moved to tears by the end.
It was I who argued in favor of M&D, and warbaby who argued against. Just for the record.
Aaargh!
Vietnam -- not Vietname.
Must be getting late. I'm too tired to proofread until it's too late.
If you buy a lot of books, used or new, bookfinder.com is a very lovely metasearch engine of web booksellers.
From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Civilisation, by Jacques Barzun
I think my comments are some sort of natural coda to these threads (on account of my impeccable timing), but if anyone is still out there, you might want to check out Mil Millington books. I've heard mixed reviews, but his website is hysterically funny. I'll attempt a link in the URL box..
DAMN! I did it!! I feel so empowered!
In tribute to Orwell, who I am is a favorite amongst many of us here, let me just say that I was very moved to hear that Spain had a ceremony today celebrating those who fought in the Spanish Civil War.
"After so many years of silence, I never expected to see a night like tonight before I died," said Vazquez Gallego through her tears.
...
They were all old Republicans -- fighters and supporters of Spain's short-lived Second Republic, proclaimed in 1931 and brought to an end by the Civil War and the victory of Franco, the general who ruled Spain until his death in 1975.
Gathered near the stage, they sang the old anthem of the Republic, waved its flag and roared "Viva la Republica!" in between songs and readings. Thousands of younger people cried.
Not against Mason & Dixon, just not as cohesive as Gravity's Rainbow. Needs editing.
Thanks Backslider! I'll commit those album names to one of my trusty Post-Its.
Lucky_Ducky - damn, I envy you. That's one of my favorite Barry cartoons! I recently gave my sister One! Hundred! Demons! as a bridal shower gift, and she told me it was the best gift of the lot. 
One last one before bed - Richard Adams' The Plague Dogs (a childhood favorite I found at a book sale). Watership Down was good too, but (like Barry) I have a weakness for dogs.
'Night all! Thanks for the great thread!
Warbaby--I take the plenitude of M&D to be a purposeful move, to capture the feel of the 18th century novel (just as he was doing with the language he used). Editing would make it tighter and more "modern," but less "authentic" as far as the era he was trying to recreate goes.
"Viva la Republica!" -- That's beautiful.
Thanks for the story, Rorschach. Now I'll have to re-read "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "Homage to Catalonia."
you are most welcome, toonscribe. Reading of it got me all choked up in a way I didn't expect...
Glad to share. We have precious few good moments these days and need to share them whenever possible.
Currently reading:
The Preservationist by David Maine; The Pig Who Sang to the Moon by Jeffrey Masson (based on what I've read so far, I can't recommend this enough); The Cave by Jose Saramago; and Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa.
Recent reads I'd pass on include Transmission by Hari Kunzru and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Vargas Llosa.
mena,
I'm a fan of Mil's website, too. The book, Things My Girlfriend & I Have Argued About, is okay. Not earth-shattering, but a decent way to kill time. Love the website, though. Another instace of looking into someone else's life and thinking, "Goddamn, I'm glad I'm single."
I just finished _The True Account_, by Howard Frank Mosher. It's a fictional account of a Vermont expedition in tandem (or competition) with Lewis and Clark. Quite funny.
Now working on _The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt_, by William Nothdurft, about a modern expedition to Egypt to discover the dinosaur bones found only in monographs, as the complete skeletons had been destroyed by Allied bombing in WWII. Good so far.
Yeah I'll Second that, Backslider! By the by, fyi, I visited your website a while back and tried to leave a comment, but it wouldn't let me.
Wading through "The Great War" series by Harry Turtledove. Alternate history in which the south and north battled to a very ugly stalemate in the 1860's and continued the slaughter through (so far) the first world war.
North America sides with the Germans and ends up invading and taking parts of southern Canada. The south sides with England and France and ends up with Cuba.
Bitterness, hate, slaves in the south adopting Marx as their saviour and Socialists with a strong presence in Congress. Teddy Roosevelt is president and thinking of a third term, Custer is a lechorous war hero and most people live in abject misery.
Sounds a lot like what the Republicans really want for our country.
Plain Heathen Mischief by Martin Clark. Had me rolling on the floor laughing.
1. Joseph Stiglitz's "Globalization and Its Discontents"- duh
2. Greg Palast "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy"- stolen election
3.Howard Zinn "A People's History of the United States"- history from the other pov
4.Hunter Thompson "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72"- classic
5.Thomas Walker ed. "Reagan vs the Sandinistas: The Undeclared War on Nicaragua"- you should know it by now
6. Sam Hamill ed. "Poets Against the War"- yeah!
7.Thomas Sugrue "The Origins of the Urban Crisis"- depressing
8,Jonathan Glover "Humanity"- more depresssing, but very good
9. Jared Diamond "Guns, Germs, and Steel"- why not dabble in anthropology?
10. Thomas Paine "Rights of Man," "Common Sense"- classics, my favorite "founding father"
11. Douglas Adams- The Hitchhikers Trilogy plus "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish," "Mostly Harmless"- should be classics, read them many times
12.Robert Heinlein "Expanded Universe" - uh, can anyone say fascist?
13. Jules Verne "Le Village Aérien"- obscure, dealt with Darwinism
14. Irwin, Conard, Skoble, eds. "The Simpsons and Philosophy"- uhhmmm philosophy
15. Confucius "The Analects"- classic
16. Daniel Goleman "Emotional Intelligence"- Western philosophy with psychiatric veneer
17. Niccolo Machiavelli "The Prince"-classic, right wing ideals
18. Nietzche "Beyond Good & Evil"- did you know he didn't hate Jews?
19. Plato "The Republic"- I think he admired Sparta, in a sense, too much
20. Herodotus "The Histories"- fun read
21. Homer "The Odyssey"- hey, it was like a religion
22. Heidegger "Being and Time"- was his philosophy great, or was he just a nazi?
23.Immanuel Kant "The Critique of Pure Reason"- ho hum
24. Aristotle "Nichomachean Ethics"- he was a wishy washy kinda' guy, (just kidding)
25, John Stuart Mill "On Liberty," The Subjection of Women," "Utilitarianism"- again, classics
26. Max Weber "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Other Writings"- more classics
27. Eugene Kamenka ed. "The Portable
Karl Marx"- hey, the guy was prescient, (minus that utopian thing)
28. Josef Pieper "Leisure the Basis of Culture" - Catholic philososhy
29. Martin Rhonheimer "Natural Law and Pratctical Reason; A Thomistic View of Moral Humanity"- liberals beware; really right wing Catholic philosophy; know thine enemy, or was it enema?
30. David Wootton, ed "Political Writings of John Locke"- er, I read too much...
31 Abbie Hoffman aka Free "Revolution for the Hell of It"- we're sheep people
32. Abbie Hoffman "Woodstock Nation"- I'll say it again, we're sheep.
And this is just off the top of my head, read a bunch more, several are re-reads. I want to get "My Life" by Clinton , the book by Clarke, "The Price of Loyalty" by Paul O'Neill, etc. and I'm supposed to read "Animal Crackers" and "Vanity Fair" for my book club.
For a perspective on what's going on (and what may happen down the road), a little background may be worth it:
Stephen Kinzer, "All The Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror"
Happy reading, folks. I'm about to start on either "Bushwhacked" or "Against All Enemies" ... eenie, meenie, minie, moe...
Cheers,
Hey, for mysteries try any of these guys (if ya haven't already)
I would add Ian Rankin and Val McDermid to that list. Peter Robinson has some good books, also. Then there's Dennis Lehane, Joe Lansdale and Rick Riordan.
Some of the James Lee Burke Robicheaux novels are excellent, but I have a special fondness for the non-Robicheaux Lost Get-Back Boogie, just for its final paragraph. I get depressed when I read Burke. I'll never write that well.
First I'd like to point out that all the works that have the name of "The Secret History", stole the name from a little known Byzantine historian named Michael Psellus. He actually writes an interresting and scathing account of Christianity's favorite Emporor, Justinian, and his wife Theordora.
Right now I'm rereading "Great Expectations" which is quite possibly the greatest thing ever written in the English Language, and a composite of Greek Sophists that was just released in an inexpenisve volume. It's really convient because most of what is in it is not otherwise available right now, and if it is, it is generally in it's native Greek. If you are interrested in Philosophy, you should check this out because it is interresting how many of the philosophical questions that are around today (i.e. can morality be tought?, is there anything called objectivity?, is knowledge possible?) were first posed by people almost 2500 years ago with no other people to base their ideas on. Much American Philosophy now is based on 18th and 19th century philosophy, which in turn was based on Renasiance thinking. That in turn was based on Ancient and Midevil philosophy which was based on Roman thought. That, of course, would not have been possible without Greek philosophy which influenced almost philosophy. Then Greek philosophy was based on the ideas of Greek sophists, although generally a refutation of which. Try reading so current Pragmatist's view on epistomology and then read so Greek views on the same thing. There are some definate similarities. Some of those Greeks were some smart people.
Fat City by Leonard Gardner - gorgeous prose, like one long poem.
Letters to a Young Poet - Rilke
The Blaue Reiter Almanac - edited by Kandinsky & Franz Marc
MUST READS.
Bluto W. Bush - The Orchid Thief is nothing like the Adaptation movie. When you read it you'll see why. It's really good, mostly it's about obsessions.
If we're talking older books, well, hey, my list is way too short.
I haven't seen In Praise of the Stepmother or The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto by Vargas Llosa mentioned by anyone. These are hysterically funny books, about an amateur scholar of erotica and pervert and his beloved new middle-aged bride, and his son by a previous marriage. Kinky and perverted but not smutty, all of the Don's fantasies revolve around his wife - this is what a love story should be, and most guys love these books too.
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgokov is one of my favorites, but I'm about the only person I know who read it and loved it.
There's one that's so weird and good that I recently re-read it; it's called Santa Evita, I believe the author is Garcia (my copy's on loan) and it's about the travels and movements of Evita Peron's venerated preserved corpse after the fall of the Peron regime, when the corpse became a political hot potato.
The Long Home and Provinces of Night by William Gay are both great if you like Faulknerian plots and characters but don't have the patience for Faulkner.
As for Faulkner, my favorites were As I Lay Dying and The Wild Palms/If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem. But everyone who can put up with him has a different favorite Faulkner.
And just about anything at all by Rushdie, excepting The Ground Beneath Her Feet. Fury also got panned, but in the wake of 9/11, it has resonance. All the others are better than these two.
Anything by John Irving.
William Manchester's Churchill biography (only 2 out of a planned 3 volumes have been - or will be - published), and A World Lit Only by Fire.
The Little Big Man books by Thomas Berger.
Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy.
The Thomas Cahill books, How the Irish Saved Civilization, etc.
So many good books, so little time.
Had me rolling on the floor laughing
That's what that Sedaris fella does to me. "Me Talk Pretty" busted my gut. "Dress Your Family" was enjoyable also. His relentless back and forth from Garrison folksy to Flannery spooky is a blast.
Plentitude?
I thought it was padding. My mistake.
Here I thought it might have something to do with fewer people being able to finish M&D than Gravity's Rainbow, but I see that is probably just a widespread failure to appreciate the authentic 18th century plentitude of the narrative.
(the preceeding text should be read while trying to imitate John Cleese to get the best effect)
All this time, I thought Pynchon was just pottering away at his desk, lost in the busyness of writing, reassuring solidity of fountain pen in hand, whiling away the hours, writing by the pound, and it turns out that he was actually creating mounds and mounds of authentic 18th century plentitude.
Serves me right. I wouldn't know an 18th century plentitude if it bit me in the lower back.
Well, thank god he wasn't writing about 11th century expansivity. His audience would have ended up dancing on the head of a pin.
I'm re-reading "The Andromeda Strain" by Michael Crichton after seeing the movie for the first time. Its about an alien lifeform that gets introduced to the earth through a satellite that has crashed in a remote area of New Mexico, killing everyone in a small farming village except a baby and an old drunk man. The government struggles to contain the outbreak and figure out how to keep the new lifeform from multiplying. Good summer reading IMHO.
I read A World Lit Only By Fire, and enjoyed it, but have since been told by a couple historians that it was crap and got everything wrong, so what do I know (shrug). I love Thomas Berger; the Feud is one of my favorites. I thought I heard it was going to be made into a movie, but I don't know what happened with that.
Tom,
didn't Alfred North Whitehead say that western philosophy is just a footnote to Plato?
What was the name of the book that had "a composite of Greek Sophists that was just released in an inexpenisve volume"?
Wow, Warbaby, it's just my take on it. No need for the bitterness.
Sorry to have offended.
Just a reply to some of acefsw.
Thomas Paine is America's favorite forgotten hero. He died during the French Revolution because he was so disgusted with how America turned out. He died in France penniless and unknown.
Plato is difficult to read in general because of the way to write. His only work worth reading is "The Symposium" which is interresting because it is sort of a historical work.
Herodotus is more interresting than Thucydides, but not nearly as accurate. One thing of not is how he writes of things he knew nothing about. For instance him saying that people cannibis "howled with pleasure" or that the extreme north was constantly bombarded with ash (snow). Thucydides was more importante to history, however.
If you are going to read Homer, read the Illiad. Much more influencial and much more interresting. The dynamics of warfare have changed little in 3000 years. The whole work covers just about 2 weeks of this "war".
I don't know why anyone would read Heidegger. It is an extremely difficult read and there is little payoff.
Kant is the most importat philosopher since Locke or more probably Descartes. Probably only behind Aristotle and Plato and in America, William James.
Aristotle was actually more important to the development of philosophy than Plato who is more liked now. This is because much of Plato's work wasn't "known" until the Renissance. If Plato was well known before then, he'd probably make Aristotle little known.
I am not a vampire literature fan, but a friend insisted I needed to read Laurell Hamilton's books. I think I read 4 or 5 of her Anita Blake vampire slayer books and found them pleasantly frightening.
Stop reading them now. They go rapidly downhill from there. The only book I have EVER returned to a bookstore was Narcissus in Chains. It was that bloody awful. Stephenson has nothing on Hamilton's ego and bloat. What makes it worse is that she has half the talent and can't spell for anything.
acefsw, dig the list. Is the Diamond book really anthropology though? it sort of combines geography, history and plant biology with anthropology and probably other disciplines...very interesting book. never thought of the major axis of the continents as having anything to do w/ technological supremacy...now it seems pretty obvious.
anyone read any robert goddard? i was thinking about mystery writers i like and remembered that i liked his book 'Beyond Recall'...but i read it years ago so don't remember. dashiell hammett is obviously tops for the old school hard-boiled detective novel...i saw the film version of 'the thin man' on cable the other day & was reminded how much i LOVE the book.
i think 'The Da Vinci Code' is worth reading because it's such a fast read. Definitely not literature, though, just an entertaining way to spend an evening. if nothing else i learned about the number phi...
AS FOR THEORY, haven't read any Zizek. i'm kinda light on theory although i like it. BUT I got to take a class w/ Fredric Jameson last year. High. Point. Of. My. Education. We read Adorno (among other things). Anyone on here partial to the Frankfurt School?
have to borrow the ivins from my mom (I gave everyone in my family an anti-bush book for xmas, that was hers). read the al franken, laughed out loud. a couple of silly parts though that could have been excised. greg palast book floored me. i'd like to read 'house of bush, house of saud'.
books...such a huge huge topic...and i'm falling over with sleep...oh well, most likely no one will see my post this late...
what else have i been reading? not much lately - but besides the diamond book and all my net reading, i have pulled my collection of mark twain short stories from the shelf...what a cynic...he would not be half surprised at the current state of world affairs.
thanks for the thread, pie. g'nite all
Any high-end porn by Taschen, the Pompideau exhibit book on Cocteau (unfortunately, does not include all his cartoons), Eva (not a book but who can defy it?), Military Incompetence ("Why the American Military Doesn't Win") by Richard Gabriel, Lost Japan by Alex Kerr (a must), Heinlein & LeGuin & Atwood, War Stars by H Bruce Franklin (the fucking bible of American miltech the-victim-is-the-aggressor mythology), anything (but especially Paranoid Style and Social Darwinism) by Richard Hofstadter, re-reading Said's Orientalism, snippets from various bricks of Chomsky, A Nation on Trial by Finkelstein & Birn, Complete Works of Albrecht Dürer and various things by Giger, On the Laws of Japanese Painting by Henry P Bowie, certain blogs and periodicals, and tea leaves.
incroyable--
Jameson is a genius, and I use his work all the time in my own writing. You are lucky!
The Frankfurt school has its good points, but in general I think they rather sell out Marxism in their fear and distrust of the common folk--easy to forgive, given their recent experience with fascism, but still something you have to bear in mind when reading them.
Anyway, Jameson rocks, and I am full of envy.
i just had to reply to tom...
heidegger does actually have quite a bit to offer.
sat in on jameson's seminar this spring at UCLA (not the other class i referred to): topic was time - readings incl. Augustine, Aristotle, Heidegger, Ricoeur, Marx & some cognitive science...& other stuff, but that's all i looked at...amazing. h.'s vocabulary is idiosyncratic, of course, but his ideas about time are very interesting to me, well worth the time to tease them out from the labyrinth of 'Heidegger words'...
acefsw, If you want to wait until tomorrow, I can tell you, but I have the book at work and have been reading it there. If you go to Boarders it is only like $14, but I'll have to get back to you. I'm fairly certain that it was released on Penguin classics but I might be mistaken.
Western philosophy is not a footnote to Plato. It would be more accurate to say Aristotle is a footnote to Philosophy. He was much more influencial until recent times. By that I mean until the 20th century. But in all honesty, philosophy now just tries to answer slight variations of the questions posed by the ancient Greeks. They dictated where philosophy would go... unbeknownst to them. The philosophers were just trying to respond to the sophists who were a generation before them.
I for instance, since I am a pragmatist, am more influenced by Protagoras than I am Plato. Protagoras was a realitivist (much like modern Pragmatists although they won't admit that they are realtivists).
rorschach, yeah, that was the one thing about adorno that really bugged me...his distaste for jazz...he was too obsessed with the [very real] obsession of late capitalism w/ 'the new' at the expense of 'the good'...he couldn't see that w/in the crass big constantly new world (that is only so much crasser bigger newer since adorno's death) there are little micro-pockets of genius and freedom from overdetermination and reification...........like (some) jazz.
I don't know why anyone would read Heidegger. It is an extremely difficult read and there is little payoff.
"Kant is the most importat philosopher since Locke or more probably Descartes."
I was joking, he answered both Descarte and Hume.
"Aristotle was actually more important to the development of philosophy than Plato who is more liked now. This is because much of Plato's work wasn't "known" until the Renissance. If Plato was well known before then, he'd probably make Aristotle little known.
Well, Plato, was and always has been really popular because of his idea of the Forms, which jibes well with xtian philosphy, while Aristotle was grounded more in reality.
I'll admit that I am at least far to influenced by my Jesuit college in reference to Heidegger. They all hate him (I can't really figure out why, other than the obvious), but compared to Kant, or even to Gothe or Shiller (although they aren't philosophers), I don't think he is that important. He just isn't worth the trouble of reading, unlike Locke, for example.
Is the Diamond book really anthropology though? it sort of combines geography, history and plant biology with anthropology and probably other disciplines
Yes, that's why I liked it. Um, any study of humankind, in my mind, is anthropology.
"But in all honesty, philosophy now just tries to answer slight variations of the questions posed by the ancient Greeks."
That was Whitehead's point.
Ya, also like I said, it is impossible to underestimate the influence that Plato not being know to people in the Middle ages had. All (and I don't like using such definate words like that, but in this case it is accurate) was based on Aristotle. He was unknown to the educated elite until the Renissance when the Venicians "liberated" their allies in Constatanople. Had he been known to people in Europe in the Middle Ages, they would have used him, but he wasn't. That is why Christianity, as a philosophical concept is so similar to Aristotle. Try comparing him to Augistine, for example.
I'm just an anti-Heideggerean. Surely he was influencial, but that is generally so that people can attack him. He is popular to hate. Perhaps it's justified, but I guess I'm just too much of a Protagoras Realitivist to answer that.
"If you want to wait until tomorrow, I can tell you, but I have the book at work and have been reading it there."
Thanks, I'll check in tomorrow... always like a good philosophy read.
"Try comparing him to Augistine, for example."
I agree, just pointing out that once he was known, he proved more appealing than Aristotle, because of his "faith based" views.
Amazing how the trolls flee when the topic is books. There's no evidence on this thread that any of the trolls, including the pseudo-erudite Mr. Patterson, ever crack open a book of any type.
Though it does explain why all of their "information" comes from Rush and O'Reilly. Because reading is hard and thinking is harder.
acefsw, you're right. i really am so tired that my mind is not working correctly. of course it's anthropology...
rorschach, re jameson, i just wanted to say that the guy is incredible. every seminar is fantastic. he's really easy to talk to, as well. i went to his office hours once and he wasn't intimidating at all. he's not warm and fuzzy but he is NOT some ivory tower intellectual. i did have to track him down all summer because he forgot to put in my grade for the class! but that was ok
anyway i definitely was not worthy to be in his class but i got lucky. i did a presentation on schoenberg. it was so much fun.
the guy knows how to pull threads from so many disciplines together and weave them into a brilliant (and totally coherent) tapestry.
i have to be at work at 8 tomorrow so i'm signing off.
all this talk about books et cetera has made me think about whether i really want to drop out of my phd program...
ah well, tomorrow is another day
[/scarlett o'hara]
Bonne nuit
"Amazing how the trolls flee when the topic is books."
I'll read anything by Ann Coulter.
I would just like to point out, though, that I am a little biased. If I had been smart enough to take Ancient Greek in College as my language, I would have gone to graduate school for that field. I mean, just try to justify that the Greeks weren't cool after reading the Orestes trilogy by Sophocles. Then read Euripides, Aristophenes, Aeschylus, Xenophon, Thucydides, Homer, Herodetes, Plutarch, Sextus Empericus (although he is sort of technical), Diodorus, and the guy who wrote "The Campaigns of Alexander" whose name I forgot now and not feel the same as I do about the Greeks.
Also, I need to make a correction. It was Procopius, not Michael Psellus who wrote "The Secret History". My mistake. Psellus wrote what is now known as "Fourteen Byzantine Rulers". He wrote at a time when the Greeks were becoming familiar with having last names whereas Procopius wrote (in the 6th century) about 300 years before any greeks had a last name.
"i did a presentation on schoenberg"
Cool, not many people remember him.
I'm about to get myself in trouble here, but, with philosophy, I always liked Brand Blanshard. He gets very little notice these days, although he was one of the 20th century's finest.
"I mean, just try to justify that the Greeks weren't cool after reading the Orestes trilogy by Sophocles. Then read Euripides, Aristophenes, Aeschylus, Xenophon, Thucydides, Homer, Herodetes, Plutarch, Sextus Empericus (although he is sort of technical), Diodorus, and the guy who wrote "The Campaigns of Alexander"
You are preachin to the choir- have no idea why I love the stuff they wrote, because oftentimes it's timeless?
Campaigns of Alexander was by Arrian. I think. Dang, it's too late to remember stuff like that.
The Oresteia is Aeschylus, no? Oedipus is by Sophocles.
And Euripides quite simply rocks.
Ya, it is sort of interresting that Plato was more "faith based". There is a story, whether or not it is true is unknown that Protagoras was exiled because he wrote something like "as to the gods, I do not know whether or not they do exist". It is said that he died on his trip to Sicily after his exile from Athens.
It is somewhat amazing how similar the ancient Athenians were to contemporary America. In Aristophenes' "Birds" part of it takes place above Greece with a guy flying with a buch of birds. He sees a big city and wonders if it is Athens. He answeres himself by saying something like "I see no law courts in use, so it can't be."
America, however, is the heir to the British Empire, not the Athenian.
"I have tried to show finally—and this was the hardest task of all—that reasonableness, so often painted in dull, unattractive gray, is the most desirable of all human virtues. Though it involves discipline and restraint, which are always unpopular, its restraints are tickets of admission to a wider world of happiness, understanding, and effectiveness. It is indeed the great need of mankind."- Brand Blanshard rationalist
Ace, that would be my man Brand. LOL
I wonder what percentage of modern books are written by women? Forty percent? More? And what percentage of the modern books quoted here are by women?
Ten percent? Less?
I have gained an impression from various sources that while women read books by authors of both genders men tend not to read books by women on the whole. There are exceptions to this, of course, but I do see a difference in a lot of interviews about what people read. The chick lit argument doesn't explain this totally as there is something corresponding to chick lit for men and women tend not to read that stuff either. - Anyway, just a comment based on my curiosity, and now I'm going back to bed.
Yes, I'm to drunk to think correctly. It was Arrian who write "The campaigns of Alexander". Also, it was Aeschylus who wrote The Orestia, but it was the Oedipus to whcihc I was refering. The Oresteia wasn't nearly as good as the Oedipus trilogy.
I like it because of it's format, and it just was (probably) the best of the format. It showed how people were responsible for the actions that they were not even aware of. That is exactly how life is, even if those unknown actions are killing your dad and marrying your mom and having 4 kids by her. The idea of the "moral pollution" that that created is also interresting.
They do sound better in Greek. English has far too many constantants. Damn Germanic Languages.
"Protagoras was exiled because he wrote something like "as to the gods, I do not know whether or not they do exist".
Yep, you are correct, he definitely said it, but Socrates drank the hemlock tea.
"Yes, I'm to drunk to think correctly"
Hell, I'm too drunk to think correctly myself, unfortunately, reality has driven me to it.
Echidne makes a good point. I know that Toni Morrison and Amy Tan have been mentioned, and they do rock. I also like Alice Walker, though she's a bit lighter-weight.
Oddly, when I think of women whom I like to read, theory springs more readily to mind: Spivak, Wittig, Trinh T. Minh-ha. Also Audre Lorde.
Anyway, all these authors are extraordinarily intelligent and deserve a good read.
A few more to add: Lesle Marmon Silko, and Emma Goldman, and Rosa Luxemburg.
I would like to point out that the daughter of Michael Psellus, Anna Comnena, was also an extremely important Byzantine historian.
Plato likes to make out that because of his heresy, he died. If he had not said something so blasphmaeus, then he wouldn't have been exiled, and had he not been exiled, he wouldn't have been shipwrecked. The aforementioned book on sophists is of the opinion that this did not really happen.
Socretes had the chance of exile, but he chose not to take it. Living without a polis was far to great to him. I've actually heard arguments that Socretes never actually existsd. He was just a creation by Plato and Xenophon to further their ideas. This would make the inscriptional evidence diffictult to beleive, but it is still possible. Xenophon was about as full of himself as Plato was and they could have pulled it off.
Also, I highly recomend Xenophon's "Anabasis" or "Journey Up Country". It is really interresting.
If you want to read an interresting woman author, I reccomend Achee Min's "The red Azalea".
Jane Austen is still one of my favorite authors. Her characters were real, spot-on, just about every time. Her writing "touch" was so light, so delicate and elegant, and her tone so damned bitchy that I can't help loving her. That opening line from Pride and Prejudice is just priceless.
LJ--Damned right about Austen. At first, I could not see what the big deal was--and that is just her genius. She has that touch that you don't notice until later. Beautifully bitchy. Plus, the fact that she wrote a novel mocking the popular "gothic" novels of the day just strikes me as hilarious.
May I also say, both Brontes are excellent, and George Eliot's Middlemarch, as i've said before, is one of the greatest novels ever written.
I also am a fan of Woolf's To the Lighthouse and Orlando, but doub that many will come along with me there.
Ah, and here's a forgotten treasure: Djuna Barnes. Read her!
Anybody read "Falling Leaves: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter"
by Adeline Yen Mah? Interesting, westernized chinese perspective, (particularly the political climate at the time).
Depending on what genre you want, but here are a few suggestions:
William Gibson: Pattern Recognition - it's not cyberpunkt, and it shares more with Coupland's writing than Gibson's nromal writing, but it's well worth reading.
China Miéville: Perdido Street Station - grim science fantasy with a politcal bend (Miéville is a Socialist, and have made a list of recommendations of science fiction books for Socialists).
Elizabeth Moon: The Speed of Dark - Dwight Meredith of Wampum and I both agree - it's a fantastic book.
Douglas Coupland: Microserfs - I like Coupland's writing style, and I think this is his best book.
SALT - A World History, by Mark Kurlansky
I'm a rabid reader, I devour books. This one gave me my greatest reading pleasure in years. Brilliant exposition of the history of salt - which at one time (before they started drilling for oil) and found ways of making it, was more important to states and power than oil has ever been.
Totally engrossing, captivating, educating and entertaining.
Checking in here after a few hours sleep.
Rorschach, I'll come with you for Woolf, though my fave is Between the Acts, a really thoughtful consideration of British history. Still, there's nothing better than Lighthouse's Lily Briscoe considering what it means to be a woman artist, and I definitely give her that.
Have built my scholarly (cough) career on Jameson: love his work.
And why are you philosophers not all over Hegel? I think his essay on the Master and the Bondsman is quite brilliant, though I'm not with him the whole way.
"Aloft" by Chang-Rae Lee. Keen eye for contemporary America.
*Just* (as in about 12 hours ago) got back from Japan. Re-reading _Moby Dick_ (first time was 4 years ago, as an adult, like Zelig). Almost every word is scriptural. Anyway, great looonnnngggg trans-Pacific plane read.
_1984_ recently re-read. Should be required reading for every American before election day.
Nobody's mentioned Evelyn Waugh. Too bad. Scoop (about pre-WWII journalistic follies) is earily timely (timeless?), as in pack journalism, groupthink,and pandering to one's ego (versus responsibility to one's readers -- Judith [cough, cough] Miller [cough, cough] are nothing new. It's also hilarious and dark.
Larry Brown's _Big Bad Love_ (short stories) and _On Fire_ great reads any time (particularly in summer) and provide graphic and sonerously-written "tone-poems" into love, loss, life and weirdness in the rural South. Often nostaligic for us Southerners, insightful for you who are not. _Dirty Work_ (especially the last line -- think of those last words in [the otherwise absurd] Bridge on the River Kwai: "Madness. Madness.") shook me.
I've written down so many of the recommendations -- from _The Third Policeman_, to _Wind Up Bird Chronical_, to _Basket Case_, _The Battle for God_, &etc. Thank you, all.
Seconding a few previous motions: _A Confederacy of Dunces_. Read it if you haven't already. _F&L on Campaign Trail '72_. _Catch-22_.
Ben Franklin: An American Life.
I bought this as general interest but it is excellent ways: well written, infomative AND laugh-out-loud FUNNY.
Now in paperback.
"Guns, Germs and Steel," is a fascinating explanation of human history based on the serendipitous luck of a people's geographic location and the biota that exists there, by Jared Diamond.
Once you read this book, you realize that the "military superiority" of certain cultures vs others is due to the luck of the geoghraphic draw.
It also shows that whenever there is a power differential between people's, the more powerful will subjugate if not eliminate the less powerful.
Gee, I'm sorry I went to bed; this is a fascinating thread. Since we're recommending "best-evers" along with recent reads, I'll add:
Madeline L'Engle (especially her Crosswicks books)
Anais Nin
Mary Oliver (poems and essays)
Dorothy Parker (poems)
Denise Levertov (poems)
Anne Bishop (dark fantasy)
Catherine Asaro (scifi/romance)
Elixabeth Sheldon (gardening)
*******
I recently moved and had to re-organize all my books. It was a major undertaking! I wound up with several book cases of fiction organized by author's last name, several bookcases of non-fiction organized by LOC numbers (and there's a great website I can send to anyone interested that lets you find LOC numbers for the older or foreign books that don't have them), a separate bookcase with Wicca-related books, and the poetry and cookbooks on shelves in the kitchen.
Any other bibliophiles out there have systems for organizing their books?
See: Under Love
David Grossman
Fantastic existential novel, a little difficult, but worth it. Check out reviews on Amazon, for details.
Been reading the "Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons"
Sorry if others have listed these -- went through the list, but it's so darn long. The best books I've read recently are:
Perfectly Legal by David Cay Johnston, about how our tax system is screwing nearly all of us to subsidize the super-rich; maddening but indispensable reading
Fat Land by Greg Critser, about the causes of the obesity crisis in the U.S.
John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead, which is difficult to explain, but it's an amazingly creative, multi-leveled novel using John Henry as a backdrop
Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman, a set of essays about loving books and reading; funny, touching, extremely well written
Sorry if others have listed these -- went through the list, but it's so darn long. The best books I've read recently are:
Perfectly Legal by David Cay Johnston, about how our tax system is screwing nearly all of us to subsidize the super-rich; maddening but indispensable reading
Fat Land by Greg Critser, about the causes of the obesity crisis in the U.S.
John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead, which is difficult to explain, but it's an amazingly creative, multi-leveled novel using John Henry as a backdrop
Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman, a set of essays about loving books and reading; funny, touching, extremely well written
Hecate:
And I thought I was a geek. I bow to your LOC organizational system. We (Thersites & I) do it by nation of origin: American lit & history, British, Irish, Indian.... you get the idea.
"Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic" by Paul Fussell.
His experiences as a second looey during WWII; getting badly wounded, losing men, and his realization that war is generally a fraud perpetrated by the haves (oops, I mean, Dubyas base) upon the have-lesses and have-nots who do most of the dying and are considered no great loss when they go. He has no patience with the "Greatest Generation" hagiography.
Interesting read, but depressing when you realize that nothing has changed.
Once you read this book, you realize that the "military superiority" of certain cultures vs others is due to the luck of the geographic draw.
No, it's the favor of the Almighty on behalf of us white folk! Why do you hate America, anyway?
>a href="http://www.patridiots.com/000504.html">Jim Hightower's New Book: Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush -- Hightower is always on, and very funny. A little pedantic in this one, but still well above the rest of them.
Flynn's World : A Novel You can knock this one off in an afternoon on the beach, but it will whet your appetite for the rest of Gregory McDonald's books. McDonald is the guy who wrote Fletch (made into an OK Saturday matinee film starring Chevy Chase), and there are about 15 books all told in the series.
Longtime reader, first time poster - what a great thread. I'm in that just-finished-one-but-too-overwhelmed-to-start-
another book phase.
For a great history of Vietnam, I recommend Marilyn B. Young's "The Vietnam Wars 1945-1990." She puts it in context, not just from Kennedy, but from the end of WWII to how Nixon's visit to China totally sold out the Vietnamese. Wonderful book.
On the lighter side, Elizabeth George and P.D. James for great mysteries, and Kavalier and Clay is a MUST (I am very underwhelmed by "Summerland" - his newest - but I'll forgive him ANYTHING for Kavalier and Clay.)
"Fizz" by Paul Toth
A wickedly funny novel, with the introspection of Dostoyevsky and the cutting edge events of Charles Bukowski.
kei & yuri -
I'm glad you recommended Alex Kerr's "Lost Japan." I loved loved loved that book, and found its analysis of the plight of contemporary Japan incredibly insightful, sad, and sympathetic. I came away with enourmous admiration for Kerr as a human being.
"Holy War" by David S. New is the most invaluable book you will read.
more so after hearing this:
"I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obido...=glance&
s=books
An Innocent Millionaire by Stephen Vizinczey, best novel I've read in the last five years...
NYMary,
In the end, I went w/ LOC because I just have too much trouble coming up w/ categories on my own: "Hmm, well, this is history, but it's religious history, but it's by an English author, but she's since moved to America, so maybe in addition to "history" and "religion" I should have a separate category for "religious history"".
Next thing you know, I'd be sitting on the floor with lots of little piles, re-reading my favorite parts of all the books and none of them would ever get on the bookshelves!
The Anarchist in the Library by Siva Vaidhyanathan
Re-reading A Peace to End All Peace. A better cast of characters than the current gang of idiots, but a similar capacity for self-delusion.
Dave In A Cave
I just finished this. It was slow reading for me, mainly because it was all new information to me. I found it all fascinating though, especially as there are several interesting parallels between the British Empire then and us now. Highly recommended.
Looking for dark, funny rants? Try "Dot in the Universe" by Lucy Ellmann. And if you liked "Dunces" then find the out-of-print "Fisher's Hornpipe" by Todd McEwen, which is too good to have missed.
I'm in classes this summer, but on a lark am taking a class in international literature for children and young adults. I've greatly enjoyed the story of The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke (she's German, but the story is set in Venice).
Adult books I'd recommend: pretty much anything by Sinclair Lewis, though his earlier works are better than later. I'm particularly fond of Dodsworth, but also Ann Vickers. Lewis has a tendency to get preachy (much of the stories set in Zenith), but with Vickers, The Job, Kingsblood Royal, he really was ahead of his time and tried to point out the follies of racism, sexism (his female characters are usually thinking people), morality.
Just don't base your opinion of him on the movie adaptations.
Freethinkers;Susan Jacoby
I wish John Ashcroft would read it
All of Stephenson's books since the Diamond Age have been in need of extreme editing. Bloated and egotistical. His reputation is almost as puzzling as Bush having an approval rating in double digits. Although not nearly as dangerous.
David | Email | Homepage | 07.18.04 - 1:26 am | #
A book troll. How refreshing. Anything to offer other than "Too long"?
" A Peace to End All Peace" is flawed by its pro-Zionist bias. The Zionists are reasonable, the Arabs irrational, according to Fromkin. I'd recommend other writers for that period, such as Tom Segev's "One Palestine, Complete."
Actually, All of Stephenson's books since Snow Crash have been in need of extreme editing. Including Diamond Age.
One last recommedation for those who enjoyed Guns, Germs and Steel (specifically intps I would think) and are also interested in economic history. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, by David S. Landes. Wonderful brain food.
Any other bibliophiles out there have systems for organizing their books?
Mine is really strange, actually. I don't know why it works at all, bbut it does. In theory, it goes "history of early modern science/alchemy" to "Western religion/world mythology" to "natural history" (pretty much just birds) to "history" to "Eastern religion/world mythology" to "philosophy" to "philosophy of science" to "music" to "film." That's the living room, then the bedroom has a bunch of fiction...mostly at random but some of it organized into sections like "Victorian supernatural."
The thing is, there are oases of totally unrelated books in each of these sections...so that the "Western religion" section currently includes an 1882 dream almanac put out by the makers of "Rough on Rats" verminicide, a book on nomadic urban drunks, a rule book for the Japanese card game Hana, "The Acme Novelty Date Book," and Eric Partridge's "Dictionary of Catch Phrases." That kind of disorder is happening in every section. The weird thing is, I can actually find books when I need them...and I'm someone who spends about an hour per day trying to find his keys, his wallet, and his shoes.
Cannot believe no one has yet mentioned The dream Of Scipio by Iain Pears. Best book I have read in a long time. Fictional examination of civilation under attack in three seminal periods of history: the fall of the Roman empire, the plague, and the onset of WWII, anchored by indelible characters and literate and thoughtful contemplations of the challenges the characters were facing. Fabulous!
I May Not Get There With You, Michael Eric Dyson
Tena,
Philalethes - well, I would not have known enough to quarrel with the Garnett Anna, but I became a Vladimir Nabokov fantatic some years ago.
Don't know if you're still here...but that's interesting. The only Nabokov book that really impressed me was "Pale Fire," but he once said something that I absolutely loved: "I never read adjectives."
I think about that all the time...and the extent to which writers use adjectives to, in effect, bully the reader. Whenever I find myself getting too generous with adjectives, I try to remember that quote, and I'm grateful to him for saying it.
Tolstoy did go a bit batty, it's true. But "Resurrection" was fascinating, and whatever one thinks of his religion in his daily life, his fictional description of what ethically consistent Christianity would look like is really interesting. It's an amazing contrast to, say, John Ashcroft's view of the matter, that's for sure.
I have gained an impression from various sources that while women read books by authors of both genders men tend not to read books by women on the whole.
Echidne, just so's you know, as far as I'm concerned most of the best books of the 20th Century were written by women...
I'm surprised someone recommended "Wicked". I found that book a very disappointing. The concept was original and promising, but the execution was dull and uninspired. A waste of time.
I'm enjoying "Notes on a Scandal: What was She Thinking?" about an English pottery teacher who has an affair with a student... very funny stuff.
My boyfriend would also say to run out and read "What's the matter with Kansas", even though it's author only stayed at Cody's for his reading for 30 minutes.
Following up for Echidne, here are a few fine female writers who are insufficiently read for my tastes: Bryher, Laura Riding, Antonia White, Barbara Comyns, Mary Webb, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Rebecca West, Tove Jansson, Marilynne Robinson...some of Mary Butts' work is pretty good too, though when she's bad, she's almost as bad as it gets. Patricia Highsmith is also quite good...especially "This Sweet Sickness" and "Deep Water."
A lot of people like Ivy Compton-Burnett, Rose Macaulay, and Barbara Pym, too. Not precisely my cup of tea, but surely worth a look (though I wish Compton-Burnett would use contractions once in a while).
And I'm surprised no one's mentioned Zora Neale Hurston...I like her nonfiction best, but her novels are nothing to sneeze at.
Anyway, Echidne, check out, if you haven't already, "Housekeeping" by Marilynne Robinson and "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" by Shirley Jackson. Both are very strange and beautifully written books, and they complement each other nicely, too.
I recommend James Morrow, the Godhead Trilogy begins with Towing Jehova. Great satirical religious fiction. Kind of a cross between Daniel Defoe and Tim Powers. B&N shelves him in the Sci-fi section & usually has some of his titles. Also recommend his Only begotten daughter (2nd coming, takes place in New Jersy themed) & Bible stories for adults (short stories). This guy is fantastic.
I second recommendations by Tim Powers and China Mielville (sp?) [the Scar author).
I just downloaded a great book manager for Mac, called "Books", you enter the ISBN & it pulls the information off of Amazon.
After reading all of these recommendations, I was surprised to see no mention of Jim Harrison(except some posts by the same name). I consider him to be one of the finest writers working today, whether its fiction, essays or poetry.
Recent recommended reads:
Crofton's Fire by Keith Coplin
Red Stag by Guy de la Valdene
Fade to Clear by Leonard Chang
Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James D. Hornfischer
I would also like to plug the excellant novels of Daniel Woodrell and Kent Anderson, quite nitty gritty reads. Alastair Reynolds is a hard SF writer that shouldn't be overlooked. The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama was wonderful as is most any book by Thich Nhat Hanh.
I never read a book I didn't like by:
Philip K. Dick
Raymand Chandler
Rex Stout
Ross McDonald
Lois McMaster Bujold
John LeCarre
Gaylord Dold
Benjamin Capps
Charles Williford
Jan Willem van de Wettering
Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo
Guns, Germs and Steel waqs a favorite of mine as was The Dancing Wu Li Masters. Any further recommendations along those lines will be appreciated.
And, the "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Philip Pullman, especially the second one in the series: "The Subtle Knife."
I forgot to mention "How Israel Lost: The Four Questions" by Richard Ben Cramer.
I forgot to mention "How Israel Lost: The Four Questions" by Richard Ben Cramer.
no, you mentioned it at 1:16 pm
"It was I who argued in favor of M&D, and warbaby who argued against. Just for the record."
Oopps! My sloppiness. Also second your later comments re editing.
"Actually, All of Stephenson's books since Snow Crash have been in need of extreme editing. Including Diamond Age."
I was being generous to The Diamond Age.
As for Ravenhurst's reaction, isn't dubbing me a troll a bit hasty? But, for a few specifics try, in Cryptinomicon, no real tension,a flabby ending action scene, cheap shots at academia in general while presenting an un-critical, un-nuanced view of dotcom culture,an un-critical implied endorsement of Israli culture and good 'ol boy southern culture and a multi-hundred pages of I'm-smarter-than-you-and-anyone-else-chip-on
the-shoulder-attitude.
I'm not a troll.
ditto on "Kings of Infinite Space". Also the new Napoleon biography, Little Children (anything by Tom Perrotta)
David - you're not a troll. I loved Snow Crash, and everything else has sucked, IMHO. But that one book secured his rep, just like Neuromancer did for its author (and everything else slides downhill from there...)
You know what doesn't need extreme editing, despite its incredible enormity? David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. Now that is an amazing book. I would love to read the additional - what, 600 pages? 700? - that he cut. I loved that universe, and was so sad to see it end. "The Year of the Depends Adult Undergarment..."
http://www.democracynow.org/book/
Hostile, combative, and even disrespectful. —President Bill Clinton
"A threat to national security." —The Indonesian military
"I have advised my mother to talk to no reporters because of ... people like you."
—Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
The Exception to the Rulers - Exposing War Profiteers, Oily Politicians and the Media That Love Them
Hostile, combative, and even disrespectful. —President Bill Clinton
"A threat to national security." —The Indonesian military
"I have advised my mother to talk to no reporters because of ... people like you." —Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
"The Bookseller of Kabul" by Asne Seierstad. Life in Afghanistan after the Taliban. The more things change, the more they stay the same...
After all the mentions of M&D, I am going to try for the fourth time to get into it.
Tom Robbins, "Villa Incognito."
Anything by David Sedaris.
'House of Day, House of Night' by Olga Tokarczuk
(trns: - Magic Realism, Polish style.
A beautilful and thoughtful book set in Southern Poland. Almost a set of short stories, but with a common linke of loss of ones country, and what it means to live in a part of a country that has been subjugated to Russia, Germany and Czechoslovakia. Perfect.
'Shadow of the wind' by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
(trans: Lucia Graves)
A good thriller set during the aftermath iof the Spanish civil war, and also someting of a meditiation on literature.
"poo-tee-weet?"
Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino.
Leviticus (that book in the Bible) while considering the relationship between church and state.
The Expectant Father...uh oh...
David -- apologies. I am embarrassed to have called you a troll.
I agree about the unbalanced attacks on academia and the dotcom-happiness, but those are artifacts of Randy's perspective. I hope.
Those things and some others are annoying about Stephenson, but I try to think of him more as a literate, intelligent Tom Clancy for geeks -- macho bullshit included -- than as a practitioner of Serious Literature.
The books are immersive, and I guess I'm something of a detail fetishist. I know they're not for everyone, but they are interesting for the scientifically-minded.
And those who have chips on their shoulders.
Congratulations, mcf!
"My Pet Goat"
Kept me gued to my chair.
The Hungry Hungry Catapiller by ?
Damn, can't believe I missed this thread!
Check out Bookslut if you are intrested in a good book blog.
Lot's of good suggestions.
Currently reading "Ilium" by Dan Simmons which includes the best summary of Proust and Shakespeare's Sonnets I've read.
Plus, great to read before seeing "Troy", I have not seen it.
Recommend the new Penguin translations of Proust.
The Hungry Hungry Catapiller by ?
Cormac McCarthy-'Blood Meridian'. This will become very quickly the "Best" book you have ever read.
What's with Haloscan? When I looked last night, this thread had 308 posts; this morning it said 260ish and now it says 143... yet all the posts seem to be there? Does it get to a certain number and then count backwards?
Blood Meridian is fantastic. More thank just the name, it makes me think of Wise Blood, which is also fantastic, yet haunting, creepy, disturbing.
thank=than
I was scrolling through this thread and got reminded of Rick Pearlstein's "Before The Storm" - Goldwater and the Rise of the Modern Conservative Movement. Since I plugged Thomas Frank's "What's The Matter With Kansas" as best political book in the last year or so, I'll amend that to best political book since Pearlsteins. "Before The Storm" is a must read for political junkies - it's like the secret history of the '60s. Both Pearlstein and Frank go beyond "gotcha" and "you suck" responses to the movement and media conservatives and really dig into the deeper layers of how and why the right-wing has been so successful in gaining ascendency against what any lib with half-a-brain perceives as the interests of the over-whelming majority of Americans.
I've just finished reading "Murdered by Capitalism" by John Ross which was pretty entertaining.
I've started reading "Boob Jubilee" which is like a compendium of old Baffler articles on the so-called "New Economy" which is shaping up to be pretty entertaining.
Plans for the remainder of the summer include Thomas Frank's "What's the Matter with Kansas" and maybe some Philip K. Dick if I can find some books of his that I haven't read yet.
PKD's distopias resonate pretty deeply in the crappy corporatist anti-paradise the boomers left their kids, and paint a nice picture of the world 20-40 years from now if things keep apace in their current direction.
I read "Before the Storm" and also recommend it. Essentially,the modern Republican party was founded just about 50 years ago by a group of people who really thought Eisenhower was a communist dupe.
And, of course, they've only gone downhill from there...
" Across the Nightingale Floor" by Lian Hearn Very well and beautifully written. It's set in feudal Japan-like society. It's the first book in a wonderful trilogy. I'd also recomend it for teens.
Also just re-read "1984". It was sobering to say the least.
For a bit of humor anything by David Sedaris. His new book, "Dress your Family in Corduroy and Demin" is great. However, "Me Talk Pretty One Day" is still his best to date.
For a bit of humor anything by David Sedaris. His new book, "Dress your Family in Corduroy and Demin" is great. However, "Me Talk Pretty One Day" is still his best to date.
For a bit of humor anything by David Sedaris. His new book, "Dress your Family in Corduroy and Demin" is great. However, "Me Talk Pretty One Day" is still his best to date.
Times like these? That's easy:
The Man in the High Castle, by Phillip Dick.
The Axis wins WWII, divide America between them (with a small slice of the original as a buffer), and the Nazis start, I kid you not, propagandizing the value of a Mission to Mars.
Dick, blowing the doors OFF of time, as usual.
--
"What's with Haloscan? When I looked last night, this thread had 308 posts...Does it get to a certain number and then count backwards?--Arachnae"
It, spiderlike, counts all its legs together.
The numbers don't reflect the individual threads, cause, that would make sense, but are some sort of total of the comments on the site.
Let's keep this thread going indefinitely. It is great fun and instructive at the same time;full of reminders and new directions and helpful insights. Most of all, a welcome respite from trolls and the usual grim business of the run-up to regime change in November. It is also fun to see how people weave their political passion into their fiction and non-fiction reading lives without loosing a sense of fun.
I suspect the trolls are too busy playing first person shoot 'em up games to engage a topic like this
"i just had to reply to tom...heidegger does actually have quite a bit to offer."
And then some. Miss reading Being and Time, or Introduction to Metaphysics at your own risk.
B&T (the newer translation is best) is one of the few books that provides an exposition for WHY a coup can be successful in a modern state. Heidegger, de novo, explicates the underlying dynamics of the what-he-calls They, how they monitor the world for any exception, and squashes them flat...or tries to.
An outright genius, and not a Nazi as theists claimed after WWII (as part of Blame the Existentialists for the Holocaust Month).
Introduction to Met. takes a chorus from some presocratic (can't remember which), and makes some surprising, even shocking comments about human being. It's a small book that nevertheless succeeds in daunting the day reader. Like taking a trip on an ocean---clear as glass one moment, roiled and deep the next.
The funniest book-organizing principle I've run across was a friend of mine--he put authors next to each other that he knew would piss each other off, such as The Bible next to Nietszche...
For those looking for hilarious academic hijinks, I think David Lodge cannot be beat.
OK, you just talked me into getting a copy of Before the Storm.
I'll be interested to see how it compares with Godfrey Hodgson's The World Turned Right Side Up: A history of the Conservative Ascendency in America.
Hodgson's An American Melodrama - his eyewitness narrative of the 1968 election - is also excellent.
HEY, IS ANYBODY GOING TO COLLATE THESE POSTS INTO ONE LIST, and perhaps put it on the blog?
Pie - you started this! 8-)
Recently finished Under the Banner of Heaven and highly recommend it. Currently reading Wilson's The Politics of Truth and Bandolino by Ecco.
And if you like mysteries, run, don't walk, to Dashiell Hammett. I've read all stuff so often I've virtually memorized it. My favorite is The Dain Curse, even tho the plot is outrageous about 50 times over.
I've got to sit down and write down a lot of titles but favorites keep popping to the fore so skipped down here, instead.
Some fine Southern writers
Flannery O'Connor - Short stories (if nothing else read "A Good man is Hard to Find" and "Good Country People" -- "Wise Blood" - and her nonfiction wonder, "Mystery and Manners". That last has the greatest line ever, maybe -- "Many a best-seller might have been prevented by a good English teacher."
Eudora Welty - Most anything but I love "The Optimist's Daughter" and her memoir.
Madison Jones - "A Cry of Absence".
Harry Crews - Hell, anything. Just read him.
Wendell Berry - farmer, poet, activist.
Random picks:
Pete Dexter - "Deadwood" - written long before the TV show.
John L'Heureux "The Shrine at Altamira" -- wildly different from anything above. This may be the single most devastating book I've ever read about the destructiveness and power of love. You can't read it and walk away unchanged.
And to end on a real favorite, but it's not quite as light-hearted as it sounds - "The Boys of Summer" by Roger Kahn. What a beaut.
The Egyptianis the best historical novel ever! You can try to read the couple of first pages of it in amazon.com without getting hooked.
EEK | 07.17.04 - 11:48 pm
I second your recommendation of Garrison Keillor's "Homegrown Democrat". Sincere and hilarious.
Paul | 07.18.04 - 5:53 pm
Agreed that Philip K. Dick is the perfect thing to be reading right now. "Radio Free Albemuth", "A Scanner Darkly", and "Our Friends from Frolix X" are also good.
Other good stuff:
"Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser
"The Theory of the Leisure Class" by Thorstein Veblen
As the greatest playwright ever, I must wholeheartedly direct your attention to Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian, Or: The Evening Redness in the West". Despite its awkward title, it ranks as the best American novel I've read since Gravity's Rainbow. For some less-than-light reading, I can't get enough of Donald Davidson. The United States remarkably became the global epicentre of analytic philosophy in the latter half of the 20th century, and Davidson's critiques of long-thought-formalized definitions of concepts as general as rationality and understanding will alter the foundational beliefs of any open-minded Freudian, functionalist, or structuralist.
Battle Ready by Tom Clancy and Marine General Anthony Zinni Oh it's sooo good!
Can anyone recommend any books on trade/WTO/NAFTA? from pro and con authors?
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy by Greg Palast. Definitely anti-WTO.
Explained to me why all those kids all over the world are going beserko outside all the World Bank/WTO protests. The information in that book is just UN-believable. Built-in expectancy of riots - when they will happen, and in response to what horrific policies imposed by the WTO on debtor countries' citizens (charging for water, citizens not even allowed to collect rainwater - @see The Corporation, etc.), all in the name of privatizing the debtor countries' industries for mulitnational firms from the lending countries - human rights be damned. It's worse than anything you could have imagined.
Great book.
•The Coming Of The Third Reich -Richard J. Evans
The first of three projected volumes. Masterful. Eminintly readable.
• What's The Matter with Kansas?- Thomas Frank
A minor masterpiece. One of the best books on the Irrational knot at the nexus of American life.
•Silvio Berlusconi- Paul Ginsborg
Schematic and abbreviated but a clear account of an ominous trend of extreme Media power in a modern democracy. Imagine if FOX news won state power in an election? Bill O'Reily as President...Sean Hannity as...You get the picture. Who is the governor of California anyway?
•Straight Life- The Story of Art Pepper.
Ranks with or exceeds Malcolm Braly's memoirs on life in an American prison. Already a classic, but it helps if you like Jazz music.
• The Ambassadors- Henry James.
Haunting. My favorite James. Life's backward glance.
Great thread.. Let's do this regularly..
Recently Read:
Personal Memoirs - Ulysses S. Grant
Dark Star Safari - Paul Theroux
The Last Good Season - Michael Shapiro (Brooklyn Dodgers' last season in NY)
Goya - Robert Hughes
On Deck:
Cuba and Its Music - Ned Sublette
The Coming Of The 3rd Reich - Richard J. Evans
Alexander Hamilton - Ron Chernow
Rising '44 - The Battle For Warsaw - Norman Davies
Big Dog Bio
'Slider, you need to read Al Kooper's "Backstage Passes," if you haven't had the pleasure..
As for the genre stuff, my main man is still the late, great Charles Willeford ("Miami Blues," "Sideswipe" et al).
Read, Read, it ain't illegal yet!
how to organize a library?
hmmmm.
first, read nick basbanes AMONG THE GENTLY MAD[as well as his other explorations into the realm of bibliophilia].
then, bookcases are mandatory. stalagmites of books pillaring the room must go.
once you have the bookcases, then you can decide how to organize your collection. i have a large collection[approx 2,000 volumes] dedicated to specific topics. so, my bookshelves are arranged this way:
WORLD HISTORY
toynbee, braudel, runciman, et alia
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
colonial era
revolutionary era
war between the states
woodrow wilson-the origins of the natsec state
ww2
salient subsection-usa since 1947[NSA]
korean war
indochina[concentrated on vietnam]
central america
chile
middle east
africa
ESPIONAGE
fiction and nonfiction
from RIDDLES IN THE SAND, SECRET AGENT to jim bamford's latest[A PRETEXT FOR WAR], charles mccarry's latest[OLD BOYS].
THE ATOMIC BOMB
FISHING
from bergman's TROUT, through marinaro's A MODERN DRY FLY CODE, to SALMON&WOMEN and everything in between[includes schwiebert, prosek, lafontaine, gierach]
JAPAN
NOAM CHOMSKY[also ED HERMAN]
TRAVEL
and then there are the periodicals that i retain..
some i used to have from their inception, but a flood in 1994 wiped out one of my warehouses.
but, still and all,
WASHINGTON MONTHLY
COVERT ACTION INFORMATION BULLETIN
LOBSTER
COUNTERPUNCH
CONSORTIUM NEWS
AUTOMOBILES
most of AQ
most books devoted to M-B, Ferrari
history of the IC engine
and that encompasses most of the books.
don't even get me started on LP's, CD's, et alia.
lastly, i have tried to hire a library science student to catalog my madness for several years. everytime i subject them to the task, they run away howling.
i try to make a bequest of this madness. my stipulation is that the collection be kept intact[no deaccessioning]. because the majority of this collection is not very complimentary to the USA[you could call it a collection of revisionist history] i have found that the collection is not desired. apparently, most institutions do not want anyone to access this record of the empire.
as i continue to age, as i continue to see how the true record of the past is being trashed[a most orwellian objective], it almost spurs me to create a library foundation to harbor those volumes that will not be husbanded in public libraries.
if you think that sounds excessive, i can assure you, my library on USA in indochina is larger than anything available in virtually all public libraries in the USA. larger than most college libraries.
is that history shortfall part of a conscious policy to deprive the future of the record of the past?
i think so.
my library is my political statement. the record of the evil empire exists. i trust that i can preserve it for future generations[if they will be able to read].
how to organize a library?
hmmmm.
Great thread. Thanks for all the good suggestions. Here is my fiction list for the last year. Some have been mentioned above.
"The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay." Michael Chabon:
Great story about starting a comic book in the comic book hero heyday of the early 20th century.
"Deadwood" Pete Dexter:
As Lucky noted, written long before the TV show. A really hilarious book. I would recommend any of Dexter's books. He has a bit of dark side, but he's always engrossing. Also try the "Paper Boy".
"English Passengers" Mathew Kneale:
About a 1857 sailing trip to Tasmania by a bunch of Manx rum smugglers and 2 eccentric Englishmen.
"Devil in the White City" Erik Larson:
The Chicago Fair story just fascinated me. If, like me, you wished for more pictures, check out www.chicagology.com. They have dozens of gorgeous pictures of all the main buildings, the Wooded Island, etc.
"Postcards" Annie Proulx:
This was her first novel. Hard to describe but heartbreakingly engrossing.
"The Colony of Unrequited Dreams" Wayne Johnston:
Tale of Newfoundland settlers.
One more to add
"Cod: a bio of the fish that changed the world" Mark Kurlansky
Quirky, fun psuedo-history of the cod fish and the role the author claims it had in almost every major political issue for about 500 years.
"Balance of Power" by Richard North Patterson. Standard thriller BUT extremely well-researched into the means by which special interests govern us all..
As for the genre stuff, my main man is still the late, great Charles Willeford
I like his novels, but his autobiography "I Was Looking for a Street" is an absolute masterpiece, I think.
For those looking for hilarious academic hijinks, I think David Lodge cannot be beat.
rorschach
Perfect timing...I was actually meaning to ask you if you'd read "Small World"! A very funny piece of work.
Mary McCarthy's "Groves of Academe" is good too (and there's yet another good female writer, along with Dawn Powell).
acefsw, the book I mentioned last night is just called "The Greek Sophists". It is a Penguin Classics, edited and intro by John Dillon.
Just finished "My Life" by Clinton. The early years in Arkansas were more fascinating to me because I live here and witnessed much of his early political career. He's fairly accurate in admitting his in-state political mistakes and how they were perceived here. I do recommend it.
"the black jacobins" by c.l.r. james. great narrative history of the haitian revolution. interesting for trying to understand what's going on in haiti today.
If you last read 'Glass Bead Game' (also called 'magister Ludi') by Hermann Hesse 40 years ago, check it out again. Funny, deep. It occurs to me that a succession of visited sites on the web, if set down, could itself evolve into a work of art. Reality--the ultimate multimedia experience?
Anything by John Mc Phee, especially 'Deltoid Pumpkin Seed'
Not much poetry on the list: Stephen Crane, Wislawa Szymborszka, Auden
Philosophy: I enjoy the debate between Karl Popper and Paul Feyerabend; 'Wittgenstein's Poker' a great introduction to Popper, Wittgenstein and their argument...
Desert Queen by Janet Wallach (Gertrude Bell bio), Picasso's War by Russell Martin, Moon in a Dewdrop, writings of zen master dogen ed. by Kazauaki tanahashi.
I'm rereading Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson, probably my favorite novel since 1987.
The Center for Book Culture
And Aesthetic Theory by Theodor Adorno.
And A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David F. Wallace. A friend of mine just went on a cruise.
Also mulling over The Rest by Aram Saroyan.
Peace,
-Rhet
Not to hate on The Da Vinci Code, I haven't read it, but the truth is Umberto Eco did it earlier, and probably better in "Foucault's Pendulum."
On a political stance, Aristophanes is still relevant and still funny. If you've only seen/read "Lysistrata," that's just the tip of the iceberg. In some of his works, he shows startling emotion and urgency behind the political satire.
I'm rereading Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson, probably my favorite novel since 1987.
The Center for Book Culture
And Aesthetic Theory by Theodor Adorno.
And A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David F. Wallace. A friend of mine just went on a cruise.
Also mulling over The Rest by Aram Saroyan.
Peace,
-Rhet
If you haven't gotten around to it, ``Against All Enemies'' is not only a fast-paced read, it's stuffed with argument-killers.
``Absolute Enemies'' is on my list as well, and if you like Carl Hiassen/Elmore Leonard variety stuff I strongly recommend any book by the late Ross Thomas, who never got the pub he deserved for his at-the-edges-of-espionage tales told with great humor and perfect pacing. His stuff is hard to find in bookstores but it's available in e-book form.
And what a great thread: should be a monthly, or seasonal posting at least.
Kurt Vonnegut--I'm re-reading all his books. He made me laugh during Vietnam. He makes me laugh today. It's all one. It's as if he's commenting on Bush Inc. and Iraq. You gotta laugh! You gotta laugh! You gotta laugh sometimes! Thank you, Kurt!
Einstein in Berlin
"Substance: The anti-troll."
Thanks for pegging it. The other threads are indeed without substance!
Phila, 2 Points! Still looking for a copy of that one..
tee-hee
Democracy and Tradition, by Jeffrey Stout. It's not light reading, but it's rewarding, and addresses a question which our country vitally needs to engage.
Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco
"Substance: The anti-troll."
Thanks for pegging it. The other threads are indeed without substance!
Misses the point, as usual. Willfully blind or can't you help yourself because of the teeny tiny size of your brain?
Beyond Belief, by Elaine Pagels (on the early Church, the Gospel of Thomas (considered "gnostic"), with a comparison to canonical G. of John, and selection of the canonical biblical books of NT. As always, a clear and non-technical historical commentary - reviewers have overemphasised a few personal remarks. The book is not all about Pagels, it is about G. of Thomas, G. of John, Valentinius, Irenaeus, and a host of other early Christian writers.
Q/Thomas Reader (side by side comparisons of Matthew and Luke, the so-called "quelle" (source) sayings), and Gospel of Thomas.
On the non-book side, the film version of Carmen with Domingo and Migenes-Johnson, done as a movie (not a film of a stage production).
My public library has just sent my special order:
The Gospel of Mary, by Karen King. (about another Gnostic Gospel).
For whatever reason, my interest in the current crop of political books has lagged in the past few weeks, as I keep up in the altpress, and I need to recharge in the Rest of Life.
Safire was on NewsHour with Mark Shields Friday:
WILLIAM SAFIRE: ...But, you remember the most important single blast that came at the president for misleading us into war was about the purchase or the attempted purchase of uranium from Niger, this yellow cake story that was in the president's state of the union address: 16 words, you know. Well, what happened?
Now we look at this, and you remember Joe Wilson was on the air and on Meet the Press and all over the New York Times and every place castigating the government for misleading people on this so-called seeking uranium. Well, now we know that both the Senate Intelligence Committee, which goes into pages and pages of detail, and the Butler Report say, yep, the president, what he said, those 16 words were true, that the British had indeed learned that...
JIM LEHRER: We're going to have a segment on that with Wilson and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday, but do you think that's of overriding importance on this?
MARK SHIELDS: Jim, the president apologized for the 16 words. Now he's going to apologize for the apology, I guess, and so did George Tenet and the CIA apologized for its being in the state of the union.
What you can't ignore here is the warning the president had from some of the smartest, most experienced and most battle-savvy generals, and that was that we would be the first western, Christian, pro-Israeli invading an occupying army of a Muslim holy land. I don't know what part of that Don Rumsfeld and George Bush didn't understand. But they just went right through the stop sign.
Link.
Check out
www.bookcrossing.com
if you're too cheap to buy one of these books!
Oh, I just finished Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton. *****
Tom, thanks for posting the title, I'll add it to my to read list.
"I enjoy the debate between Karl Popper and Paul Feyerabend; 'Wittgenstein's Poker'"
I almost forgot about that one, at the moment it's not on my to read list, but will be. All the reviews I've read gave it a thumbs up.
"bookcases are mandatory. stalagmites of books pillaring the room must go."
I turned one of my bedrooms into a study and converted its 6'w x 2'd x 8'h closet into a giant bookcase. I also have a medium sized free standing bookcase, a couple of others scattered around the house, and still the stalgmites grow... As far as organizing, mine is basic- classics, reference, history, philosophy, political science, sociology, psychology, science, fiction, science fiction, etc. Still not perfectly organized, but it seems to work for me.
Great thread, well read bunch here, many good recommendations... good enough that I should have my book club buddies check this message board.
"Sex, Time and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution"
by Leonard Shlain
Reading the Mabinogian. There is a very good lesson about destroying a nation so that a son can illicitly succeed his father as ruler.
Not to hate on The Da Vinci Code, I haven't read it, but the truth is Umberto Eco did it earlier, and probably better in "Foucault's Pendulum."
I can't have been the only one who snorted the moment Dan Brown spun the Templars into his Da Vinci Code conspiracy narrative...
The Wheel of Fortune by Susan Howatch
It's not new but a very great read. Also quite long, but worth it.
Just finished "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" and "The Messianic Legacy" by Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln. (Anyone reading "The DaVinci Code" should check 'em out...) Currently reading "Lost Christianities" by Bart Ehrman; about the various early pre- and non-orthodox versions of Christianity that existed before the Roman church bullied/manipulated it's way to the top. Tells the tale through the non-canonical parabiblical texts (many lost, or thought so, until recently) that were used and taught by them.
"The Athiest and the Holy City" by George Klein - it's flat awesome reading.
"Delightful, informative, beautifully written, George Klein's book offers the reader humorous wisdom and reasons for hope." - Elie Wiesel
"Almost as powerful as the first Elle Macpherson Sports Illustrate swimsuit issue!" - joejoejoe
My Pet Goat? oops no...The Men Who
Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson 1st 150 pages entertaining with British humor, last 100 pages scary and sad, will get you up protesting if nothing does already.
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