I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
Well thank you for emphasizing the positive. I agree.
"the life of pi", by yann martel. i've been recommending it to everyone for almost a year.
I recommend one of Tim LaHaye's many fine publications.
I hear "My Pet Goat" is riveting, for
up to seven minutes.
Rain on LaHaye.
However, D.R. Meredith, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Lois McMaster Bujold are all very good authors.
Atonement
Anything by Chomsky, or Zinn
The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability
Johnny Got His Gun
Homage to Catalonia
Al-Qaeda: Casting a Shadow of Terro
some random picks from my recent amazon shopping..
Rohinton Mistry for novels where history and people matter.
Political or non-political?
Non-political I very much recommend the whole Thursday Next series, by Jasper Fforde. Extremely clever, extremely good reading, and great escapism.
Political, well, I know it's already a cliche around here, and I know it isn't the magic talisman that will save us all, but if you haven't read Don't Think of an Elephant yet, it's worth it.
-- Stu
Oh and "Blinded by the Right" by Brock is pretty good .. especially if you were not sure what that whole get-clinton thing was all about
Just finished reading The Devil in the Blue City, an utterly enthralling if somewhat horrifying account of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, mingled with the tale of Harry Holmes, one of the country's first serial killers, who preyed on women who came to the fair.
The book shifts from the story of the creation of the fair and all the famous people involved in building it, and the questions of whether Chicago could rival the famous Paris Fair where the Eiffel Tower was first unveiled, and the sordid maneuverings of Holmes. The writer brings the world to vivid life, and I recommend it highly, for those who have strong stomachs.
an imperfect god, george washington, his slaves and the creation of america, by henry wiencek.
a pleasure to read and a thoughful examination of the paradoxes of the american revolution and the institution of slavery.
Angels and Demons by the Da Vinci Codeguy, but NOT Deception Point by him
If you still haven't read "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond you need to. Possibly the smartest book I've ever read.
"The Two-Income Trap" is very good as well, if a bit discouraging. It has some good insights into the situation of most modern American families.
On the last thread, people were discussing the disjunct between the artist and the art. I don't know what to think of Naipaul anymore, but I love his writing for it's evocativeness.
For a bit of comedic historic non-fiction, get the Flashman series by George Macdonald Frasier.
The first book, Flashman takes place in Afghanistan, during the British withdraw from Kabul.
All of the books are quite funny.
Big yes on Guns, Germs and Steel. You'll never think about history quite the same way after reading it.
Nora,
I second your excellent choice, but the title is "The Devil in the White City."
Just sayin.'
How about "What's the Matter With Kansas?"
Or one of my all-time favorites: Albert Camus' "The Plague"?
I'm re-reading Diana Wynne Jones' The Ogre Downstairs because my head needed some candy.
Since last week, I've been rereading Catch-22. The Clevinger who posts here got me thinking about that book again, and it is always both enlightening and chilling.
American hero by Larry Beinhart. The book was the basis for "Wag the Dog". Very funny.
He has a new one called the Librarian, about (I think) fixing an election.
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. It's about Dr. Paul Farmer and his Partners in Health in Haiti. An example of how one person can make the world a better place.
Also, a book I mentioned on the last thread, Czeslaw Milosz's Captive Mind. About a different time and place, but incredibly perceptive about how the human mind is drawn to certainty and discards facts that are inconvenient to its ideologically absolute view of the world
-- Stu
Just read "American Pastoral" by Philip Roth. Really terrific. Can't wait to get to "The Plot Against America." For non-fiction, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" is a no-brainer. "Culture of Fear" is great, too. Finally, David Cay Johnston's "Perfectly Legal" is fascinating and infuriating. Johnston is a Republican who is actually honest about the way the tax system is rigged to favor the wealthy at the expense of lower-, middle- and even upper-middle income Americans.
Galatea2.2 (or anything else by Richard Powers)
Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and System of the World) and Snow Crash
David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest
Catch-22 (more relevant than ever)
Nora,
I second Guns Germs and Steel, I was just trying to remember the title.
Phenominal book
Oops, Hamster Brigade, you are completely right. I think it's the blue-state-red-state stuff on the other thread that distracted me.
And does anyone know if George MacDonald Frazer is still alive? Because it's been too long since his last Flashman book, Flashman and the Man of God in which our cowardly hero gets involved with John Brown and the raid on Harper's Ferry. One of the best things about the Flashman books is the way he footnotes everything. Being a history major, I always check out the footnotes anyway, and Fraser's are really funny.
I'm reading The Devil in the White City too, but I'm not even half way through it yet. But so far, very entertaining.
Eric Alterman drew some fire on this thread a day or so ago. His "When Presidents Lie" is outstanding.
As for fiction, I'm re-reading "Les Miserables" after many moons. Yes, it's melodrama, there are parts that are unreadable and it's the size of a phone book... but it's also very, very good.
"A Peoples History of the United States"
I'm going to hopefully prevent some idiocy by citing "Ender's Law" which states, "any book thread will inevitably cite Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card." It's a horrible novel glorifying war, so don't even THINK about citing it here.
Instead, I'm going to cite "The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman, an incisive SF anti-war novel that is a thinly disguised metaphor for the VietNam War.
On another note, I just reread "The Boys on The Bus" by Timothy Crouse. It's almost a companion book to Hunter Thompson's "Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72," Crouse described his assignment as carrying Thompson's bail money. It contains many interesting observations on the So Called Liberal Media, and even though it's over 30 years old, it still holds up today.
Anything by Vonnegut!!! Start with Breakfast of Champions and Hocus Pocus and work your way through the whole catalog.
We've read many books that make the case that Bush is a bad president, that he lies, and that the right wing is taking over everything. With the election over, there may be some burnout on the subject.
But I am nevertheless pushing RFK, Jr.'s Crimes Against Nature, which deals with Bush's environmental policies.
I would also recommend Stanley Greenberg's Two Americas. We need to work on the Next Big Step, we need to expand the base of the Democratic Party, and we need to learn more about how the "Why Are They Voting Republican?" people are voting Republican. This book should be a companion to What's The Matter With Kansas?
Yeah! A book thread!
Political: Molly Ivins is great, and I'm working through the Bill Clinton autobiography--he's a surprisingly engaging writer. I'm taking a break from all the Bush books on my shelf, because they just make me too sad right now.
Fun: Janet Evanovich is always a good no-brain read, and so is Mil Milligton's Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About. Hysterically funny.
Serious books: The Professor and The Madman about the making of the OED. I plan on reading Devil in the Blue City soon. Sounds creepy cool.
RE the life of Pi, Olaf--I keep shying away from this, and I'm not sure why. Is it Kipling-esque?
Fiction-Robertson Davies' trilogies are great. The Cornish Trilogy is genius.
Non-Fiction-SR Weisman's The Great Tax Wars gives an historical account of tax battles since the civil war. Made me realize how much of the present divisiveness has been around for generations.
The Serpent & The Rainbow. I about fried my noodle on all the stuff about string theory and the holographic model and nonlocality, so I figured it was time to head in the other direction of weirdness. I've also been flipping through Farhenheit 451 and 1984 and other such paranoid classics.
Actually, I've done most of my reading online. I love Wikipedia. Really, from the bottom of my heart.
anything by tom robbins...
especially "fierce invalids home from hot places" (but for me the favourite depends on the day) also "villa incognito"
great fiction with amazing twists on the english language
Oh, and newspapers. Remember, our Prez doesn't read 'em!
"fast food nation" changed my life. Everyone should read it. "Charlie Wilson's War" is an very readable history of America's armament of the Afghanis during the soviet invasion.
Political History:
Robert Caro -- any of his books
Kevin Phillips -- The Cousins' Wars
Peter Irons -- A People's History of the Supreme Court
Intellectual History: Peter Watson -- The Modern Mind
Fictional Ancient History: Gore Vidal -- Creation
Spirtuality:
Nikos Kazantzakis -- The Last Temptation of Christ
Jack Miles -- Jesus & God (seriously, both are good even for nonbelivers)
Religion: Karen Armstrong -- All of her works, especially A History of God
Financial Theory: Benoit Mandlebrot -- The Misbehavior of Markets
Brain Theory: Peter Satinover -- The Quantum Brain
Theories of Everything:
Howard Bloom -- The Lucifer Principle (ignore the antiIslam rant) & The Global Brain
Stephen Wolfram -- A New Kind of Science (he's full of himself, and stole his idea from Ed Fredkin, but still fascinating with lots of cool diagrams)
Buckminster Fuller -- Synergetics II (only for really really really abstract thinkers)
General Interest / Reading Please:
Anything and everything by John McPhee
Most anything by Studs Terkel
Namby-Pamby Sociology:
Sardar & Davies -- Why Do People Hate America?
Bullshit Detection:
Michael Shermer -- The Science of Good and Evil & Why People Believe Weird Things
Personal Improvement:
Robert Greene -- The Art of Seduction and the Laws of Power
Alain de Botton -- How Proust Can Change Your Life & The Consoliations of Philosophy
That's off the top of my head... there are lots of good books out there, they're just hard to find.
Oooo, kent.
Sorry about this morning; my kid was marching in a santa parade (a band geek, yes) and I had to run. I was teasing you because you had mentioned to soe benighted soul that the media had skewed coverage of the election. In my finest, most ironic tone, I was merely pointing out that they could not have done so, because that would hve been wrong.
I just read 1984 and Animal Farm again recently Warning- very goddamn depressing .
Also interesting "Cows Pigs Wars and Witches" by Marvin Harris. Just read that a few months ago again too.
And EVERYONE's talking about Thomas Frank's What's the Matter With Kansas - a must read.
And Kitty Kelley's book too of course, for fun!!
I second "Fast Food Nation" as a must-read.
'The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity' - Tariq Ali
To get some historical perspective, especially on Pakistan and Afghanistan.
'Thus Spake Zarathustra' - Friedrich Nietzsche
Because we are living in the time of the Ultimate Men. We are essentially asleep in a post-political age, as shown by the election results in both the US and Australia.
'Globalisation and its discontents' - Joseph Stiglitz
By a Nobel prize-winning ex-Chief economist of the World Bank. Shows why the Washington consensus of the 'free marketeers' causes such anger in the developing world. Anger which is growing, not fading away. As someone who works in development, its something that citizens in developed countries must understand. Especially since the two developing countries that rejected the West's prescriptions for economic growth (India and China) are the ones now starting to beat us at our own game.
If we don't change voluntarily, we will be forced to change.
Fraser (sorry about the spelling earlier) published a book in 2002 called The Light's On At Signpost.
According to a brief biographical web page I read, he does not tell his publisher when the next book will be ready for publishing. Rumor has it, there will be another Flashman book, but who knows when.
I have read a few of Fraser's other books, and they are all pretty good.
Three Men in a Boat - Jerome
On Thermonuclear War - Kahn
Invisible Cities - Calvino
The Martin Beck series - Sjöwall/Wahlöö They are best read in order.
A Journal of the Plague Year - Defoe
Confessions of a Crap Artist - Dick
Puckoon - Milligan
Mechasm - Sladek
Camp Concentration - Disch
Naked Lunch - Burroughs
Damn, that was me above...
mena, abt. naipaul--"the return of Eva Peron and the (blahblah) of Michael X" yes despite naipaul's bitch fights with other authors, he has a long history of registering unique modern historical situations, especially of "3rd world" peoples.
and NYMary--how about Milo and Halliburton?
Victor Hugo rocks. So does Dickens.
Guess I've got to sell you some more on "The Plague." Here's one of my favorite quotes. Broke it out instantaneously on the eve of the Iraq debacle in March 2003: "When a war breaks out, people say:'It’s too stupid; it can’t last long.' But though a war may well be 'too stupid,' that doesn’t prevent it’s lasting. Stupidity has a knack of getting its way."
Love that Camus.
"King Leopold's Ghost" by Adam Hochschild - about the colonization of the Congo, the atrocities that occurred there, and the individuals that worked to expose and end those atrocities.
"Years of Hope, Days of Rage" by Todd Gitlin - about the 1960's, especially the antiwar and civil rights movements, written by someone who was a major figure in the SDS and other movements of the time.
I enjoyed the hell out of "Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude", written by an ex CIA agent working in the Middle East. It will fuel your disgust for the Saudi Royal family and the Bushes. And many other politicians.
Oldie but Goodie; A theory of justice by John Rawls
Try:
IBM and the Holocaust (Edwin Black)
or
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
They're basically the same friggin' book.
Shalom,
Ian
cryptic message from TMP:
Any hired-gun who worked for John Kerry and is now publicly -- subtly or not so subtly -- slipping a shiv in his back: that's someone the Democratic party can do without. Clear the decks.
No link just that message. What the hell does that mean?
temanu,
Too bad our Preznit wouldn't know the veil of ignorance if he happened to wear one himself.
http://www.freepress.org/Backup/...n/
moontime.html
Bush and Rev Moon connections.
I've recently been enamored by Arundhati Roy's political writings, esp. here books "War Talk," "Power Politics", "An ordinary citizen's guide to empire," and "The checkbook and the cruise missile". For those who don't know her, she wrote the Booker Award winning novel "The God of Small Things."
A star, for sure.
Anonymous, thanks for that post.
Anybody catch the joke of the Evangelical in the library? I might be stealing it from this very site so apologies in advance.
Evangelical takes a book out of the library, trying to find one that will not go against her beliefs. She grabs a book thicker than the Bible in 18-font. Frustrated, she brings it back to the library and complains that she couldn't make sense of all the names and numbers and besides, there was no discernable plot. The librarian says, "We were wondering who took our phone book."
Though long dismissed by many so-called thinkers in academia, reading the works of Herbert Marcuse or Theodor Adorno or, since they came out of what is called the Frankfurt School of thought, virtually anybody else of prominence who came from it may prove to be enlightening reading about now.
I liked Life of Pi too. Resisted it for a long time but finally gave in.
Right now I'm reading "Becoming a Tiger" by Susan McCarthy.
I can't recommend it enough. It's an entertaining look at how baby animals learn to become, well, adults. How they go about the business of learning to hunt, gather or whatever it is they do. In spite of the title it's not just about tigers.
The writing is crisp and often quite funny. Baby animals are just as silly and clueless as baby humans. Her description of a group of adolescent condors who were running amok in california made me laugh out loud. Ditto her tale of a young orphaned lion who decided he was a herding dog to the bemusement of the game animals in his immediate neighborhood. He never did learn to hunt.
A good antidote for the insanity in the human world.
Just finished reading The Devil in the Blue City, an utterly enthralling if somewhat horrifying account of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, mingled with the tale of Harry Holmes, one of the country's first serial killers, who preyed on women who came to the fair.
Devil in the White City Great book. Got it in hardcover when it first came out. Highly recommended. Would make a great movie, IMHO.
I'm reading Karen King's What is Gnosticism?. It's a book about a religious and cultural phenomenon in the Middle East that has been examined almost exclusively through the eyes of its critics, starting with the heresiologists who first described it. King calls the term itself into question, revealing how not one but several phenomena answering to this description were lumped together by the Early Church Fathers, whose artificial categories (drawn up for the purpose of defining orthodox Christianity against other, less orthodox forms) are perpetuated by scholars to this day.
Now that we have access to genuine "Gnostic" texts, such as the Manichaean works from Dunhuang, the Nag Hammadi library, and the works of the Mandaeans (who are the only surviving "gnostic" tradition), the neat categories that we've been using all these centuries have started to fall apart. The Gnostics are apparently not what they seem.
This work is particularly relevant now, as Iraq hosts the largest community of Mandaeans in the world, and Falluja is a major center for them, home to 32 families before the war began. It's uncertain how many are left now, as they were among the first to be persecuted in Iraq, and many fled to Syria and beyond. Falluja, which was once the site of a major Talmudic academy (when it was known as Pumbdita) and home to nearly 300,000 people, is now 90% abandoned.
For some reason you omitted "cute."
Recent reading:
With Charity Toward None
-In which a philosophy professor shows exactly why Rand followers are not "different", but "stupid", and how it is that Rand is no philosopher but a huckster selling laissez-faire with bad logic and Oprahnomic phrases about "Man" and "freedom". It's worth reading just to see how many of the bad arguments, refuted decades ago, are still in regular circulation.
The Devils of Loudon
-We described this briefly elsewhere, but let it be said that you really ought to read this if you have not. The handling of the material, the writing itself, and the story told are all perfect--if Huxley were not a Huxley this book alone would establish him as a genius.
Exterminate All the Brutes
-Or anything by Sven Lindqvist for that matter. This is a quick introduction to the memes and mindsets of the dying yet still wildly murderouus Old World empires, but it goes deep and it written well. Includes the story that may have inspired Joseph Conrad to write Heart of Darkness, in which a European colonel becomes a warlord. He is confronted by the European sent out to stop him rampaging through the country, who believes that they can talk and settle things like whites. But our colonel gives instructions to his band, none of whom speak French or recognize the rank of the stranger...
Japanese Beyond Words
--By the excellent Andrew Horvat (what is it about Magyars and language proficiency?). Anyone curious about Japanese culture should also read Alex Kerr's Lost Japan, but approach with caution Jack Seward's curiously titled
The Japanese
--which is a decent introduction, ut peppered with die-hard rightist screeching that will cause you to compare him to Hitler. The guy compares medieval Japan (boiling people alive, etc) favorably to the chaotic US, noting that people lack only the necessary will to deal with crime [yes, in those words], and proclaiming (in case there was any doubt) that "crime is primarily a function of the Negro." Must be why there's so little crime in Japan, ne?
Beat the Heat
-by radical lawyer Katya Komisaruk and available from AK Press, this is the book you should've memorized in High School. Here is what cops do in answering a complaint, what they look for, and what you need to do to not get railroaded for something you didn't do (hint: read before signing anything). Includes copies of several state police forms with confessions in tiny print, so if you sign a form because it's "just paperwork, you understand," you're actually confessing.
I just finished The Plague by Albert Camus an I am currently re-reading Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
Nonfiction - Hannah Arendt, particulary "The Origins of Totalitarianism"
Fiction - Haruki Murakami - any and all
Two of all-time top 5 -
Jeanette Winterson's "Written on the Body"
John Weir's "The Irreversible Decline of Eddie Socket"
"The Cat from Hue" by John Laurence.
It's an engaging account of the Vietnam War by a CBS correspondent before the days of embedding. It is also a form of cat blogging before the days of blogs.
Read or re-read Sinclair Lewis' It Couldnt Happen Here or something very similar. You think that he is telling about today. What happened to my English keyboard...
Also, I am going to dig up my list of good books by female authors as most of this threads end up not including them. After I reset the keyboardÄ.
floopmeister, what's up?
would you kindly email me?
I have been trying very hard to avoid anything political since the country decided to commit suicide by ballot, so I have been sticking mostly to sf. Heinlein is out, especially Revolt in 2100 (the fall of the century of the american christian fundimentalist mullahs). If you want to keep things light I would recomend Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman (if the end of the world is coming, let it go down like this) and anything by Spider Robinson. His Crazy Years series has recently been released in a collection.
Cryotonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Truly a masterpiece. Having trouble slogging through his Baroque Cycle, but I'm still hopeful.
Robert Caro's Master of the Senate. Brilliant. Long but great.
Anything by Stephen Donaldson, particularly the Thomas Covenant books (he's just published a new Covenant book this month -- first in 20 years). After Tolkien, probably the best fantasy series ever made.
Diarmid MacCullough's The Reformation. Great piece of history, very informative, very relevant, excellent writing.
For SF fans, anything by C.J. Cherryh or Greg Bear.
That's the first cut,
Animal Farm---George Orwell
Best book written, hands down in my opinion. Easilt read and understood by young and old alike. Found depressing by many, I don't feel the book has a solid end. It really amazes me to see how the animated version ends and to know its production was monitored by the FBI. And although I liked Jean Luke Picard doing Napolean's voice, but TNT's version still ends badly.
1. Co-Dependency and Power by Whacker T. Doodle
2. Dealing with a Dry Drunk by Dr. Phil
3. Karma Sutra for Stepford Wives
4. How to Talk to Friends Who have Gay Children
Hamster Brigade, Interesting point. I wonder if Bush were to don the veil of ignorance what his tax policies would be.Not if he kept it on but if he were to wear for a while, then take it off. I mean after seeing what tax system a person in the original position would choose, if he would continue to pursue regressive taxation after taking off the veil. If he were to continue on his current course,it would end any pretence of Bush being a moral man
Re-read 1984 last summer. Sent chills up my spine with the parallels to Bush & co.: the ultimate postmodern presidency.
Try:
IBM and the Holocaust (Edwin Black)
or
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
They're basically the same friggin' book.
Shalom,
Ian
Another iconoclastic book I read recently:
Please Kill Me - The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, by Legs McNeil.
This is a collection of interviews with Patty Smith, Iggy Pop, The Ramones, Richard Hell, numerous groupies, and everyone who was anyone in the NYCity CBGB's scene. If you're old enough to remember have been around the early punk scene, you will be unable to put down the book, you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll fondly reminisce over a time when we were kids and thought we could start a new movement to shake up peoples' minds.
I have been trying very hard to avoid anything political since the country decided to commit suicide by ballot, so I have been sticking mostly to sf. Heinlein is out, especially Revolt in 2100 (the fall of the century of the american christian fundimentalist mullahs). If you want to keep things light I would recomend Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman (if the end of the world is coming, let it go down like this) and anything by Spider Robinson. His Crazy Years series has recently been released in a collection.
The Mysteries of Sarah Caudwell.
Cicero, The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician
by Anthony Everitt
Re: Ender's Game
If you think Ender's Game is a horrible novel glorifying war, you didn't read it very closely. The main character is mentally torn apart by what he has to go through and the decisions he makes. In the sequels, we learn that Ender is villified and universally hated for what he did in Ender's Game, and he tries to spend the rest of his life making up for what he did.
If anything, Ender's Game points out the horrors of war and doesn't glorify it. The heros of war are glorified, but not the war itself. In addition, Card talks a great deal about the propaganda that goes in to the war they are fighting, and doesn't portray such things in a positive light.
Give the book, and it's sequel, Speaker for the Dead, a reread - while I read them first when I was 13, I still enjoy flipping through them occasionally.
don't listen to jim dunn upthread. "angels and demons" is absolutely the worst novel ever written, and i sort of like "the da vinci code".
oops sorry!!
Oh well, you might also try:
The Legalized Crime Of Banking
and A Constitutional Remedy
by
Silas Walter Adams
found here:
http://ca.geocities.com/
yarmulka...ized_index.html
Thanks again or reading,
Ian
"The Paranoid Style in American Politics" by Richard Hofstadter -- probes the origins of the "wingnut" view of American life and politics.
Fat Land (Greg Critser):
the politics of food/obesity in America with a scary final chapter on the medical consequences.
Ross,
My thinking exactly. Cheney's buddies would gladly bomb US troops if they got paid for it. After all, we have to get rid of that Egyptian cotton.
Fat Land (Greg Critser):
the politics of food/obesity in America with a scary final chapter on the medical consequences.
FLG, I love that kind of book. Did you ever read the Beak of the Finch?
"The Brothers K" by David James Duncan, a powerful story made more relevant by the current misadventure in Iraq and the coming draft, with interesting observations on a fundamentalist character central to the tale.
Also "My Story As Told by Water" by the same author. Environmental essays and a philosophy of life woven into a fantastic work, better for me than Thoreau.
Justin has the right take on Ender's Game. It does NOT glorify war, it abhors it, as well as the militarism that leads to war.
Umm..honmono, Murakami Haruki isn't representative of ANYTHING American.. which I remind you is the topic of this thread. In fact, if you have read some of his more recent essays that haven't been translated into English yet, he comes of like a bitter old crank that hates America.
autumn angels -arthur byron cover
a look at pulp culture featuring the crawling bird, the big blue cheese, the fatman, the demon, and the lawyer. long out of print but worth searching for as cover turns a bright light on the 'depth' of america's lowest common literate denominator.
-J.T.
Warlord of Silver Spring
I had told myself that I was done with the blogging, but I wanted to come back and add to my previous recommendation on the Jasper Fforde Thursday Next series that although I had lumped it under "non-political" some of the anti-war stuff doesn't feel that way at all.
(Just as a taste of these books: it takes place in an alternate history where the Crimean War has continued for 130 years ... and this is the least weird thing about the setup. The heroine is a "literary detective," but you'll have to read them to see what that means. It's really, truly, great stuff.)
-- Stu
Also, for those of you that like fantasy, but serious stuff- check out Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon from his series Malzan Book of the Fallen. Only the first book is out in the USA. (british author)
Also," Perfect Circle" by Sean Stewart and anything by Terry Dowling if you can get your hands on it. (Dowling is Australian and hard to find in the US, though he shows up on Ebay occasionally and ABE books).
Something lighthearted- it's a kids book but I still really liked it, "The Amulet of Samarkand" by Jonathan Stroud. The chief character is a witty demon named Bartimaeus.
Non-fiction --
The Prize by Daniel Yergin -- comprehensive history of the oil industry...
Fiction --
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
and you sure can't go wrong with Catch-22...
cryptic message from TMP:
Any hired-gun who worked for John Kerry and is now publicly -- subtly or not so subtly -- slipping a shiv in his back: that's someone the Democratic party can do without. Clear the decks.
hadenough
josh's one to talk.
where was his concern for the party before the war? takes a backstabber to recognize one.
If you like legal thrillers with real meat to them, read anything by William Lashner. He's fantastic. Hostile Witness, Past Due, Fatal Flaw, and one other I can't remember right now. His hero, Victor Carl, is as dark but still moral as a mystery lead character can get.
Lord of the Flies.
Winnie The Pooh. Seriously..... good stuff.
"An Imperfect God" It's about George Washington's relation to the slave culture of the revolutionary era. Disturbing and enlightening.
"Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow.
Anything by PG Wodehouse. Anything at all.
suzanh-uh, no, "the life of pi" is not the least bit kiplingesque. don't know where you got that idea.
i actually sort of like kipling though, and i read an interesting book which is probably hard to find called "mr. kipling's army". it is non-fiction, all about the victorian/edwardian british army.
bismarck called it "a peculiar little army" and said that if it ever showed up in germany he would send a prussian policeman around to arrest it.
Echidne,
I'll jump in for you: I have a real soft spot in my heart for Anita Brookner, who I read a lot of the year I had left school and thought I'd never go back, and for Edna O'Brien, whose Country Girls trilogy is as cutting a vision of modern Ireland as I've seen (and I've seen a lot of them).
which I remind you is the topic of this thread
No. the topic of this thread is reading.
re: Ender's Law: It's a novel lauded by X-Box owning fanboys, who fantasize they are real warriors, when they're playing games like the characters in the novel. Orson Scott Card is a religious bigot and an ultra-right winger who has no place in the literary world, even the lowbrow world of SF. I've read his novels, and they're all trash. Go read something intelligent like a Stanislav Lem novel.
The idea of w in a "veil of ignorance" is just redundant. He is made of ignorance.
don't read novels. and i often have several bits of nonfic going at once.
here are two that are by my armchair....
for years i have collected books on water[fresh and salt] and aquatic life[the fisheries]. years ago, on my first visit to tokyo, i went down to the shore of tokyo bay very early in the morning to witness the opening of what was then the largest fish market in the world. recently, the university of california press published a book in their california studies in food and culture series - it's a great one. TSUKIJI: The Fish Market at the Center of the World.
my principal collection involves amerika since the establishment of the national security state in 1947. needless to say, this causes me to acquire all books involving korea. recently an extraordinarily detailed volume was published that is a marvel of scholarship. entitled UNDER THE LOVING CARE OF THE FATHERLY LEADER: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty. It is probably much too long for most, even those at this site, but it is well-written and is a great companion to the extraordinary histories that bruce cumings wrote on the korean war.
read on, macduff.
mena, I have not.
Author? thanks. Susan McCarthy has a previous book "When Elephants Weep" dealing with animal's emotions. I'm going to get that as well.
Agree wholeheartedly on the Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde (yes, that's not a typo). I've read the first two and have been promising myself number 3 as a reward.
The whole world in the Next books is like ours but slightly warped, and warped in a way that's interesting especially to people who love to read. But I agree with sdf; there really isn't any way you can explain the books to someone who hasn't tried them.
Also very bizarre but lots of fun, The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin. A sendup of the classic noir detective book, but so weird and out there that you can't put it down. I have yet to find one other book by Robert Rankin in any local bookstores or my library, but I'm looking for more of his stuff, if it's like this.
Full Spectrum Disorder
by Stan Goff. Frighteningly frank description of the decline of the American Empire by former career Special Forces soldier turned revolutionary.
Disinformation: The Interviews
edited by Richard Metzger
Great collection of interviews with artists, thinkers and freaks.
Fiction authors:
Alan Warner, China Mieville, Jeff Noon, George Saunders, David Masiel, Robert Anton Wilson (all of his non-fiction too).
I read, have several cats, and am "Rubenesque". I'm a Wiccan. How did you know?
For something completely different, try Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World by Simon Garfield. A chemistry student accidentally makes the first artificial dye in 1856. Before that they were all made from natural items, leaves, insects, etc... so were expensive and inconsistent.
charlie don't surf,
Thanks! will efinitely check out "Please Kill Me." Hope things have settled a bit at home for ya.
I bought "Don't think of an elephant" by lakoff and at the same time bought another book that I always wanted Age of Reason by Thomas Paine. Purchased them right before the election. Read the first chapter of "Age of Reason" The Author's Profession of faith and tell me who Thomas Paine could be describing as speaks of "moral mischief" and "mental lying". He also speaks of the "adulterous connection between church and state" and how when that when this takes place there will be a revolution in the system of religion. I believe that time is now. We need somebody to run exclusively on attacking the far right wing extremism and their influence on government and how that violates american principles. I think Thomas Paine has spelled out exactly how to frame the moral values issue that Lakoff talks about.
One of the most fascinating philosophical books I have ever read was 'The Nature of Rationality' - by Robert Nozick.
Princton University Press - 1994.
You gotta be a real philosophy geek to read it though. A good working knowledge of philosophical problem structure is also required.
Hey fourlegsgood, where can I find the Larson book? Heard it's great, have been trying to find it for MONTHS. Amazon couldn't find me a copy after leaving my order open for two months. Any ideas? Thanks.
I haven't had time to read anything at all lately - but I'm going to get some Alice Munroe out of the library on Monday. Michael Chabon wrote a great piece on her work in this Sunday's NYT Book Review. Can't get the link yet.
Hecate,
I loved the Sarah Caudwell series. They are really funny books! Too bad that the author died so young.
In science fiction I like Elizabeth Moon's The Remnant Population
and almost anything by Ursula le Guin,
especially the Left Hand of Darkness (if that's the title).
In classics, Lady Murasaki's Genji is very interesting. It could well be the oldest novel ever written. It has a lot of politics in it, also.
And Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale suits these times pretty well.
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. A family led by the delusional husband goes to the Congo in an attempt to convert the locals to the 'proper' god. Very moving. I recommend it highly. It's one I'll read over and over.
I am reading Asimov's Foundation trilogy to my son these days. I think we are in a Seldon crisis in this country.
Not apropos of anything in particular, a timeless, very accessible, and as yet underappreciated sociological introduction to / application of game theory is Tom Schelling's The Strategy of Conflict.
albertchampion, I love you.
But what are you PERSONALLY doing?
To escape recent events: anything by Richard Brautigan (except The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966 'cause it's gonna be relevant again real soon)
Erik, you do know what happened to Thomas Paine, don't you? Once he took on organized religion, he was anathema in godly America. And that was 200 years ago.
Sometimes things don't change as much or as quickly as we wish they did.
Albert Camus supported the Algierian reconquista and probably would've supported our adventure in Iraq. "It Can't Happen Here" was crap by a skillful author with nothing political to say (to us), turning out careful theatrics without really going anywhere--not that we don't love schlock from that era, like the gloriously crappy Charles Laughton movie. The laughably illogical 1984 is not really being appreciated for what it is: for satire you'd be better served by Brave New World or Catch-22 (there are word-perfect predictions of the Bush era, like "if you're not with us you're against us") or, to stay with Orwell, his articles on shooting an elephant, hanging a man, his Homage to Catalonia, and on an annual basis or more, Politics and the English Language.
Any fans of Don DeLillo and/or Umberto Eco?
I keep going back to Carrol's Alice books. Through the looking glass, indeed.
.
Currently rereading Ursula K. LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness. Love Steven Saylor's Roma sub rosa series for brain candy.
I like the Thursday Next novels as well.
Something else I've gotten hooked on is the vampire series by Charlaine Harris, starting with Dead Until Dark. Funny mysteries about a world where vampire have come out and admitted that yes, they exist. The development of synthetic blood has allowed them to come out of the shadow.
Not serious stuff but good escapism.
Excellent lit with political leanings...
The Quiet American by Graham Greene is one of my favorites of all time. It's about the havoc wreaked on weaker lands by well-meaning dolts. Harkens back to a simpler time when some of the dolts actually were well-meaning.
Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov. A beautifully written story about a guy who gets sucked into the hell of totalitarianism, but it's got a much more contemporary feel than you might expect. Black humor.
World on Fire by Amy Chua
thesis is that "we" (IMF, World Bank, etc.) can't export bare-knuckles neo-liberal economics and full-tilt "democracy" simultaneously
Reading Sy Hersh right now, but I have 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell' on the shelf for when I'm ready to immerse myself in fiction.
You read, but do you understand?
Notice: no trolls on this thread. They were scared off by the word "book" in the title. Books are to trolls as garlic is to a vampire.
whoever it was who mentioned tom robbins, i second that. it's kind of weird. back when msn had public chatrooms i used to go to pagan ones sometimes, hoping to find tom robbins fans. oddly, no pagans have ever heard of him., which left me wondering who buys his books.
my favorite is "jitterbug perfume". it's all about beets, immortality, the sense of smell, and the great god pan.
Oh, and A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. Very droll, very tongue in cheek; we're up to number 11 out of (I think) 13, and much more fun than Harry Potter. They're coming out with a movie based on one or two of the novels, but read the books first. I fear the Jim Carrey will totally screw up the movie version.
FLG, I wish I could remember. I loaned it out and, well, you know. If someone out there does, it would be nice to know, but I'll have to check back and read this thread later. I can't type fast enough to keep up.
All of Pat Barker. On a lighter note, Lemony Snicket (for fifth grade and up, but it helps to have a degree in English if you want to get all the jokes).
The second largest group is non-religous/secular. Alot of things have changed in 200 years. 100% of the country is no longer Christian. it's not attacking christianity it's attacking right wing extremism. The Repubs don't even want to show these people in public.
Almost anything by Neal Stephenson, but especially the 3 books of the Baroque Cycle ( http://tinyurl.com/5ffv4 )
and Cryptonomicon ( http://tinyurl.com/7xhwe )
Just from these 4 books I feel like I've learned about so much that is connected in history and science and religious stuggles, etc. Very rich material.
Cryptonomicon (his last book before the Baroque cycle) I just flat out recommend.
The Baroque cycle is trickier. I perosnally really really enjoyed it on many levels. But I don't know if everyone will be as into the shifting focus in the stories - one minute it's the development of the glory days of early modern science, the next it's the freaky functionings of the British and French royal courts, the next it's the evolution of money as we know it today, then it's swashbuckling fights on the high seas and Soloman's gold. And alot more.
But all of it is totally connected.
(And then it's all connected to Cryptonomicon, too)
I know to some just liking this kind of story makes me an elitist. Of course it doesn't matter to them that I also love Harry Potter, Spiderman and X-men, etc. etc. I'm just a snooty Ivory tower egghead to them.
Well if people want to think of me like that - fuck 'em. I don't give a crap. They'll only pry these extremely heavy books out of my cold dead hands.
Currently reading (I tend to alternate between books): (I was the anonymous poster just above).
Fiction:
Icon (Frederick Forsyth)
A few years old, but a typically great Forsyth spy novel set against the backdrop of a late-90's post Soviet Russia as a retired pair of spies work to prevent a fascist from taking control of Russia.
America: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction (Jon Stewart & Daily Show Writers A nice way to get over the post election blues. Very funny, written in the style of a typical high school textbook.
The Boer War (Thomas Pakenham) This is research for a novel I'm writing, but frankly, the number of echoes and parallels both domestically and on the foreign front with our present situation in Iraq are rather scary.
Follow Haldeman's *Forever War* with his *Forever Peace.*
RE Spider Robinson's "Crazy Years" rif, which he took from Heinlein's Future History timeline. Though things seem really bad now, when Heinlein made up that phrase things were in many ways worse: both Hitler and Stalin were in power.
It's no wonder I enjoy the company here.All the reading this crowd does is satisfying to me intellectually.
Tho I must admit.I do not read much that is mentioned here.I mostly stick to genres that feed my escapism fetish.
Authors like King,and Clark,and Asimov,allow me to dodge reality,at least for a little while.Science Fiction does me best when I am in a foul mood,as in todays depressing atmosphere.
Gotta run again,I'll be back to read your recommendations,I do enjoy the thread.
Pseudo-intellectuals, desperately trying to impress.
Yawn.
JShurberg, Larson? sorry, I'm confused, which book?
Used to recommend Ender's Game...until I found out that Card was a big W supporter.
Egyption Nobel Mahfouz--Cairo trilogy...first one is called the Palace Walk
Sigrid Undset Kristin Lavransdatter...medieval Sweden
Second on Homage to Catalonia - Orwell
A Distant Mirror - Tuchman 14th Century history worth reading. Also her First Salute and March of Folly.
Barndog, Isnt Nozick the guy that argues that taxation for the purposes of wealth distribution the same as forced labor
I'd imagine y'all would like Max Berry's Jennifer Government. It's about a dystopic future where the government has basically privatized itself out of existence and people are at the mercy of the multinational corporations, all of which have either allied themselves with Pepsi or Coke. As the book develops, these two alliances are trapped in a Cold War, which is about to grow hot...
Naturally, it is satire, written with tongue firmly planted in cheek, but insightful nonetheless. It ranks up with Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash as one of the most darkly humorous dystopias ever imagined.
China Miéville, who has already been mentioned several times, is an excellent read, and a Leftist as well - in fact, a Socialist, IIRC.
Do books by Hannity and Coulter count?
"lowbrow world of SF"
verne
heinlein
vinge
stephenson
wells, h.g.
wells, orson
orwell
bradbury
bester
kornbluth
golding
dick, phil
miller, walter
ballard
simak
burroughs
smith, cordwainer
herbert, frank
le guin
wolfe, gene
pohl
varley
burroughs, e.r.
gibson, william
just off the top of my head.
-J.T.
Warlord of Silver Spring
Spork -- those are two of my favorite authors. Have you read any books by George Saunders? What do you think?
Another fine piece is -
"The Cluetrain Manifesto" - the end of business as usual.
Rick Levine, Chris Locke, Doc Searls & David Weinberger.
About how big business and old stuffy bastards revolted against the internets and the world wide web.
A great read.
The Cost of Rights (Stephen Holmes & Cass Sunstein):
Surprising discussion of "why liberty depends on taxes." Challenges concepts of rights cherished by the propertied. "Freedom of the press is worth more to the person who owns a newspaper than to the person who sleeps under one on the park bench."
My husband read and enjoyed Jennifer Government, so that's on my TBR pile as well.
A Distant Mirror has always been a favorite. Bring on the flagellants.
Great Idea Atrios.
By John Judis:
The Grand Illusion
The Paradox of American Democracy
The Folly of Empire
By David Hackett Fischer:
Albion's Seed
Love the Left Hand of Darkness, one of my all time favorites.
I've read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, different and rather dickensian.
Nice to hear about Lemony Snickets. I almost picked it up- now I will.
Nader reads more than all of you do.
Chicago by Maurine Watkins. The edition put out by the Southern Illinois University Press includes the play and all the Chicago Tribune stories Watkins wrote, and constructed her play from.There are alos pictures of the murderesses. This volume tells you everything you need to know about Our Media . . .and all that jazz
Also:
The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord
The Gulf War Did Not Take Place by Jean Baudrillard
and
The Culture of Terrorism by Noam Chomsky
(Eric Alterman can go fuck himself!)
1984 is about a nation founded specifically on contradiction a child or good Chinese citizen could see through and impossible overhead--if any element of the fantastically complicated machine fails, the whole thing fails. It took a gorgeous SF short piece, titled "Due to circumstances beyond our control, 1984 is postponed indefinitely," to drive this home. Brave New World on the other hand is absolutelty true: instead of bothering to teach what economics are and then wrestling to keep ones economics pure, it is so much more efficient to keep people fat and drunk and unable to comprehend abstraction in the first place ("We're being exploited as a class? But..but...look at Britney Spears' shirt!").
Stephen Pressfield's "The Last Amazon" is a god-damned Star Trek episode ("Kirk has shown us error of resisting cock...can Kirk ever forgive our wrongheaded strongheadedness?" "Ha ha ha, can I...") with a few grudging superficial concessions made to sort of not be so obvious. Better off The Female Man. Also, has nobody mentioned
H*A*R*L*A*N E*L*L*I*S*O*N
?
any of terry pratchett's discworld novels.
Speaking of Churchy, old Pogo books. God I miss Pogo.
Moon Media Fronts
Atlantic Video, Inc., * 650 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington DC. Founded in 1984.
Belleville Press, 401 5th Ave., NYC & 91 Terry St. & 480 Washington Ave., Belleville, NJ (201 759 2334 (owned by News World Communications)
CARP Monthly
Causa Report # 4301 Harewood Rd., NE Wash., DC 20017
Currents, A Journal of Unificationism Thought and Culture, Washington, DC; supposedly an "independent project" put out by its publishing committee and funded by same: Bruce Casino, Dan Fefferman, Dan Holdgreiwe, Michael Jenkins, Robert Rand, Justin Watson and Nancy Wright; P.O. Box 962, Riverdale, MD 20737; $20 per year; see 12/89 Unification News.
Epoch Maker Magazine #
Free Press International, Inc., # 401 5th Ave., NY 212 532 8300
Freestate Publishing, Inc. * Subsidiary of News World Communications
Global Affairs, 905 16th St. NW, #401, Washington, DC 20006
Global Insight
Harlem Weekly, 401 5th Ave., NYC 10016; 212 532 8300
HeartWing * 12715 NE 7th Place, Vancouver, WA 98684, 206 944 7278.
Heaven & Earth newsletter
Insight Magazine
International Exchange Press *
Manhattan Magazine
Manhattan Television Center * 311 W. 34th St., NY, NY
Middle East Times * Cyprus
New Era Books, 481 8th Ave., NYC 10001; 212 695 7562
New Future Films * 481 8th Ave., NYC 10001; 212 947 2780
New Hope News members only
News World Communications, 3600 New York Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20006; 202 636 4836 (holding company that publishes all of the different newspapers owned by church The Washington Times is printed at this location) also: 38 38 9th St., LI City, NY 11101; 718 786 3200 (church owned building in Queens where all of NYC newspapers are printed; building houses many other church businesses as well)
Noticias Del Mundos * 401 5th Ave., NYC 10016; 212 576 0350 DBA for Tiempos USA Corp.
Noticias Panamerica Corp * Publishes the Tiempos del Mundo newspapers in 17 cities in 16 countries through the Americas.
One Way Productions # 10889 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., CA. INCHON $46 million film starring Laurence Olivier, Jackie Bisset, Ben Gazzara about Douglas MacArthur in Korea.
Paragon House Publishers * 866 2nd Ave., NYC; 212 223 6433 (owned by Paragon Book Reprint Co., which is owned by International Cultural Foundation; also at 481 8th Ave.
Principle life
Queens Magazine
Renaissance for Resources (project volunteer)
Rising Tide # D.C. paper of the Freedom Leadership Foundation
Rose of Sharon Press, Inc. * 481 8th Ave., NYC 10001
Sae Gae Times * 38 W. 32nd St., Rm. 1508, NY 10001; 212 947 4770
Sae Gae Times * 5816 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, IL 60659
Segye Times * Korean newspaper, publishes Cosmo Woman
Sekai Nippo * 401 5th Ave., NYC 10016, 212 532 7638
Spring of Life nutritional journal (IFABM)
Sunrise newsletter
The New York Tribune * No longer published.
The Pacific Student Times * 625 Front St., San Francisco, CA
The Washington Times * 3600 New York Ave., NW, WDC 20006
The Weekly Religion
Tong Il Seigel monthly members
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.
It's one of the finest novels ever written, period.
Dennett/Hofstadter, "The Mind's I" --
Best easy introduction to ideas in modern cognitive science and philosophy
NYMary, yes Anita Brookner is good and Alice Munro is a master of the short story. I also read my Jane Austens every ten years or so. It is interesting how differently they read at different ages.
I also re-read Dostoyevsky, Gogol and Turgenyev pretty regularly as well as George Eliot and Shakespeare.
And kei&yuri, It Can't Happen Here is not a good book, but it sure is interesting to read right now. It has everything we have today, from wingnuts and church ladies and moneyed interests and ruthless politicians and the rise of fascism and the disbelief in the same rise of fascism. It even has a suicide attack using an airplane.
Excellent lit with political leanings...
The Quiet American by Graham Greene is one of my favorites of all time. It's about the havoc wreaked on weaker lands by well-meaning dolts. Harkens back to a simpler time when some of the dolts actually were well-meaning.
Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov. A beautifully written story about a guy who gets sucked into the hell of totalitarianism, but it's got a much more contemporary feel than you might expect. Black humor.
1984 is about a nation founded specifically on contradiction a child or good Chinese citizen could see through and impossible overhead--if any element of the fantastically complicated machine fails, the whole thing fails. It took a gorgeous SF short piece, titled "Due to circumstances beyond our control, 1984 is postponed indefinitely," to drive this home to us. Brave New World on the other hand is absolutely true: instead of bothering to teach what economics are and then wrestling to keep one's economics pure, it is so much more efficient to keep people fat and drunk and unable to comprehend abstraction in the first place ("We're being exploited as a class? But..but...look at Britney Spears' shirt!").
Stephen Pressfield's "The Last Amazon" is a god-damned Star Trek episode ("Kirk has shown us error of resisting cock...can Kirk ever forgive our wrongheaded strongheadedness?" "Ha ha ha, can I...") with a few grudging superficial concessions made to sort of not be so obvious. AmPlan fans are better off The Female Man. Also, has nobody mentioned
H*A*R*L*A*N E*L*L*I*S*O*N
?
Dittos for P. G. Wodehouse and for Tom Robbins (EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES).
Stephen Jay Gould (WONDERFUL LIFE)
Martin Gardner's ANNOTATED ALICE
The Matt Helm series by Donald Hamilton - forget Dean Martin
The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan - better than Tolkien IMHO
VALDIS by Philip K. Dick
old New Art Examiner magazines
Why People Believe Weird Things
by Michael Shermer
(again)
Carl Sandburg autobio
Re-reading "Timequake" by Vonnegut as it was his 82nd birthday on Thursday.
Currently reading (I tend to alternate between books): (I was the anonymous poster just above).
Fiction:
Icon (Frederick Forsyth)
A few years old, but a typically great Forsyth spy novel set against the backdrop of a late-90's post Soviet Russia as a retired pair of spies work to prevent a fascist from taking control of Russia.
America: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction (Jon Stewart & Daily Show Writers A nice way to get over the post election blues. Very funny, written in the style of a typical high school textbook.
The Boer War (Thomas Pakenham) This is research for a novel I'm writing, but frankly, the number of echoes and parallels both domestically and on the foreign front with our present situation in Iraq are rather scary.
temanu,
I think that GWB would deny that putting on a veil is possible in the first place -- despite the fact that Rawls insists that the exercise is a hypothetical thought experiment. He would refuse out of some bizarre crypto-Nozickian (sans the brainpower of Nozick, of course) creed that those who have inherited resources or good genes deserve whatever flows from those resources/genes and the state (and even worse, PHILOSOPHERS) have no business fucking with that.
Mena's right; W and ignorance are redundant.
K'so, sorry about the double post, we had problems with haloscan. So it is clearly haloscan's fault. And we have been meaning to point out:
Harper's this month has an absolutely incredible send-up of the Left Behind novels which really ought to be read by all.
I spent most of the last year and half reading non-fiction books and magazines so I was always primed and ready with ideas and facts I could present to people about the state of the nation, the Bushes, Kerry, Dean, agendas and histories, collaborations and networks, and always, always, following the money and the power so I knew what I was talking about, when needed.
So for the next couple of months, I'm going to indulge in some good escapism and light hearted fiction. Just started reading "Going Postal", the latest Pratchett Discworld novel. Am considering doing for the first time a complete re-read of Discworld books, starting with the very first, "The Colour of Magic". Spider Robinson's latest is on the top of the pile, because the man has a heart and a brain, and I love his honesty, his sense of joy and heartbreak, and his belief that some how, someway, people are mostly good. Could use a dose of faith and joy right now.
I've got a few favorites I can always get lost in; LoTR, of course, and GRR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, which is loaded with murder and treachery and villians that just might be, if you looked at them right, just might be heros and golden-haired knights with black hearts who struggle to find out what sort of person they actually are, and not happy with what they find. Small plucky proto-sociopathic children figure in as well, and there are, at least right now, three small but growing dragons. Hope there's a new one in 2005.
I also have a couple of dozen DVDs I've haven't watched, and I found last weekend's indulgence of a day watching the LoTR films helped my spirit a lot. Maybe I'll invite a few people over and we'll do a day of feasting and viewing the entire trilogy extended versions when RotK is released.
After the new year, I'll dig into some more weighty works, fiction and non ficiton, but right now, it's time to find some laughs and refresh my pleasures of favorite writers for a couple of months.
And it's snowing here in the Sangre de Cristos, time to start a fire, and curl up with a good book, enjoying the company of a visitng friend and my loved one.
Have a good weekend folks, we could all use a good one - and victory to the Jets!
when i was in my 20's i read kafka and gloried in the moroseness and hopelessness of it all. many people did the same. if you are over 30, go back and read it again. i didn't understand it back then. it turns out that kafka was a comic author. i'm serious. "the metamorphosis" is one of the funniest stories ever written.
Of course, I can't forget the ever popular:
"For Self-Examination, Judge For Yourself" - Soren Kierkegaard.
Edited & translated by Howard V. Hong & Edna H. Hong.
Then, theres always:
"Jung to live by"
Eugene Pascal, Ph.L. - a Jungian analyst. A guide to the practical application of Jungian principles for everyday life.
A Plague of Rats and Rubbervines Yvonne Baskin
If you think the neocons are the only thing we have to worry about....
damn, i'm always missing the new threads.
pie, you post something like that and it makes me like you again, stop confusing me.
as may be evident from my postings i haven't read anything (except bukowski) in 5 years. but on nov. 4rth i started reading and rereading civil disobedience. amazingly relevant.
smalfish, don't forget to read fahrenhiet 451. best science fiction i ever read was 'demon seed' trashy little screed, very sexy.
Olaf--I think the Indian kid with the tiger thing just throws me.
The Thursday Next books are much fun, and I think they do have the anti-war thread running through them.
A quick question: After the agony of the election, how do you read the newpaper or books which are indictments of the administration and not run screaming through your neighborhood?
And Kafka. Kafka feels very right for today.
Oh, another Tom Robbins with some topicality is SKINNY LEGS AND ALL
Terry Pratchett is wonderful, especially Small Gods, which I've reread several times. If you like him Good Omens that he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman, is fun too.
JT, when I refer to the "lowbrow world of SF," I'll just quote a bit from Stanislav Lem's intense novel "His Master's Voice."
"One day I found him amid large packages from which spilled attractive, glossy paperbacks with mythical covers. He had tried to use, as a 'generator of ideas,'--for we were running out of them--those works of fantastic literature, that popular genre (especially in the States), called, by a persistent misconception, 'science fiction.' He had not read such books before; he was annoyed--indignant, even--expecting variety, finding monotony. 'They have everything EXCEPT fantasy,' he said. Indeed, a mistake. the authors of these pseudo-scientific fairy tales supply the public with what it wants: truisms, cliches, stereotypes, all sufficiently costumed and made 'wonderful' so that the reader may sink into a safe state of surprise and at the same time not be jostled out of his philosophy of life. If there is progress in a culture, the progress is above all conceptual, but literature, the science-fiction variety in particular, has nothing to do with that."
All of Pat Barker. On a lighter note, Lemony Snicket (for fifth grade and up, but it helps to have a degree in English if you want to get all the jokes).
Comics, tech magazines, political columns, food catalogs... lemme at 'em. Anything. My favorite reading as of late has been the last six books by Lois McMaster Bujold, which I just keep re-reading -- the Miles Vorkosigan books are especially poignant in These Dark Times, as an example of someone literally born to power who not only worries about abusing it but, given the choice, prefers rescue missions above all else -- and William Rice's Steak Lovers Cookbook.
Someday I'm going to read Hyptonermachia (sp?) but I think I need to eat shrooms or something first.
Rohinton Mistry for novels where history and people matter.
seconded. I don't read much fiction, but I like Mistry a lot.
i absolutely loved "We the Living" by ayn rand and "Patrimony" by Phillip Roth. "Fast Food Nation" was amazing.
Just finished reading The End of Oil by Paul Roberts, about some pretty scary scenarios when the world's petroleum runs out.
I'm planning to re-read Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale soon--a good object lesson for the kind of world that Dr. Dobson and his ilk would like to create.
Here is what I'm reading right now:
Caesar-The Gallic Wars
Plutarch-Alexander The Great
Dante-The Inferno
Bruce Lee-The Tao of Jeet Kun Do
All very good books.
Red staters: Discpline & Punish, by Michel Foucault
Blue staters: The Good Society, by Robert Bellah, et al
Not only do the Thursday Next novels have an anti-war theme, they also have an anti-corporatism theme, which is also good.
Echidne of the snakes
You have Very Good Reading Habits!
I vote this best thread ever!
Waiting to read:
The United States of Europe by T.R. Reid
Currently reading:
Imperial Hubris by Anonymous
An Honourable Defeat: A History of German
Resistance to Hitler, 1933-1945 by Anton Gill
The IRA: A History by Tim Pat Coogan
Skimming through The Inferno & 1984
Recent reads:
What’s the Matter with Kansas? By Tom Frank
Chain of Command by Sy Hersh
The Sorrows of Empire by Chalmers Johnson
Blowback by Chalmers Johnson
After the Empire by Emmanuel Todd
The Perfect Heresy by Stephen O’Shea
Baghdad Express by Joel Turnipseed
(Joel sez 400+ hours intense study of
Kierkegaard’s Concept of Irony required to
Deprogram from reading Ayn Rand –LMFAO!!!)
Favorites:
Devil’s (The Possessed) by F.M. Dostoevsky
Les Miserables and ’93 by Victor Hugo
Roughing It & Letters from Earth by Mark Twain
"90% of *anything* is shit." sturgeon, theodore.
-J.T.
Warlord of Silver Spring
How to have sex like a pornstar by Jenna Jameson. As seen on Fox news.
Hm. I'm reading Wicked by Gregory McGuire now, but it's really not catching me. It seems like a lot of (to me) trite progressive cliches, and it really seems like he read Stephen King's Dark Tower novels and is actually ripping off the other-worldly realm that King created there. Maybe that is going to sound horrible to Wicked lovers, but... I gotta be candid. So, it's kinda... ugh. So far. But I think I'd be able to tell already if I was gonna like it.
Les Miserables is still my all-time favorite. Truly an epic.
The Metaphysical Club gives one a lot to chew on. It was definitely a labor of love. I'll always like that book.
I didn't finish Alexander Hamilton by Chernow, but I liked what I read.
A Theory of Justice by John Rawls is intoxicating. I could die within that book.
Hm. Well, there will never be enough books. I wish I was more well-read. I keep hearing good things about- what's it? What's the Matter With Kansas? Sounds like something everyone should read.
Oh yeah- Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee- great book.
Eye of the Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival by Carl Safina
Here are the books I plan to read next month:
Marcus Aurelius-Meditations
Malory-Le Morte D'Arthur (translated by Baines)
And then I'm going to take a break.
Olaf, absolutely (the inconvenient glowing blue balls keeping someone up by bouncing around in his cabinet, the ape's comments to his human mentors), and not only that, but Kafka was something of a Jewish Studies amateur and secreted a lot of things you don't pick up on without your own grasp of things (like the parable about not being allowed in to juidicate/experience "the law" [HINT HINT] until you're about to die). So of course Kafka is popularly framed as writing about "nothing" and bleak humorless unhappiness.
And the Steven Soderbergh film (with Alec Guiness, Ian Holm, Jeremy Irons as K, Joel Grey and Trashy GODDESS Theresa Russell as a hot anarchist bombshell) absolutely rocks! Not yet on DVD we think (and we are looking).
Paul Samuelson's 1964 Economics textbook.
Assuming you are interested in God's relationshion to 44, you want to get a copy of Esther Kaplan's With God on Their Side: How Christian Fundamentalists Trampled Science, Policy, and Democracy in George W. Bush's White House.
It's a level-headed, sane, look at some serious craziness.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obido...il/-/
1565849205
If you like Schelling, you should read:
"Game Theory in the Social Sciences" by Martin Shubik
and
"Introduction to the Theory of Social Choice", by John Bonner.
Pseudo-intellectuals, desperately trying to impress.
Yawn.
Anonymous
Pick up a book sometime, Anon. Challenge yourself. Be a rebel - read something and form your own opinion of it, without someone telling you what to think.
It might open a whole new world for you 
BOSTON—By examining web-traffic data for left-leaning DailyKos.com, researchers have predicted that the mass suicide of 14 political bloggers will likely be discovered sometime in mid-December. "After months of doing nothing but sit alone in our rooms at our computers, trying to get our message to the people, we lost the election anyway," read the still-unread suicide pact posted Nov. 3. "We'd rather be dead than live in a country as fucked up as this one." The bodies will most likely be found by property managers, long-estranged parents, or neighbors returning copies of Joe Trippi's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.
For more campaign coverage, visit the Onion Election Guide
One of the best books I've read in years is "We Were The Mulveaheys" (sp?) by Joyce Carlo Oats. Heartbreaking tale of a perfect family shatterd by a crime against their oldest daughter. All animal lovers will be touched by the prominant place the family pets have in this terrific book.
Also love "The Stories of John Cheaver". It is a collection of his short stories and simply the best short stories EVER written. A Classic!
kei & yuri: if you liked the Harpers sendup of Left Behind, you should read this.
Apparently theres a huge feud between the Left Behind groupies about a new novel that claims the rapture happened in 68 AD and everyone here today is a descendant of one of the evil unsaved ones that already got left behind. The strange bit is, these people are SERIOUS about it, but nobody could have written a better joke to make fools of the Left Behind people if they tried.
Thanks, Doremus Jessup! Though actually I read anything; I'm sort of a literary vacuum cleaner.
And Monica Adams, I have Bruce Lee's book on my shelf here! Others in a similar vein are the The Bible of Karate. Bubishi and the books of Tsung Hua Jow.
"Pick up a book sometime, Anon. Challenge yourself. Be a rebel - read something and form your own opinion of it, without someone telling you what to think."
Gee, I'll try that sometime. Thanks for the advice.
I must pre-empt this by saying that I prefer to read fiction. Realizing that this falls completely under the brain candy dept, I must suggest "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb (yes, Oprah picked him as a book club guy, but Iread the book before that, and it actually amped her credibility with me, to be honest)
Other than that, The Davinci Code was a good read even if it was factually inaccurate, and James Petterson's murder mysteries are an easy Saturday afternoon.
In the funny department, if you are a woman who lives now, or has ever lived south of the Mason-Dixon line, please read "The Sweet Potato Queen's Book of Love".
I second Galatea 2.2 as cited above ( can't believe anyone else has read it). Also The Watch by Dennis Danvers - combination time travel, Russian bolshevism and the history of slavery in Richmond. Excellent.
Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear.
Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan.
Gun, with Occasional Music by Lethem.
Escapism need not be mediocre literature.
All of Pat Barker. On a lighter note, Lemony Snicket (for fifth grade and up, but it helps to have a degree in English if you want to get all the jokes).
"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee"
Should be required reading. I'm afraid that the wingers may think that it is an instruction manual, however.
Notice how everyone is simply talking and not listening, doing their best to impress others with all the smart books they read?
LOL
My God.... what would a Marine's library be without:
"A Fellowship of Valor - The Battle History of the United States Marines"
"The Last Hundred Yards - The NCO's Contribution to Warfare" - includes a great section on urban combat tactics.
"Chesty: The story of Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller, USMC"
I don't stop reading authors because I disagree with their personalities or politics, unless those intrude on the writing so much as to make the work unenjoyable. See Ayn Rand for details.
Recent first-time reads I enjoyed
His Dark Materialstrilogy by Philip Pullman - youth lit with a good strong mix of religion, physics and metaphysics;
America (the Book)Good bedtime or bathroom quick reads;
Things I can read over and over:
Anything by Thomas Pynchon, but start with V - Gravity's Rainbow is outstanding, but can be a bit of a slog if you're not used to Pynchon;
The Harry Potter books;
The Illuminatus! trilogy - smutty, paranoid sci-fi. Greil Marcus called it "The world's longest shaggy-dog joke", and that's pretty accurate;
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, I or II, by Alan Moore - the movie was botched - if they'd left it alone and filmed what was on the page, it'd be one of the great adventure movies of all time. In fact, most any Moore or Neil Gaiman is worth reading.
In Feb. I plan on these books:
Herodotus-The Histories
God-The Bible *
Allah-The Qu'ran*
I have a classical jones that must be feed.
*re-reading
As i mentioned earlier, anyone who is interested in moral economic philosophy should read John Rawls, A Theory of Justice,but for fun read ANYTHING by Richard Russo, paticularly, Empire Falls and Straight Man
For escapism, the fiction of Patricia Knealley, the "other woman" in Jim Morrison's life.
I second whoever suggested "King Leopold's Ghost" by Adam Hochschild
also, Nadine Gordimer's A World of Strangers and anything that has been banned!
David Hume: A theory of human nature based on the mechanical philosophy.
Buzz Kyll,
Read BMHaWK years and years ago. One of the best books I've ever read.
I'm reading two books just now. A biography of Dylan Thomas, and Theordor Rex by Edmund Morris.
Forgot to add
all Barry Lopez
Black Elk Speaks
when i was in my 20's i read kafka and gloried in the moroseness and hopelessness of it all. many people did the same. if you are over 30, go back and read it again. i didn't understand it back then. it turns out that kafka was a comic author. i'm serious. "the metamorphosis" is one of the funniest stories ever written.
Olaf glad and big
I'd highly recommend the movie "Stone Reader". It'll make you remember why you learned to love books.
I knew I wouldn't keep away. A student was just the other day trying to interest me in Pratchett's books.
And Kafka. I completely agree Olaf.
Thanks, Echidne.
Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje (author of "The English Patient"). An absolutely haunting novel set in Sri Lanka and, unfortunately, apropos of the times.
Anything by Ha Jin (especially "Waiting")
oh, and of course all five books of the wildly inaccurately mistitled "hitchhiker trilogy" are always worth going back to.
A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman.
It will give you a pretty good idea about where the Bush administration is taking us.
Saw this on another blog:
At lunch today, a colleague sat down at the table, opened the NY Times, sighed, & remarked: “19th century economic policy, sixteenth century domestic policy, & an 11th century foreign policy—that's the Bush administration.”
I re-read To Kill A Mockingbird about once a decade and it still makes me cry every time.
Cold Sassy, by Olive Ann Burns is terrific. It's about small Southern town at the turn of 1900's and how progress changes one family (and the town). Very sweet book.
Anonymous, how do you express that you are listening in a book thread? I'm scribbling names down as I read the thread, but it seems a little pointless to make a post of each book I've made a note of.
hecate! read tom robbins! introduce him to all of your witchy friends!
Ludwig Feurbach: God is all in your head.
Why would anyone--and we love smut in all its expressions--but why in the world would anyone want to screw like a porn star?
Lie still (as if dead) on your back while a chick with THREE INCH PRESS-ON NAILS examines you, for like an hour? Saw back and forth in a uniform lateral motion with as little movement as possible? Get naked as soon as possible? No, thanks.
Speaking of porn:
The new (ish) and unexpurgated Trask translation of the Life of Giacomo Casanova (Chevalier de Seingalt) in eight volumes, each including two books, with footnotes and illustrations.
Casanova on grammarical gender, why the Latin for "penis" is feminine and the Latin for "vagina" is masculine: because the slave takes its name from its master.
The Secret Museum: a History of Pornography
Defending Pornography, by then-ACLU president Nadine Strossen (excellent free speech bible!)
Women, Class & the State: Prostitution and Victorian Society by Judith Walkowitz (liberal, pro-woman reform is hijacked by antisex religious nuts and used to screw over poor women. Warning: this is a scholarly, somewhat dry book)
The Book of the Prick (more erudite than you might think Italian medieval piece on sex and social control, with lots of criticism of the church).
Hegel: A new logic to rot your brain.
"In Defense of Internment"
An awesome, deeply researched, logically flawless - in short - fantastic, book! Pick it up!
Hmm.. Mr Anonymous Troll likes a 40 year old Econ textbook. Why don't you read the modern version?
Microeconomics by Paul Krugman.
anything by Joseph Brodsky, but his essays are a good introduction to his poetry:
Less Than One, and On Grief And Reason (both collections of essays)
Watermark - an extended essay or small novel about his 19 winters (around the holidays and New Years) spent in Venice.
A brief historical note on him: Exiled from his homeland of Russia in 1972, Joseph Brodsky emigrated and eventually obtained citizenship to the United States. He is best remembered as the Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 1987, and Poet Laureate of the United States in 1991.
overtly political: C.L.R. James
There's a great collection of different things in a C.L.R. James Reader, but also recommended: American Civilization.
He wrote about everything. Cricket, Melville, Picasso and Pollack, Michelangelo, Zora Neal Hurston. And always politics - even after the US revoked his visa and booted him.
Also his Notes On Dialectics (though it's out of print and hard to find).
and for fun:
The Roaches Have No King by Daniel Evan Weiss
"When Ira Fishblatt's girlfriend, Ruth Grubstein, moves into his apartment, he has the kitchen renovated She is tickled pink, but hundreds of other houseguests aren't - the cockroaches who'd been living high on the hog before they were starved out. Famine slowly drives them into a frenzy until one, named Numbers, comes up with a diabolical plan, with the unwitting help of Rufus, the local coacine dealer, they'll encourage a romance between Ira and the pretty neighbor, Elizabeth, and rid themselves forever of Ruth and her damnable tidiness."
[I refer to them as 'my little neighbors', and we have an understanding: they don't upest the guests, and I don't correct their spelling.]
Well, there's always Imperial Spies Invade Russia, (Greenwood, 1992.) A good read, if you like spies, imperialism, the Middle East and Russia.
Classical Jones
I got a Classical Jones
Got a Classical Jones
Oh baby, OO-OO-OOO
Angels and Demons by the Da Vinci Codeguy, but NOT Deception Point by him
jim dunn
I'll ditto that one. A&D was readable only for the religious/historical content. Brown really can't write for shit, as he proves with Deception Point. "The DaVinci Code" didn't tempt me.
Douglas preston and Lincoln Child are a similar case, though here, it takes two guys to write as badly as Brown. "A Cabinet of Curiosities" is a tale of serial murder and eeeeevilll that takes you from the late 1800s to today. These two like to build stories around natural phenomena, historic oddities, and cutting edge science. Sadly, the framework is all that holds them up, because the writing sure can't.
Other SF to avoid; Larry Niven's "Ringworld's Children". "Ringworld" was terrific. "Ringworld Engineers" was almost as good. Ringworld Throne bit it, and I should have known better than to buy this one. Comes from decades of assuming anything he wrote would satisfy. Wrong. It's gotten to the point where, if you aren't smart enough to have written the book, you aren't smart enough to read it. Plus, it was really just a 284 page outline of a novel twice that length. Time to retire, Larry.
I'm waiting for the next of Vernor Vinge's stratified galaxy series. "A Fire Upon the Deep", and "A Deepness in the Sky".
Reccommended "Courtroom Drama", John Lescroart's Dismas Hardy/Abe Glitsky series.
I also highly reccommend John Dominic Crossan's
The Historical Jesus", if you have a couple years free to wade through it.
Tim Powers (2 new ones) and Tom Robbins (1) are going to be at the top of my Xmas list this year
"all quiet on the western front", by erich maria remarque. i read that book when i was about 15 in one sitting. when i finished i turned back to the first page and read it again. i knew i would never be a soldier.
Barndog,
Semper Fi Mac!
Chesty in Hati -au courant vis Iraq
Don't forget The Patron Saint of the Marine Corp - Smedley Butler
War is a Racket
Olaf,
I will have to try him. I've been meaning to for a long time
Oldies, but somehow quite relevant in today's world:
The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Brain food:
The Origin of Conciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind - Julian Jaynes
The Next Million Years - Charles Galton Darwin
Barndog,
How 'bout "Jarhead"? Forgot the author's name, but it his account of the first Gulf War.
flatiron-
I've never even heard of George Saunders. But I've checked him out. I'd like a good intro. How 'bout Pastoralia?
.
One of my favorite books is "Arab and Jew" by David Shipler. Won the Pulitzer in 1982 or something, but make sure you get the version that was updated in '00 or '01. Outstanding in terms of analyzing the Arab-Israeli conflict in terms of the ordinary people affected and their stories. The way he gets them to open up is remarkable.
short list on my shelf:
Michael T. Klare, Blood and Oil
Anatol Lieven, America Right or Wrong
Gilles Kepel, The War for Muslim Minds; Islam and the West
Gary Dorrien, Imperial Designs: Neoconservatism and the new Pax Americana
oh yeah that one by oates was fantastic-we were the Mulvaneys-totally heartwrenching! and also by Lamb-she came undone-so good but this much i know is true was awesome.i can still remember so much from it after 5 years. we the living tho was ayn rands first novel so it wasn't so preachy.
Today I started Russia Under The Bolshevik Regime by Richard Pipes. Yes, he travels in neocon circles, but scholars across the ideological spectrum recognize him as one of the best historians of Russia in the world.
I'm in the chapter on the Civil War, and it is a perfect antidote to election angst. Yes, the times we live in are scary, and the chance that America will slide soon into some form of real authoritarianism is closer to 50 per cent than I like to dwell on. But we still have a strong liberal-democratic infrastructure, and no one is going to imprison us, or worse, for our political opinions. Not for at least a generation, anyway, and even then the chance of worse than soft, and reversible, authoritarianism is small.
Bottom line, read about some of history's worst periods, take stock of the liberty and stability we enjoy, and then, your morale boosted, continue to fight to preserve it.
angels and demons is the worst book i have ever read. i hated it even before the hero jumped out of the exploding helicopter and landed in front of the hospital. the book just sucked.
and k&y, for my money, the best literary pornography is still henry miller. that section about the gandhi followers that he took on a tour of the brothels of paris in tropic of cancer is great. especially when it culminates with the turd in the bidet.
henry miller rocked.
Barndog, read "Military Incompetence" by Richard Gabriel? Old but incredibly good. Army reserve major and professor Gabriel argues that the US military has failed since WWII because even in cases where we've "won" we've acted like morons, like the awful lack of communication in Grenada, the abandonment of our people in Beirut, and the completely screwed up planning of the '79 Iran raid. And in almost every case the marines get the brunt of the consequences (Beirut being a case in point). But he also notes competant people and isn't out to hack up the services.
And, just to make everyone argumentative and unhappy, we recommend a re-reading of the inevitable and monumental Orientalism by Edward Said.
Thanks Arb.
Just ordered Paranoid Style In American Politics from Barnes & Noble used.
For understanding the Middle East, Islam, and Afghanistan, nothing beats Idries Shah.
"but scholars across the ideological spectrum recognize him as one of the best historians of Russia in the world."
No. We don't. He's a crappy historian with an astonishingly backassward perspective and genuinely horrible historiography. Trust me. I'm "a scholar across the ideological spectrum" (whatever the hell that means - the idea of scholarship somehow being justifiably marked by ideology is bizarre.)
barndog,
did puller write at length about ned almond in korea?
-J.T.
Warlord of Silver Spring
RECON
don't listen to jim dunn upthread. "angels and demons" is absolutely the worst novel ever written, and i sort of like "the da vinci code".
oboy! dan brown bashing!
Because holy grail conspiracy books are one of my guilty pleasures, I felt obliged to read TDVC. Brown's style is so ham-handed that I will never be able to bring myself to read another of his books.
This is a fairly elite brotherhood: there aren't many authors whose every effort pisses me off. I can only think of two other members off the top of my head - John Grisham (based on a recent reading of Bleachers, and Robert Ludlum.
If you like Grail conspiracy novels and haven't read Eco's Foucault's Pendulum yet, you should.
A sentimental favorite: Letters To A Poet by Rilke."Irony: Don't let yourself be controlled by it, especially during uncreative moments." Words to live by.
Facing Up - Science and its cultural adversaries, by Steven Weinberg (Harvard Univ Press, 2001).
Not Weinberg's best (his papers are better!), but deserves to be read.
To quote the author, " the essays.. express a viewpoint that is rationalist, realist and devoutly secular. Facing up, is after all, the posture opposite that of prayer".
Jeremy Bentham: A Defense of Usury.
Today I started Russia Under The Bolshevik Regime by Richard Pipes. Yes, he travels in neocon circles, but scholars across the ideological spectrum recognize him as one of the best historians of Russia in the world.
He and Condi are close, no doubt.
Bah.
Incomplete, randomly chosen list on the spot:
Seconding Max's "Robert Caro-any of his books"-- there's not another writer on earth who's ever done what he's done/is doing.
Billy Brammer "The Gay Place"
Confederacy of Dunces-Toole
Andrew Wilson's biography of Patricia Highsmith, as well as the much slimmer memoir, " Highsmith" by Marijane Meaker
Cutting through Spritual Materialism, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Chelsea Girls, Eileen Myles
An Autobiography - Janet Frame
The Hidden Lives of Dogs
The Social Lives of Dogs
both by Elizabeth Marshall
any and all of Pema Chodron's books-most especially When Things Fall Apart
Gates of the Alamo-Stephen Harrigan
In Cold Blood Truman Capote
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Outside Valentine - lisa Ward
Partly Cloudy Patriot-Sarah Vowell
all of David Sedaris
all of Sharon Olds
Will Cuppy's "Decline and fall of Practically Everybody"
For those who feel real History is boring. This is not real History, and, therefore not boring. Long OOP, so you'll have to find it used.
Elizabeth Marshall is -wonderful-!
/s
Arthur
Just ordered Paranoid Style In American Politics from Barnes & Noble used.
I think that's posted online.
don't listen to jim dunn upthread. "angels and demons" is absolutely the worst novel ever written, and i sort of like "the da vinci code".
oboy! dan brown bashing!
Because holy grail conspiracy books are one of my guilty pleasures, I felt obliged to read TDVC. Brown's style is so ham-handed that I will never be able to bring myself to read another of his books.
This is a fairly elite brotherhood: there aren't many authors whose every effort pisses me off. I can only think of two other members off the top of my head - John Grisham (based on a recent reading of Bleachers, and Robert Ludlum.
If you like Grail conspiracy novels and haven't read Eco's Foucault's Pendulum yet, you should.
Agreement with an earlier post: Arundhati Roy's writings are a gift, both her political essays and her novel "God of Small Things". She's an important voice.
Olaf, That's interesting, because while we occasionally laughed at some parts of Miller (naked, wet and screaming at God about lightning), generally we couldn't stand him. His fiction, that is: he has some great, concise essays in Stand Still Like the Hummingbird.
Also,
WAR FICTION-
CS Forester's The General
Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun
(both of the above WWI)
Harlon Ellison's A Boy And His Dog
(post-atomic dystopia)
I just finished "You Have the Power" by Howard Dean. Basically a long, brilliant essay on what we have to do to rebuild the Democratic Party and take back the country from the right wing.
Pure Howard in many ways; the prose is spare but to to the point. I was surprised at how good a read it is.
Whether you are a Dean fan or not, I recommend it highly
Pseudo-intellectuals, desperately trying to impress.
Ah, but Anonymous, you've really got to cultivate that J. Edgar Hoover pronunciation of "pseudo-", which the old tapes reveal he voiced as something sounding like "suede-oh".
One title which I can't believe that no one has suggested yet is Craig Unger's _House of Bush, House of Saud_.
I do recommend policing the house ahead of time to remove implements with which one might do violence to one's own person; I had just finished reading Unger when the announcement came of Kerry having conceded to C-Plus Augustus, and in that context, the sense of horror and futility and disgust was overwhelming. I'm still not over it. Perhaps never will be.
And some of us exemplify what's good about OTHER countries, too... ;->
I Saw Ramallah - by M. Barghouti - all you need to know about Palestine in fabulous prose - even in translation.
My book, "Buffalo Lights," the true story of giving up absolutely everything to move to New Mexico, is worth a look. Check at www.jhfarr.com. There's also a free preview PDF.
I had been living here for about five years when a friend out-of-state mentioned to me an author from a small town down the road. It was uncanny how many of this guy's characters I felt I had met one place or another around Nashville.
If you want to understand Tennessee, read William Gay.
I usually have two books going--one to listen to on tape in the car and the other to read in the house. Right now I'm reading Mill on the Floss--a great book by George Eliot and in the car I'm listening to The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy. I find it very interesting to compare--who has it worse: somebody going throught the humiliation of the plebe system in a military academy or somebody going through the humiliation of financial ruin in 19th century England??
Loved Life of Pi. Also the Devil in the White City. And Rohinton Mistry, just finished Family Values. Was planning on giving up Bush bashing books after Kerry won. Sigh. Just bought new Tom Wolfe book but haven't started it yet. Also good: Fortress of Solitude. Forget the authors name. And I liked Davinci Code and Angels and Demons but endings were a bit over the top, like Stephen King's.
And some of us exemplify what's good about OTHER countries, too... ;->
Goes without saying.
casinogal - I've got the Roth now - it's a stunner.
Then, there's always Olive Schreiner, The Story of an African Farm.
Arundhati Roy rocks. Reminds us of a certain stupid dirty pleasure, the Chicks in Chainmail series, featuring Jewish Warrior Princess Maureen Birnbaum, the man who cross-dressed to prove he could be as brave and badass as a woman, the woman who led millions of snails to attack a stupid boss, and more.
theodoric, i'm with you, man. i love grail conspiracy books, and dan brown blows. the da vinci code was pretty weak. angels and demons on the other hand was just jaw droppingly horrible though. i can't believe it was even published.
foucault's pendulum is the benchmark for grail conspiracy fiction though. definitely.
overall i prefer grail conspiracy "non-fiction" though.
btw, if you are an admirer of whacko theories, like myself, you should read "the origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind", by julian jaynes. it's like a prologomena to any future whacko theory, as far as i'm concerned.
i don't talk about it much, but someday i hope to write a bestselling "non-fiction" book tying together the bible, the breakdown of the bicameral mind, atlantis, and the knights templar.
Clyde: "Good Omens", Oh yeah! Is that the one with the "Bugger Alle Thisse Fos a Larke Thenne" version of the Boble? Cracked me up.
And also too, Spidey. His "Crazy Years" sounds cool (I'm keeping a Barnes & Noble window open on the desktop, so I don't have to keep restarting it). The title threw me at first, thinking, hey, that's RAH, ennit? But Spider is probably the world's number 2 RAH fan. After me.
Pseudo-intellectuals, desperately trying to impress.
Projection.
My sentimental favorite, Way Station by Clifford Simack (can't remember how to spell it for some reason). I'm reading Inkheart to my niece, it's pretty good.
public opinion - walter lippmann: chomsky always cites him as one of the nasty elite. He may have been one, but the book is a truly open look at the political use of language to manipulate, taking language down the road of the lowest common denominator. Last couple chapters (his solutions) are a bit hokey/scary.
the trial - kafka: any kafka these days seems appropriate.
wittgenstein's poker - some pair 'o guys: pop philosophy, fun break
the moral animal - robert wright: pro-selfisf gene club. Fun read, if somewhat controversial.
anything by niles eldredge or stephen gould: alternative to selfish-gene "nihilism"
BarnDog-What do marines think of WEB Griffin's multi-novel marine corps series? Reasonable? Insane?
Considering recent politics, take a break from our world and go visit another one. Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series (Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen and Kushiel's Avatar) has plenty of political intrigue but it is instead in a fantasy realm. I generally describe it to friends as a combination Dune level political intrigue, action/adventure, romance and a BDSM novel all in one well written fantasy package.
Pseudo-intellectuals, desperately trying to impress.
It's called curiousity. Try it! You'll like it!
Currently working on Paul Kriwaczek's In Search of Zarathustra. Touches on pre-Islamic architecture of central Asia, Nietzsche, the Cathars, Manichaeism, Mithraism, Kipling's stories about Hadrian's Wall, how the Shah was attempting to take Iran back to Zoroastrianism, and what it's like being a roadie for Yusuf Islam.
Fascinating book.
I'm a fan of John Updike's "Rabbit" series. Great view of a failed high school football star's life from the 50's till 1990's.
well p, didn't realize that you cared.
anyhoo, this suedo trotskyite is reading more than these two books. also reading consular information from other countries about what it takes to establish a business in those countries and gain citizenship.
also reading about ball mills and charge quantities versus grinding media volume. exciting.
i know that you have tuned in to many of my posts. that being the case, you know that i think that fascism[statism] will be ruling amerika for the next 15-20 years, if we are lucky[by the way, until bush and the congress, dems and reps, revealed their fascist fraternity, i referred to the united states of america - but this fascist country demands the "k"].
i really did not think that kerry, though he was a boner and fascist-lite in my view, would lose. even though i knew from my years in the ohio establishment[demfascists and repfascists] that ohio was going to be stolen for bush.
and i can assure you, the cia, under the command of porter goss, was involved in subverting all the elections in the strange vote states. and as you probably recall, it was the demfascists acquiescing to the appointment of porter goss that caused me to question whether the demfascists wanted to defeat bush. and i think that my analysis has been confirmed.
so, for me, as an anti-fascist, the question is...do i dare remain in the forthcoming united states of amerika? am i seeing a new amerika that will be likened to germany in march 1933, by future historians[whose work i shall be unable to read because i shall be quite dead]?
one aspect of this modern world which torments me is that in the blinking of an eye, we moved from march 1933 to 1939. that the invasion of iraq is tantamount to the invasion of poland. and that fallujah is the new warsaw.
and that it is already too late to escape this 4th reich.
70 years ago, the usa was an oasis for those who escaped germany early enough.
where do you see the oasis for those who care to flee this new reich?
oh, i also recommend that the peanut gallery read ian kershaw's 2 volume biography of hitler.
chills. the 15% solution: a political history of american fascism, 2001-2022. isbn #: 1577450078
I join with others who have recommended Catch-22.
It should, IMHO, be required reading for high school graduation and for becoming a naturalized citizen.
When times are dark, I need crime fiction. If you haven't discovered Ian Rankin's John Rebus series, I recommend 'em. Set in contemporary Edinburgh. The first one is Knots and Crosses, but it is probably the weakest of the series.
It is very hard to beat Raymond Chandler. In fact it's impossible.
The Jane Whitefield novels of Thomas Perry are terrific.
Ross Thomas wrote some very political caper books. My favorite is "Chinaman's Chance", but
"Briarpatch", "Missionary Stew", "If You Can't Be
Good" and "The Fourth Durango" are all good.
I would avoid "The Fools in Town Are On Our Side".
Nonfiction: If you are willing to go a little farther afield, one of the most beautiful and poignant books I know is "A Mathematician's Apology", by G. H. Hardy. During the worst of the Hitler years, the great mathematician Hilbert is supposed to have quoted a predecessor who lived through terrible times, "A mighty fortress is our mathematics."
Almost anything by Oliver Sacks.
"Founding Brothers" by Joseph Ellis.
"Flu" by Gina Kolata. More frightening than any Hannibal Lector novel.
If you like mathematics, almost anything by Paul Nahin is worth reading. A bunch of books on the Riemann Hypothesis came out recently, and they're all pretty good. My favorite, and the most mathematical, is "Prime Obsession" by John Derbyshire.
Finally, as we seem to be headed for four more years of truly dreadful governance, it might be worth reminding ourselves just how bad things could get; why not (re)read Robert Graves' "I Claudius" and "Claudius the God"? Bush couldn't be worse than Nero, right? Right??
Dear Friends
Have you ever heard of "White Hopes and Other Tigers" by John Lardner. It tells wonderful tales of the silliness of the Great Republic when it is in midseason form.
ED
Attn: Pie, Thank you for the wonder thread. And, sorry to polute the compliment:
"Kei-and-Yuri", you're schizophrenic, get some medicine as soon as possible, before Kei kills Yuri or vice versa.
Edward Gibbon's "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire".
Surprisingly readable, just make sure not to get the abridged version.
"It is very hard to beat Raymond Chandler. In fact it's impossible. "
Nah. Ross MacDonald did it in every book and Chandler (grudgingly) admitted it.
bebe rebozo, to butt in: We always saw at least one WEBG paperback at the various sites we worked at and usually more, along with a lot of Clancy, but the most important thing to learn if you don't aleady know is that marines are not the SS, they're not ideologically uniform or even "mostly" anything in particular. There is a certain extent to which leftists will not self-identify and rightists (loudly) will, for obvious reasons, but we also discovered Michael Moorcock, Jhonen Vasquez, and several other "unmarinelike" authors. Inside is just like outside: you have a variety. The Clany-heads would like to present everybody as theirs but it's actually more evenly distributed.
cathars too. thanks theodoric. i forgot about them.
my favorite author for whacko historical "non-fiction" is graham hancock, by the way. if you enjoy that genre of literature. he is really good at it. and he is an outstanding writer.
so, for me, as an anti-fascist, the question is...do i dare remain in the forthcoming united states of amerika? am i seeing a new amerika that will be likened to germany in march 1933, by future historians[whose work i shall be unable to read because i shall be quite dead]?
albert, for someone who touts such a knowledge of history, you seem to forget that it repeats itself, my darling.
pie is stoopid
i hate you pie
Peaches-what the hell? And have you actually heard anything by Peaches? And you're telling us to medicate?! We'd much rather have Ladytron, Goldfrapp or Lali Puna.
I'm also a big fan of the Dune series. The first novel is a must read. I'm not a fan of the later novels by Brian Herbert, but they are good for a bit of background on the characters. FYI-ignore the whole Leto spots Jessica when she is a young Bene Gesserit trainee and she falls in love with him in that moment crap storyline in Dune House Atriedes book. It would be nice to believe, but in the Dune book it's explicit that her sole purpose was to produce a female Atriedes to bred with the male Harkonnen. And he did purchase her.
kei & yuri, which one of you is typing?
Harlon Ellison's A Boy And His Dog
(post-atomic dystopia)
kei & yuri
And you ask, what's wrong with kansas?
k&y, henry miller is hilarious through and through. tropic of capricorn is my favorite.
Currently, Day of the Trffids. Last, Jingo by Terry Pratchert (I have a soft spot for the Discworld series).
On Marines, try SemperFi, Mac.
Haven't read all the posts, but agree with above, God of Small Things is very good, but is probably a personal taste sort of thing.
I recommend The Intruders: Unreasonable Searches and Seizures from King John to John Ashcroft, by the late Prof. Samuel Dash (chief counsel of the Senate Watergate Committee).
For all you historical mystery lovers: An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears. It is a thriller you will never forget!
Another fav of mine: Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar. Too bad Bush doesn't read, he could learn a lot from Hadrian!
Anything by Catherine Asaro - wonderful female SF writer who is also a dancer, physicist, businesswoman and mother.
Anything by S.L. Viehl, woman SF author who is also a physican.
Anything by Lois McMaster Bujold, another great female SF writer.
Jeesh, I've heard a lot of things by Peaches. I am Peaches. And unlike you, I listen to what I say, you idiot.
we're readers. that's a good thing.
pie is such a tool to say something like that
pie reads only the instructions that come with the XXL-Super Manly Cock and Balls Dildo
i read "dune" and then about half of "son of dune" or whatever the second one was called, and then i realized that i didn't give a shit about anything that was going on in the story.
a lot of my friends really liked it though. just didn't grab me.
the tin drum-gunther grass
took me about six months to read it but hot damn that is some fine literature. almost made me want to learn german so i could read it as it was originally intended, almost.
Wallace Stegner - Angle of Repose, Crossing to Safety.
John Updike - Rabbit series.
Willa Cather - My Antonia
Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera
Barbara Savage - Miles from Nowhere: A Round the World Bicycle Adventure
Olive Ann Burns - Cold Sassy Tree
Mark Twain - all of his books
David McCullogh - John Adams
Patrick O'Brien - Master and Commander and the entire series
Also for those looking for ideas there is a free website/service that has weekly recommendations of fiction, nonfiction, business, Good News, Horror, Mystery, Prepublication, Romance, Teen, Science Fiction and Audio Books.
www.dearreader.com
I have gotten many good books from their recommendations, plus you can search their archives for past books.
"hmmm", usually kei (especially if you see bad language). If it gets polite, childish or stylish, it's yuri. (That's a great handle by the way, it's like "asphinctersayswhat?") But both contribute, thus the tag.
Also, in sigining off for the evening let us say these book threads are awesome, we rely on them desperately like Moonies receiving sexual instruction, to find a good read. Everybody hurrying atround writing down all these new titles, you'll be glad you did.
Thanks K&Y
"Public Enemies,Americas Greatest Crime Wave and the birth of the FBI".............Dilinger,Pretty Boy Floyd,Baby Face Nelson,Barker gang,Karpis,Bonnie and Clyde etc.Dispels alot of the myths we saw in the movies and flails Hoover for being a media hype whore.By Bryan Burrough.
For Fantasy, nobody has mentioned Robin Hobb (Assasins Apprentice etc), great characters and fantastic writing.
Jesus' Son - Denis Johnson (short stories, brilliant prose)
Emotional Intelligence : Why It Can Matter More Than IQ -- by Daniel Goleman (Must read for parents and teachers, anybody really)
The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size (much of the evidence comes from comparing the wide bandwidth of experience to the narrow bandwidth of consciousness, and from examining how much of our brain function is never consciously acknowledged).
The Meaning of Shakespeare, Volume 1
by Harold C. Goddard
Fear and Trembling
by Soren Kierkegaard
Augustus De Morgan: The Calculus.
lol, k&y.
the tin drum was great, cerealbreath. another good one of his was "the flounder". after reading "the tin drum", you wonder why the south americans got all the credit for magical realism.
The Dune books are a hit or miss with some people. I love it, but my husband can't stand anything in the series (he did like the Dune miniseries from Sci-Fi-which was closer to the book than the movie.)As a matter of fact, my husband refuses to read anything fiction. If it isn't about Oracle, he doesn't care. To needle me my son calls the books "Done."
Why does Atrios hate K & Y?
All recently read recommended:
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis
Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges
Selected Nonfiction by Jorge Luis Borges
McSweeney's Quarterly #13
Currently reading:
Parasites Like Us by Adam Johnson
next up in the stack:
Men & Cartoons by Jonathan Lethem
The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
eager for On Literature by Umberto Eco to come out.
Fiction - Surprised no one on this thread has mentioned:
William Vollman
John Barth
Jerzy Kosinski
Ellen Gilchrist
A recent favorite: Jose Saramago (translated from Portugese) "Blindness" is my favorite, but all are good reads.
kei & yuri: I got yer stupid dirty pleasures....
Laurell K Hamilton. Yup, I've read 'em all. Don't think I'm gonna read any more, though. This last one, Cerulean Sins, has finally crossed over the line, and is mostly Vampire/Werewolf/Human sex, with just enough story to keep me from throwing it across the room. Harlequin Romance with Vampires, Mummies and the holy Ghost. With obsidian Butterfly, I was beginning to think she was really going somewhere, but this stuff...Well, it was fun while it lasted.
another one of my favorites is "the things they carried", by tim o'brian. everything i have read by him is good, but that one is my favorite. "going after cacciato" comes in second.
don't forget "Beyond Geography" by Frederick Turner, an explosion of a book looking at the myth of American history, with time out for original examinations of Christianity, circuses and Wild Bill Hickok...
I highly recommend "A Man Called Intrepid" for a glimpse of how the ideological forbears of today's gung ho keyboard chickenhawk warriors - the Non-Fighting America Firsters - were quite content with the thought of letting Hitler have Great Britain.
I would appreciate other suggestions for books that cover this relationship and time period. Thanks.
Doozer among Fraggles : I got yer stupid dirty pleasures....
Anything from Camille Paglia. How does these woman keep getting work? How did she get a doctorate?
A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman.
It will give you a pretty good idea about where the Bush administration is taking us.
Susan
The March of Folly completes the picture. The Guns of August would have been a nice warning about what was coming but its too late for that now.
Specimen Days, Walt Whitman.
A House for Mr. Biswas, V.S. Naipaul
Opinionated crap:
Frank Herbert's stuff pretty much sucks, although the first Dune book or two isn't too bad.
I've read most every (good) SF book written before 1990. The only SF I can stand to read now is Iain Banks' stuff.
Hey, I warned you it was opinionated.
Three faves:
"Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" by Mary Roach
"My Year of Meats" by Ruth Ozeki
"Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn
Doozer-
add in Estrich.
i don't talk about it much, but someday i hope to write a bestselling "non-fiction" book tying together the bible, the breakdown of the bicameral mind, atlantis, and the knights templar.
Olaf glad and big
I think LaRouche has done that already. I saw one of his drones lecturing on AccessTV once, and I think he hit all those points, and added Kennedy, Elvis, and the Illuminati.
btw, if you are an admirer of whacko theories, like myself, you should read "the origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind", by julian jaynes. it's like a prologomena to any future whacko theory, as far as i'm concerned.
BTDT. Got a copy of Jaynes back here in the closet somewhere.
Even Jaynes is outdone, though, in my opinion, by Frank Tipler's Physics of Immortality. It's basically Teilhard de Chardin's omega point nonsense, digested and retold by someone who knows just enough about software to be dangerous. When I got to the end of this all I could do was shake my head in amazement that I lived on a planet on which this man could be a professor of physics.
In similar veins, there are Hans Moravec's Mind Children, and Ray Kurzweil's Age of Spiritual Machines.
Also, Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science, in which he more or less claims that he has had every important mathematical idea of the last forty years, and that the ones he didn't think of don't amount to much.
As I think about it now, I think it's a little sad that I spend so much of my time reading books that turn out to be so ridiculous.
On the other hand, I suppose I could be reading malicious bullshit like Ann Coulter or Michelle Malkin.
God, people on this thread sure do read some crappy books.
What kind of low lifes are the trolls to pick on pie for a farkin' READING post?
Oh, yeah. Dumbassed red state redneck trolls; too inbred to have *book learnin*.
at the risk of sounding pretentious, let me recommend anything by thomas pynchon. if you are scared, read "the crying of lot 49" it's like 150 pages. you can read it in an afternoon.
pie-
Thanks for this thread.
.
Olaf, that did sound pretentious.
You are a jackass.
doozer, larouche never said anything about the breakdown of the bicameral mind. that's gonna be my gimmick!!!
Fourlegsgood, I'm an idiot. I meant Erikson. If you know where I can find it, let me know.
God, people on this thread sure do read some crappy books.
I agree, selecting the right books is a special talent.
Attn: Pie, Thank you for the wonder thread
Heh heh. Wonder Thread; Builds Strong Minds 8 Ways!
I'm glad theodoric mentioned Foucault's Pendulum, which is a great book and also the most recent novel I've read.
The Da Vinci Code, which I confess I actually liked, got me off on a religion kick, which Elaine Pagels (Beyond Belief and Gnostic Gospels) almost satisfied, but then I added in Karen Armstrong's A History of God. I highly recommend that one, though it was a bit of a slog through the Middle Ages.
I've also been doing a bit of Civil War reading. Fehrenbacher's The Dred Scott Case is unfinished on my night table. It might be there for a while, at the rate I'm going. It all started with Modern Medea by Steven Weisenburger, the story of a runaway slave in Cincinnati in 1856 who killed her two year old daughter to prevent her return to slavery. That led me eventually to Uncle Tom's Cabin, heavily referenced in Weisenburger and well worth the read if you never have.
Off the beaten track '68 by Paco Ignacio Taibo, a memory of the 1968 Mexico City student movement.
What's the Matter With Kansas, because we all have to read that.
On my list for re-reading, ever since the movie came out, The Quiet American.
On my list, Fischer's Washington's Crossing, even though I suspect I won't like his interpretation.
Highly recommended -- anything by Edmund Morgan. I read his biography of Franklin last year, and loved it.
Olaf is glad, but not big.
is that a false pie?
Anything from Camille Paglia. How does these woman keep getting work? How did she get a doctorate?
Monica A-A brace of PhDs can have zero correlation with intelligence, or even a negative correlation.
For fiction I've loved everything I've ever read by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
And Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky is the single best book I've ever read.
Nonfiction, I recommend Kevin Phillips' Wealth and Democracy. Currently reading Guns, Germs and Steel, raved about upthread, and yes, very impressive.
Just read The Plot Against America: great until the end, which seems forced but it almost doesn't matter. Starting with American Pastoral, Roth became a truly great writer and probably the best living American novelist.
And for those who think talking about books/reading/writing/art/etc. is pertenshush: sorry, I don't get it. We like books, we talk about them. You like antiques/classic cars/Civil War history/whatever, you talk about that. Nobody's trying to impress you. I can only guess why you want to take my joy away, but in the meantime, go piss up a rope.
Oh, I forgot.
Thank you, pie, for a wonderful thread.
Olaf, go soak your head.
Real Rape is an excellent book by Estrich. But, why in the hell did she feel the need to write a diet book? I think I'd consult my doctor if I wanted to do that and not a law professor. Plus her commentaries for Creators Syndicate are just...take the leap, Susan. Register as a Republican.
I prefer to spend all my time inside haloscan, tucked safely away from reality. Bush has destroyed my world and this is all I have.
I am old and bitter.
One other sleeper I forgot to mention: Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston. Thought about it nonstop for the two weeks after reading it.
Anything from Camille Paglia. How does these woman keep getting work? How did she get a doctorate?
I bought one of Paglia's books on a whim once.
I wish someone had warned me. After twenty pages the bullshit was so thick that I just gave up.
Others bearing this distinction: Barbara Thiering, and Jean-Paul Sartre.
i don't know if its been said, but TDS's America The Book was not only hilarious, but actually... comforting?? after the election. It is silly, yes, but well written and actually serves as a subtle reminder of the fire we have to keep burning in order to fight the good fight. Reminds you what we're up against without making you weep openly. I love it and can't reccommend it enough.
Or maybe it's all the pot.
Take care all
and a false theodoric?
theodoric seems more pretentious than olaf.
Just sayin'.
Spinoza,
I think you're right. I only know of one bright Ph.D and he hosts Jeopardy.
Monica A- He only seems bright because he has all the answers.
yup, we have a namestealer.
quite possibly "Bush Rocks" from the last thread.
Zora Neal Hurston sucks. If I have to read one more book by some black woman whining about how bad she has it, I'm going to puke.
Thanks for all the reccomendations. You people really are readers! I don't think anyone has mentioned DON QUIXOTE. There are many translations now, including some very recent ones.
Some great books mentioned here, such as Instance of the Fingerpost. Great read.
Nonfiction includes John Barry (The Great Flood and the recent influenza book). He's fantastic.
I have to mention, at the risk of being pilloried as lowbrow, the recently completed Dark Tower series by Stephen King. If you haven't read it, you MUST. I love King in all his forms, but this is different -- if you hate his mainstream stuff, don't assume you'll hate the Dark Tower series. It's some of the best fiction I've ever read.
Also Harry Potter. I've read all five books out loud to my now 10 year old son and my wife. We all love it, and I've started throwing in voices on the more recent ones. Very fun, very imaginative, very well put together.
A few favorite 20th century novels:
Milan Kundera: Immortality; The Book of Laughter and Forgetting; The Joke; The Unbearable Lightness of Being; The Farewell Waltz
Paul Bowles: The Sheltering Sky; Let It Come Down; The Spider's House
Franz Kafka: The Process; The Castle
Albert Camus: The Plague
J.M. Coetzee: Disgrace
David Malouf: The Conversations at Curlow Creek
Ian McEwan: Black Dogs
Amin Maalouf: The Gardens of Light
Miguel de Unamuno: Mist
Thomas Mann: Doctor Faustus; The Magic Mountain
Jens Bjørneboe: The Sharks; The History of Bestiality (I Moment of Freedom; II Powderhouse; III The Silence)
i'm glad someone else hates sartre, theodoric. i almost got kicked out of the pretentious society for saying he was full of shit.
War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges
The above post at 10:04 was not me.
Damn! Another illusion shattered.
Really, any book by a minority or a woman is bound to be worthless.
"The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx is excellent.
theodoric seems more pretentious than olaf.
Damn straight. I have a copy of V in my trunk.
Only about 50 pages into it, but someday...
A really good book is "The Other Path" by Hernando de Soto. It's about how groups of poor peasants seize land from the govenrment and the rich landowners in Colombia, and how the government, by recognizing their titles to the land they occupy, allows them to become propertied members of the regular economy.
It's a really leftist book, written in the language of libertarian conservatism. Neat read. He won Nobel in Economics.
My little weiner must be pushin' 3" about right now.
Hey, troll. You're embarrassing yourself. And you're not credible.
Sorry.
But you are amusing, so you have a saving grace.
'Cause we love to laugh.
Did somehow say Sarte?
The Jean-Paul Sartre Cookbook
We have been lucky to discover several previously
lost diaries of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre stuck in between the
cushions of our office sofa. These diaries reveal a young Sartre obsessed not
with the void, but with food. Apparently Sartre, before discovering philosophy,
had hoped to write "a cookbook that will put to rest all notions of flavor forever."
The diaries are excerpted here for your perusal.
October 3
Spoke with Camus today about my cookbook. Though he has never actually
eaten, he gave me much encouragement. I rushed home immediately to begin
work. How excited I am! I have begun my formula for a Denver omelet.
October 4
Still working on the omelet. There have been stumbling blocks. I keep
creating omelets one after another, like soldiers marching into the sea,
but each one seems empty, hollow, like stone. I want to create an omelet
that expresses the meaninglessness of existence, and instead they taste
like cheese. I look at them on the plate, but they do not look back. Tried
eating them with the lights off. It did not help. Malraux suggested
paprika.
October 6
I have realized that the traditional omelet form (eggs and cheese) is
bourgeois. Today I tried making one out of cigarette, some coffee, and
four tiny stones. I fed it to Malraux, who puked. I am encouraged, but my
journey is still long.
October 10
I find myself trying ever more radical interpretations of traditional
dishes, in an effort to somehow express the void I feel so acutely. Today I
tried this recipe: Tuna Casserole Ingredients: 1 large casserole dish Place the
casserole dish in a cold oven. Place a chair facing the oven and
sit in it forever. Think about how hungry you are. When night falls, do
not turn on the light. While a void is expressed in this recipe, I am struck by its
inapplicability to the bourgeois lifestyle. How can the eater recognize
that the food denied him is a tuna casserole and not some other dish? I am
becoming more and more frustated.
October 25
I have been forced to abandon the project of producing an entire cookbook.
Rather, I now seek a single recipe which will, by itself, embody the plight
of man in a world ruled by an unfeeling God, as well as providing the eater
with at least one ingredient from each of the four basic food groups. To
this end, I purchased six hundred pounds of foodstuffs from the corner
grocery and locked myself in the kitchen, refusing to admit anyone. After
several weeks of work, I produced a recipe calling for two eggs, half a cup
of flour, four tons of beef, and a leek. While this is a start, I am
afraid I still have much work ahead.
November 15
Today I made a Black Forest cake out of five pounds of cherries and a live
beaver, challenging the very definition of the word cake. I was very
pleased. Malraux said he admired it greatly, but could not stay for
dessert.
"I wish someone had warned me. After twenty pages the bullshit was so thick that I just gave up."
Read one page of Paglia, you've read them all.
Sartre, can't entirely agree. Not my favorite though. Vladimir Ussachevsky's music for No Exit is worth hearing, if you like that kind of thing. Unfortuantely it was issued on a CRI album and they seem to have gone under.
How did she get a doctorate?
Monica A
CrackerJack box, would be my guess.
NYMary and clio and tena - I got lost in tonight's shuffle! Just wanted to say bye 'til another time. NYM, I actually have an old LP of Siobhan McKenna reading Molly Bloom's Soliloquy. Thought you would get a kick out of that. Oh, and the Poe thing is just Romantic put-on. clio, glad you attended charitably to that teen-ager in the driveway. What a joy that must be. Good to see mention of Margaret Atwater above. And McEwan. I'm just now reading Amsterdam. I'm a great fan of Iris Murdoch, but I think she's not so much read any more. De gustibus and all that.
I don't actually know any black people.
I'd like them if I did.
Honest.
November 15
Today I made a Black Forest cake out of five pounds of cherries and a live
beaver, challenging the very definition of the word cake. I was very
pleased. Malraux said he admired it greatly, but could not stay for
dessert. Still, I feel that this may be my most profound achievement yet,
and have resolved to enter it in the Betty Crocker Bake-Off.
November 30
Today was the day of the Bake-Off. Alas, things did not go as I had hoped.
During the judging, the beaver became agitated and bit Betty Crocker on the
wrist. The beaver's powerful jaws are capable of felling blue spruce in
less than ten minutes and proved, needless to say, more than a match for
the tender limbs of America's favorite homemaker. I only got third place.
Moreover, I am now the subject of a rather nasty lawsuit.
December 1
I have been gaining twenty-five pounds a week for two months, and I am now
experiencing light tides. It is stupid to be so fat. My pain and ultimate
solitude are still as authentic as they were when I was thin, but seem to
impress girls far less. From now on, I will live on cigarettes and black coffee.
November 15
Today I made a Black Forest cake out of five pounds of cherries and a live
beaver, challenging the very definition of the word cake. I was very
pleased. Malraux said he admired it greatly, but could not stay for
dessert. Still, I feel that this may be my most profound achievement yet,
and have resolved to enter it in the Betty Crocker Bake-Off.
November 30
Today was the day of the Bake-Off. Alas, things did not go as I had hoped.
During the judging, the beaver became agitated and bit Betty Crocker on the
wrist. The beaver's powerful jaws are capable of felling blue spruce in
less than ten minutes and proved, needless to say, more than a match for
the tender limbs of America's favorite homemaker. I only got third place.
Moreover, I am now the subject of a rather nasty lawsuit.
December 1
I have been gaining twenty-five pounds a week for two months, and I am now
experiencing light tides. It is stupid to be so fat. My pain and ultimate
solitude are still as authentic as they were when I was thin, but seem to
impress girls far less. From now on, I will live on cigarettes and black coffee.
worst read ever:
"i have nothing to ever contribute except the withering bile i store in my soul" by troll
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Kundera is/was one of the BEST political fiction works ever. Masterpiece!
worst read ever:
"i have nothing to ever contribute except the withering bile i store in my soul" by troll
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Kundera is/was one of the BEST political fiction works ever. Masterpiece!
i recommend the novels of pat barker, especially the regeneration trilogy. it is relevant, and beautiful. it will inspire you to read sigfried sassoon and wilfred owen.
sassoon's letter protesting the war:
"I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this war, upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects witch actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.
I have seen and endured the suffering of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerity's for which the fighting men are being sacrificed.
On behalf of those who are suffering now I make this protest against the deception which is being practised on them; also I believe that I may help to destroy the callous complacence with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share, and which they have not sufficient imagination to realise."
that was written 87 years ago. what was that, pie, about history repeating itself?
cheers everyone.
i recommend the novels of pat barker, especially the regeneration trilogy. it is relevant, and beautiful. it will inspire you to read sigfried sassoon and wilfred owen.
sassoon's letter protesting the war:
"I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this war, upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects witch actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.
I have seen and endured the suffering of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerity's for which the fighting men are being sacrificed.
On behalf of those who are suffering now I make this protest against the deception which is being practised on them; also I believe that I may help to destroy the callous complacence with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share, and which they have not sufficient imagination to realise."
that was written 87 years ago. what was that, pie, about history repeating itself?
cheers everyone.
Attention, everyone: poster at 10:08 was not me.
I for one am sick of all the name-stealing that is going on. I try to put one self-congratulatory thread up, and goddamn trolls have to ruin all our fun.
Attention, everyone: poster at 10:08 was not me.
I for one am sick of all the name-stealing that is going on. I try to put one self-congratulatory thread up, and goddamn trolls have to ruin all our fun.
whatever the hell that means - the idea of scholarship somehow being justifiably marked by ideology is bizarre.
OK, you know more about him than I do. I read a review of one of his books in The New York Review of Books years ago, so fine. As for scholarship being justifiably marked by ideology, you are leaping to conclusions. I did not imply in any way that scholarship should be marked by ideology, merely that scholars inevitably have political opinions which affect their views of their peers, and that the respect (that I understood Pipes to enjoy) of historians whose politics are leftist spoke well of him.
I thought we lived in a period in which most humanists accepted that scholarship is marked by ideology, whether they like it or not, and that the best limit the warping effect of their political ideology, or use it in the production of intellectually honest work.
I based the statement on that old review, and on the fact that his books have been well-reviewed in left-leaning journals. I'm genuinely curious about your contempt for him, your pointless snarkiness aside.
whatever the hell that means - the idea of scholarship somehow being justifiably marked by ideology is bizarre.
OK, you know more about him than I do. I read a review of one of his books in The New York Review of Books years ago, so fine. As for scholarship being justifiably marked by ideology, you are leaping to conclusions. I did not imply in any way that scholarship should be marked by ideology, merely that scholars inevitably have political opinions which affect their views of their peers, and that the respect (that I understood Pipes to enjoy) of historians whose politics are leftist spoke well of him.
I thought we lived in a period in which most humanists accepted that scholarship is marked by ideology, whether they like it or not, and that the best limit the warping effect of their political ideology, or use it in the production of intellectually honest work.
I based the statement on that old review, and on the fact that his books have been well-reviewed in left-leaning journals. I'm genuinely curious about your contempt for him, your pointless snarkiness aside.
I read the first paragraph of Pagllia's Sexual Personae and closed it. She wrote, 'it's something Icall the Apollonian and Dionysian.'
I read the first paragraph of Pagllia's Sexual Personae and closed it. She wrote, 'it's something Icall the Apollonian and Dionysian.'
Does anyone here have any friends who are not white?
I know I don't.
Does anyone here have any friends who are not white?
I know I don't.
Non-comic book? I rarely read ANY novels anymore, but anything by Nevil Shute... for some reason his books read effortlessly to me. Or something. "Trustee From the Toolroom" is a favorite.
Non-comic book? I rarely read ANY novels anymore, but anything by Nevil Shute... for some reason his books read effortlessly to me. Or something. "Trustee From the Toolroom" is a favorite.
now, if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment to go fellate Charles Johnson.
now, if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment to go fellate Charles Johnson.
Hate America Books will be banned by February 2005. Enjoy them while you can, haters! We will ban YOU next!
Hate America Books will be banned by February 2005. Enjoy them while you can, haters! We will ban YOU next!
Dittos to:
Fiction:
The Flashman series by G.M.Fraser
Libra & White Noise by DeLillo
V by Thomas Pynchon
1984 & Burmese Days by Orwell
Jeeves & Wooster by P.G.Wodehouse
Devil in the White City by Larson
Lolita by Nabokov
Catch 22 by Heller
Sci-fi fantasy:
Tolkein,Stephenson(Snow Crash), Dick,Bradbury, Ellison, LeGuin
Non-fiction:
Ron Chernow (Titan),Sy Hersch,
Other personal favorites:
Fiction:
Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
Cider House Rules by John Irving
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
The Box Man by Kobo Abe
Hunger by Knut Hamsen
Peter Wimsey series by Dorothy Sayers
Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler
Non-Fiction:
Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden
Sebastapol Sketches by Tolstoy
The Emperor by Ryszard Kapucinski
The Robber Barons by Matthew Josephson
Out of the Crisis by E.Edwards Deming
Cosmopolis by Stephen Toulmin
Alfred North Whitehead
Dittos to:
Fiction:
The Flashman series by G.M.Fraser
Libra & White Noise by DeLillo
V by Thomas Pynchon
1984 & Burmese Days by Orwell
Jeeves & Wooster by P.G.Wodehouse
Devil in the White City by Larson
Lolita by Nabokov
Catch 22 by Heller
Sci-fi fantasy:
Tolkein,Stephenson(Snow Crash), Dick,Bradbury, Ellison, LeGuin
Non-fiction:
Ron Chernow (Titan),Sy Hersch,
Other personal favorites:
Fiction:
Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
Cider House Rules by John Irving
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
The Box Man by Kobo Abe
Hunger by Knut Hamsen
Peter Wimsey series by Dorothy Sayers
Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler
Non-Fiction:
Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden
Sebastapol Sketches by Tolstoy
The Emperor by Ryszard Kapucinski
The Robber Barons by Matthew Josephson
Out of the Crisis by E.Edwards Deming
Cosmopolis by Stephen Toulmin
Alfred North Whitehead
Check that. I do know one black person.
Well, I don't so much know him as I saw a television show with him on it once.
Has anyone else heard of this "Ali G"? What a character!
Check that. I do know one black person.
Well, I don't so much know him as I saw a television show with him on it once.
Has anyone else heard of this "Ali G"? What a character!
Don;t worry Monica. GWB has been acting like Alex Trebek for years... thinks he has all the answers. Very soon he will discover that life is not a game show.
Don;t worry Monica. GWB has been acting like Alex Trebek for years... thinks he has all the answers. Very soon he will discover that life is not a game show.
pie, don't worry about it. the false pie/theodoric/philalethes isn't fooling anybody anyway.
pie, don't worry about it. the false pie/theodoric/philalethes isn't fooling anybody anyway.
It's a very demanding task requiring keen eyesight and excellent hand-eye coordination, you know.
It's a very demanding task requiring keen eyesight and excellent hand-eye coordination, you know.
Two relevant for TODAY!!
The End of Faith, Sam Harris
Free Thinkers, Susan Jacoby
Both indepth thoughty books. Read the first coupla paragraphs in either, you're hooked.
Two relevant for TODAY!!
The End of Faith, Sam Harris
Free Thinkers, Susan Jacoby
Both indepth thoughty books. Read the first coupla paragraphs in either, you're hooked.
Opinionated crap:
Frank Herbert's stuff pretty much sucks, although the first Dune book or two isn't too bad.
Sounds about right.
Around "the Return of the Son of Dune", or maybe it was "Dune Messiah", I gave up on Herbert. Hey, Frank; get a new story, huh?
He sure made him a few bucks, though, which wasn't easy in SF back then.
Opinionated crap:
Frank Herbert's stuff pretty much sucks, although the first Dune book or two isn't too bad.
Sounds about right.
Around "the Return of the Son of Dune", or maybe it was "Dune Messiah", I gave up on Herbert. Hey, Frank; get a new story, huh?
He sure made him a few bucks, though, which wasn't easy in SF back then.
10:10 wasn't me.
This is pathetic.
10:10 wasn't me.
This is pathetic.
I for one am angry that my local library purchases more books that hate America than those that love. I have kept track. Copy for copy, title for title, dollar for dollar, it is clear they are biased liberals. I am leading a movement to take over the library board and demand equal time and resources for conservative thought, 100%! AMEN!
I for one am angry that my local library purchases more books that hate America than those that love. I have kept track. Copy for copy, title for title, dollar for dollar, it is clear they are biased liberals. I am leading a movement to take over the library board and demand equal time and resources for conservative thought, 100%! AMEN!
Philalethes, you know what really sucks?
Whenever I try to tell Negros what is in their best interest, they never seem to agree. I don't know what their problem is.
Asians are much easier to stand. I don't have anything against Asians.
Good food, too.
Philalethes, you know what really sucks?
Whenever I try to tell Negros what is in their best interest, they never seem to agree. I don't know what their problem is.
Asians are much easier to stand. I don't have anything against Asians.
Good food, too.
Ah, Nevil Shute.
'Round the Bend' is good.
Ah, Nevil Shute.
'Round the Bend' is good.
Looks like the troll jubilee might have to end.
Looks like the troll jubilee might have to end.
Never finished Diamond's book (Guns, Germs, and Steel), but I gotta say I didn't really like it.
I guess my problem is that I've read John Thornton's Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, so I know how totally full of shit everything Diamond says about Africa is.
Diamond-lovers, I urge you: read Thornton. You just don't know what you're missing.
Never finished Diamond's book (Guns, Germs, and Steel), but I gotta say I didn't really like it.
I guess my problem is that I've read John Thornton's Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, so I know how totally full of shit everything Diamond says about Africa is.
Diamond-lovers, I urge you: read Thornton. You just don't know what you're missing.
"America," he said, "will lose the war.
And Italy will win it."
"America is the stongest and most
prosperous nation on earth," Nately
informed him with lofty fervor and
dignity. "And the American fighting man
is second to none."
"Exactly," agreed the old man
pleasantly, with a hint of taunting
amusement. "Italy, on the other hand,
is one of the least properous nations
on earth. And the Italian fighting man
is probably second to all. And that's
exactly why my country is doing so well
in this war while your country is doing
so poorly."
"I'm sorry I laughed at you. But Italy
was occupied by the Germans and is now
being occupied by us. You don't call
that doing very well, do you?"
"But of course I do," exclaimed the old
man cheerfully. "The Germans are being
driven out, and we're still here. In a
few years, you will be gone, too, and
we will still be here. You see, Italy
is really a very poor and weak country,
and that's what makes us so strong.
Italian soldiers are not dying anymore.
But American and German soldiers are. I
call that doing extremely well. Yes,
I'm quite certain Italy will survive
this war and still be in existence long
after your own country has been
destroyed."
"America is not going to be destroyed!"
he shouted passionately.
"Never?" prodded the old man softly.
"Well..." Nately faltered.
"Rome was destroyed, Greece was
destroyed, Persia was destroyed, Spain
was destroyed. All great countries are
destroyed. Why not yours? How much
longer do you really think your own
country will last? Forever? Keep in
mind that the earth itself is destined
to be destroyed by the sun in
twenty-five million years or so."
"America," he said, "will lose the war.
And Italy will win it."
"America is the stongest and most
prosperous nation on earth," Nately
informed him with lofty fervor and
dignity. "And the American fighting man
is second to none."
"Exactly," agreed the old man
pleasantly, with a hint of taunting
amusement. "Italy, on the other hand,
is one of the least properous nations
on earth. And the Italian fighting man
is probably second to all. And that's
exactly why my country is doing so well
in this war while your country is doing
so poorly."
"I'm sorry I laughed at you. But Italy
was occupied by the Germans and is now
being occupied by us. You don't call
that doing very well, do you?"
"But of course I do," exclaimed the old
man cheerfully. "The Germans are being
driven out, and we're still here. In a
few years, you will be gone, too, and
we will still be here. You see, Italy
is really a very poor and weak country,
and that's what makes us so strong.
Italian soldiers are not dying anymore.
But American and German soldiers are. I
call that doing extremely well. Yes,
I'm quite certain Italy will survive
this war and still be in existence long
after your own country has been
destroyed."
"America is not going to be destroyed!"
he shouted passionately.
"Never?" prodded the old man softly.
"Well..." Nately faltered.
"Rome was destroyed, Greece was
destroyed, Persia was destroyed, Spain
was destroyed. All great countries are
destroyed. Why not yours? How much
longer do you really think your own
country will last? Forever? Keep in
mind that the earth itself is destined
to be destroyed by the sun in
twenty-five million years or so."
Alex Trebek wipes gwb off his ass right after he takes a shit.
Alex Trebek wipes gwb off his ass right after he takes a shit.
Loving the Sartre cookbook! My husband is looking at me like I've now lost all the marbles.
Loving the Sartre cookbook! My husband is looking at me like I've now lost all the marbles.
Uh, 10:14 wasn't me.
I hate trolls!
Uh, 10:14 wasn't me.
I hate trolls!
I've been looking for what to read next & now I've got a list a yard long...TNX, y'all!
For my money, the best novel in the English language is Middlemarch, by George Eliot. If you haven't read it, and you've got about three weeks to spare, settle in.
Also: anything by David Lodge *after* his first half dozen books, which aren't so good; and I second the Bujold recommendations above. And Sharon Olds. She rocks.
In SF, try John Barnes if you haven't yet. He's interesting and he writes fast. I like that in a writer. Kage Baker's new stuff is also really promising.
I've been looking for what to read next & now I've got a list a yard long...TNX, y'all!
For my money, the best novel in the English language is Middlemarch, by George Eliot. If you haven't read it, and you've got about three weeks to spare, settle in.
Also: anything by David Lodge *after* his first half dozen books, which aren't so good; and I second the Bujold recommendations above. And Sharon Olds. She rocks.
In SF, try John Barnes if you haven't yet. He's interesting and he writes fast. I like that in a writer. Kage Baker's new stuff is also really promising.
All the liberal books are terrible. Now that the election is over, GET OVER IT! Read some patriotic books that support our president and the troops, not that negative hater America stuff.
All the liberal books are terrible. Now that the election is over, GET OVER IT! Read some patriotic books that support our president and the troops, not that negative hater America stuff.
Olaf glad and big, I've never known anyone else who read Going After Cacciato. It's been years. The idea grabbed me from the begining. Somebody decides to walk home from Vietnam, I'm sold.
Olaf glad and big, I've never known anyone else who read Going After Cacciato. It's been years. The idea grabbed me from the begining. Somebody decides to walk home from Vietnam, I'm sold.
Asians are much easier to stand. I don't have anything against Asians.
Good food, too.
theodoric
Yes, and they are even willing to try my pine nut pesto sauce!
Asians are much easier to stand. I don't have anything against Asians.
Good food, too.
theodoric
Yes, and they are even willing to try my pine nut pesto sauce!
10:20 isn't me.
That's 'cause I'm signing off.
Keep discussing books, however.
Trollie, take your meds, doll.
(R Soles. Anyone remember him?)
10:20 isn't me.
That's 'cause I'm signing off.
Keep discussing books, however.
Trollie, take your meds, doll.
(R Soles. Anyone remember him?)
.....anything by sweezy.
also, growing up absurd.
.....anything by sweezy.
also, growing up absurd.
"The Brains of Rats" by I forget who. Damn, I hate that.
Really queasy-making short stories.
Ah! Michael Blumlein. Thank you B&N.
"The Brains of Rats" by I forget who. Damn, I hate that.
Really queasy-making short stories.
Ah! Michael Blumlein. Thank you B&N.
Strange that last Anon was me but after posting my info is back.
Strange that last Anon was me but after posting my info is back.
catch-22 is the great american novel.
i heard that joseph heller gave the commencement address at the usaf academy one year. does anyone know if that is true or not?
catch-22 is the great american novel.
i heard that joseph heller gave the commencement address at the usaf academy one year. does anyone know if that is true or not?
Has anyone else noticed how ever since the election Atrios has turned into a complete pussy?
Has anyone else noticed how ever since the election Atrios has turned into a complete pussy?
Thanks for all the great suggestions.
Here are a few more:
Cloud Atlas by david mitchell (where we are headed, incredible book, just incredible)
Snow Fox (susan something fromberg?) - cool 10th century japan violent travelogue-y love triangle - awful cover though
Salamis - neat history blow up of the big day in 480 bc when the greek navy turned back xerxes at the battle of salamis
Punic war by adrian goldsworthy, made me wish the hannibal had won
April, 1865 - "fateful month" history, but good nonetheless, mostly made me realize what a lucky break it was that lincoln was president at that epic time, and that wow, we really need a lincoln today
Year at the Races, Jane Smiley, dont own horses or even ride them, but this one made me want to run out and mortgage the house to buy a bunch of them
Great idea Atrios
Thanks for all the great suggestions.
Here are a few more:
Cloud Atlas by david mitchell (where we are headed, incredible book, just incredible)
Snow Fox (susan something fromberg?) - cool 10th century japan violent travelogue-y love triangle - awful cover though
Salamis - neat history blow up of the big day in 480 bc when the greek navy turned back xerxes at the battle of salamis
Punic war by adrian goldsworthy, made me wish the hannibal had won
April, 1865 - "fateful month" history, but good nonetheless, mostly made me realize what a lucky break it was that lincoln was president at that epic time, and that wow, we really need a lincoln today
Year at the Races, Jane Smiley, dont own horses or even ride them, but this one made me want to run out and mortgage the house to buy a bunch of them
Great idea Atrios
yup, we have a namestealer.
Quite obvious and pathetic. Childlike need for attention and disruption makes me think it is an 8 yr. old with ADD.
yup, we have a namestealer.
Quite obvious and pathetic. Childlike need for attention and disruption makes me think it is an 8 yr. old with ADD.
I suggest "Sybil". Me too.
I suggest "Sybil". Me too.
Has anyone recommended "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis.
Sorry, on an AOL dial-up reading 400+ entries was a bit much
Has anyone recommended "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis.
Sorry, on an AOL dial-up reading 400+ entries was a bit much
Monica A: I'm gonna feel real stupid in a minit, but...Estritch?
Monica A: I'm gonna feel real stupid in a minit, but...Estritch?
cool! finally got my name stolen! wait til i tell al my elitist friends!
cool! finally got my name stolen! wait til i tell al my elitist friends!
Please, are you people still there?
I am so lonely and I hate mankind.
Don't leave me!
Please, are you people still there?
I am so lonely and I hate mankind.
Don't leave me!
Yeah, I'm tired of this name-stealing B.S. too. I'm signing off.
Any post that has my name on it from here on out was put there by annoying troll.
Goodnight.
Yeah, I'm tired of this name-stealing B.S. too. I'm signing off.
Any post that has my name on it from here on out was put there by annoying troll.
Goodnight.
Birdsong by Sabastian Faulks. About World War I and life in the trenches, stirringly erotic and heartbreaking. From the book jacket: "This is literature at its very best: a book with the power to reveal the unimagined, so that one's life is set in a changed context. I urge you to read it." Nigel Watts, Time Out
Birdsong by Sabastian Faulks. About World War I and life in the trenches, stirringly erotic and heartbreaking. From the book jacket: "This is literature at its very best: a book with the power to reveal the unimagined, so that one's life is set in a changed context. I urge you to read it." Nigel Watts, Time Out
Blogger is being its usual post hiding self. Good thing I know the archive back door trick. Thanks for leaving the key under the mat, Pie!
Hecate, you are the first person I've ever met who's read the Kenneally books besides me! Damn, I loved those when I was a teen. Also loved, loved, loved Patricia McKillip's Riddle-master books.
Currently I'm reading The Right Nation and The Real Price of War: How You Pay for the War on Terror, plus a whole slew of Medieval history books for a homeschooling unit we're doing.
I am looking forward to the new Julia Spenser-Fleming mystery, about a female Episcopal priest/sleuth and can't wait for the sequel to The Various by Steve Augarde, which is a wholly different type of children's fantasy book that I devoured.
Ahhh, books.
Blogger is being its usual post hiding self. Good thing I know the archive back door trick. Thanks for leaving the key under the mat, Pie!
Hecate, you are the first person I've ever met who's read the Kenneally books besides me! Damn, I loved those when I was a teen. Also loved, loved, loved Patricia McKillip's Riddle-master books.
Currently I'm reading The Right Nation and The Real Price of War: How You Pay for the War on Terror, plus a whole slew of Medieval history books for a homeschooling unit we're doing.
I am looking forward to the new Julia Spenser-Fleming mystery, about a female Episcopal priest/sleuth and can't wait for the sequel to The Various by Steve Augarde, which is a wholly different type of children's fantasy book that I devoured.
Ahhh, books.
Cat blogging started way before the elections, N.S. And it's only Fridays, you're a day late as well as a dime short of a dollar.
Cat blogging started way before the elections, N.S. And it's only Fridays, you're a day late as well as a dime short of a dollar.
What's the Matter with Kansas? for a paper I'm doing.
The Charismatic Bond by Madsen and Snow (also for paper).
I'm also reading the New Testament to see if there's anything specific about abortion. Any clues?
And Setting Free the Bears (really old John Irving). I love his old stuff. Wasn't that excited about Widow for One Year.
What's the Matter with Kansas? for a paper I'm doing.
The Charismatic Bond by Madsen and Snow (also for paper).
I'm also reading the New Testament to see if there's anything specific about abortion. Any clues?
And Setting Free the Bears (really old John Irving). I love his old stuff. Wasn't that excited about Widow for One Year.
Quite obvious and pathetic. Childlike need for attention and disruption makes me think it is an 8 yr. old with ADD.
More likely an LGFer who got his ass handed to him on the last thread and is all pissed off, but hasn't actually read any books for ten years or so because Bush hasn't written any.
Quite obvious and pathetic. Childlike need for attention and disruption makes me think it is an 8 yr. old with ADD.
More likely an LGFer who got his ass handed to him on the last thread and is all pissed off, but hasn't actually read any books for ten years or so because Bush hasn't written any.
The thoughts of one Dune lover:
There is something about these books that touched a chord in me. By the end of the second book you are not the same as you were by the end of the first book. Is it fair that Jessica used the Kwisatch Hederach legion to secure her and Paul's survival? Should she have followed the Bene Gesserit breading plan or should she have followed her love for Leto? Was Paul weaker than his son because he could not take the final step? Why did Paul allow Cha'ni to die? Was the changing of Dune really good for all of manking or was it one man's folly? Each book made me rethink my position everytime.
The thoughts of one Dune lover:
There is something about these books that touched a chord in me. By the end of the second book you are not the same as you were by the end of the first book. Is it fair that Jessica used the Kwisatch Hederach legion to secure her and Paul's survival? Should she have followed the Bene Gesserit breading plan or should she have followed her love for Leto? Was Paul weaker than his son because he could not take the final step? Why did Paul allow Cha'ni to die? Was the changing of Dune really good for all of manking or was it one man's folly? Each book made me rethink my position everytime.
The thoughts of one Dune lover:
There is something about these books that touched a chord in me. By the end of the second book you are not the same as you were by the end of the first book. Is it fair that Jessica used the Kwisatch Hederach legend of the Fremen to secure her and Paul's survival? Should she have followed the Bene Gesserit breading plan or should she have followed her love for Leto? Was Paul weaker than his son because he could not take the final step? Why did Paul allow Cha'ni to die? Was the changing of Dune really good for all of manking or was it one man's folly? Each book made me rethink my position everytime.
The thoughts of one Dune lover:
There is something about these books that touched a chord in me. By the end of the second book you are not the same as you were by the end of the first book. Is it fair that Jessica used the Kwisatch Hederach legend of the Fremen to secure her and Paul's survival? Should she have followed the Bene Gesserit breading plan or should she have followed her love for Leto? Was Paul weaker than his son because he could not take the final step? Why did Paul allow Cha'ni to die? Was the changing of Dune really good for all of manking or was it one man's folly? Each book made me rethink my position everytime.
another really good book is "beneath a panamanian moon", by cosmic grappler. send the check to the usual p.o. box, cg.
another really good book is "beneath a panamanian moon", by cosmic grappler. send the check to the usual p.o. box, cg.
Herbert wrote one good book. All the rest suck.
Others bearing this distinction: Barbara Thiering...
I read a book of hers once, title forgotten, about the "pesher" version of all the Scrolls. What on Earth was that all about? It was simultaneously fascinating and unfathomable.
Herbert wrote one good book. All the rest suck.
Others bearing this distinction: Barbara Thiering...
I read a book of hers once, title forgotten, about the "pesher" version of all the Scrolls. What on Earth was that all about? It was simultaneously fascinating and unfathomable.
war and peace........vanity fair....and i second the votes for robert caro books.....if you are nyer power broker is must read .otherwise master of the senate is spectacular.reads like a novel
war and peace........vanity fair....and i second the votes for robert caro books.....if you are nyer power broker is must read .otherwise master of the senate is spectacular.reads like a novel
yup, we have a namestealer.
Quite obvious and pathetic. Childlike need for attention and disruption makes me think it is an 8 yr. old with ADD.
I have a 9 year old with ADD and he would look down his nose at the trolls.
I don't get trolls at all. I have one at my wee little blog now. I don't have big comment threads. I have 16 regular readers. But this guy "Ian" has to tell me how I suck. What does he hope to accomplish? It's very, very sad.
yup, we have a namestealer.
Quite obvious and pathetic. Childlike need for attention and disruption makes me think it is an 8 yr. old with ADD.
I have a 9 year old with ADD and he would look down his nose at the trolls.
I don't get trolls at all. I have one at my wee little blog now. I don't have big comment threads. I have 16 regular readers. But this guy "Ian" has to tell me how I suck. What does he hope to accomplish? It's very, very sad.
Doozer: Blonde chick on Fox with the cigarette worn voice. I don't plan to post the Dune lover thing again.
Doozer: Blonde chick on Fox with the cigarette worn voice. I don't plan to post the Dune lover thing again.
I'm also reading the New Testament to see if there's anything specific about abortion. Any clues?
nothing in the bible about abortion.
they're too busy stoning queers and masturbators.
I'm also reading the New Testament to see if there's anything specific about abortion. Any clues?
nothing in the bible about abortion.
they're too busy stoning queers and masturbators.
For my money, the best novel in the English language is Middlemarch, by George Eliot. If you haven't read it, and you've got about three weeks to spare, settle in.
LOVED it. She should have written more. I'm going nuts trying to remember the name of her book about the miser living in the cabin that has all his money stolen and is saved by finding the baby whose mother is murdered. HELP! I'm dying here.
For my money, the best novel in the English language is Middlemarch, by George Eliot. If you haven't read it, and you've got about three weeks to spare, settle in.
LOVED it. She should have written more. I'm going nuts trying to remember the name of her book about the miser living in the cabin that has all his money stolen and is saved by finding the baby whose mother is murdered. HELP! I'm dying here.
bigvic:
Are you thinking of _Mill on the Floss_?
bigvic:
Are you thinking of _Mill on the Floss_?
I am reading the New Testament to look for references to whether it is ok to subscribe to cable.
I am reading the New Testament to look for references to whether it is ok to subscribe to cable.
So stupid you liberal bigvic, "she"? George Eliot is a MAN. You must be GAY. And you are obvioulsy as ignorant of politics and economics as you are of literature. Come one, tell us another one...... liberal.
So stupid you liberal bigvic, "she"? George Eliot is a MAN. You must be GAY. And you are obvioulsy as ignorant of politics and economics as you are of literature. Come one, tell us another one...... liberal.
Silas Marner.
Silas Marner.
bigvic: Silas Marner?
I have a 9 year old with ADD and he would look down his nose at the trolls.
Heh. Ditto your other remarks. A sick soul, is my guess.
bigvic: Silas Marner?
I have a 9 year old with ADD and he would look down his nose at the trolls.
Heh. Ditto your other remarks. A sick soul, is my guess.
What on Earth was that all about? It was simultaneously fascinating and unfathomable.
Near as I can tell, the Dead Sea Scrolles have made no net contribution to human knowledge.
Lots and lots of wacko theories, though. Robert Eisenman's James the brother of Jesus is pretty far out there without sounding like it was written by a pissed-off Sunday School teacher.
What on Earth was that all about? It was simultaneously fascinating and unfathomable.
Near as I can tell, the Dead Sea Scrolles have made no net contribution to human knowledge.
Lots and lots of wacko theories, though. Robert Eisenman's James the brother of Jesus is pretty far out there without sounding like it was written by a pissed-off Sunday School teacher.
by the way, a lot of people here seem to be into neal stephenson in a big way. i like him. he's ok. i have read all his books except for "the system of the world", which i am working on. as far as i'm concerned, his best book is "the big u".
by the way, a lot of people here seem to be into neal stephenson in a big way. i like him. he's ok. i have read all his books except for "the system of the world", which i am working on. as far as i'm concerned, his best book is "the big u".
How controversial is a book thread? Why the fuck would anyone want to mess with that? Agree, disagree, whatever, but what kind of fucking deranged troll mind needs to fuck with pie for putting it up? What the fuck is wrong with you people?
I have so many books now, my "TBR Pile" is a bookcase unto itself. After this, I need another bookcase. How is this bad? Or would you like it better if I cleared my reading list with you?
Dickheads.
For the rest of you, I thank you for your contributions. I could read every day for the rest of my life and not get to everything posted here tonight. "So many books, so little time." Ah, well. Good night.
How controversial is a book thread? Why the fuck would anyone want to mess with that? Agree, disagree, whatever, but what kind of fucking deranged troll mind needs to fuck with pie for putting it up? What the fuck is wrong with you people?
I have so many books now, my "TBR Pile" is a bookcase unto itself. After this, I need another bookcase. How is this bad? Or would you like it better if I cleared my reading list with you?
Dickheads.
For the rest of you, I thank you for your contributions. I could read every day for the rest of my life and not get to everything posted here tonight. "So many books, so little time." Ah, well. Good night.
Could we have a new thread, Atrios, you punk?
Could we have a new thread, Atrios, you punk?
bigvic:
Oops. I meant _Silas Marner_. That's the one you're thinking of.
bigvic:
Oops. I meant _Silas Marner_. That's the one you're thinking of.
A clue for Trollie Troll; if yoy don't knowe how to pronounce Jean-Paul Sartre, you don't freaking belong here. Hell, I know plumbers who can pronounce it.
G'night.
And NO CHEETOS IN THE BED!!
A clue for Trollie Troll; if yoy don't knowe how to pronounce Jean-Paul Sartre, you don't freaking belong here. Hell, I know plumbers who can pronounce it.
G'night.
And NO CHEETOS IN THE BED!!
yoy = you, of course. Ahem.
yoy = you, of course. Ahem.
I am half way through "whats the matter with kansas". Its great especially if you're like me - masochistic.
Also reading "testing computer software" by Kaner.
I am half way through "whats the matter with kansas". Its great especially if you're like me - masochistic.
Also reading "testing computer software" by Kaner.
On the Dune series by Frank Herbert:
I read the whole Dune series in adolescence and found them stimulating at the time, but in hindsight I realize that the quality is gradually dwindling after the first book; or perhaps rather, by the second half of the first book. I still think Dune ranks among the top 5 or so SF novels, and even the series as a whole isn't bad.
Hell, even David Lynch's 'Dune' movie is worth seeing - but only if you've read the book, otherwise it will prove well and truly incomprehensible.
On the Dune series by Frank Herbert:
I read the whole Dune series in adolescence and found them stimulating at the time, but in hindsight I realize that the quality is gradually dwindling after the first book; or perhaps rather, by the second half of the first book. I still think Dune ranks among the top 5 or so SF novels, and even the series as a whole isn't bad.
Hell, even David Lynch's 'Dune' movie is worth seeing - but only if you've read the book, otherwise it will prove well and truly incomprehensible.
Biased liberals ansd their books. What about Das Kapital and Mein Kampf? Tell us how much you admire the authors of these books.
Biased liberals ansd their books. What about Das Kapital and Mein Kampf? Tell us how much you admire the authors of these books.
So stupid you liberal bigvic, "she"? George Eliot is a MAN. You must be GAY. And you are obvioulsy as ignorant of politics and economics as you are of literature. Come one, tell us another one...... liberal.
Fair and Balanced
What a perfect parody of a right-wing troll.
So stupid you liberal bigvic, "she"? George Eliot is a MAN. You must be GAY. And you are obvioulsy as ignorant of politics and economics as you are of literature. Come one, tell us another one...... liberal.
Fair and Balanced
What a perfect parody of a right-wing troll.
Late, late in the thread, but...
David Weber's Honor Harrington books.
Late, late in the thread, but...
David Weber's Honor Harrington books.
1. Lamb - The Gospel According to Biff, Jesus' Boyhood Friend (aught to set well with this crowd - even us 'believers');
2. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (a re-read, reminder that the gov't lies, cheats and steals from way back);
3. Sick Puppy (Hiaasen's just a laugh out loud writer - love it)
1. Lamb - The Gospel According to Biff, Jesus' Boyhood Friend (aught to set well with this crowd - even us 'believers');
2. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (a re-read, reminder that the gov't lies, cheats and steals from way back);
3. Sick Puppy (Hiaasen's just a laugh out loud writer - love it)
1. "What's the Matter with Kansas?" Thomas Frank-learn about the GOP backlash
2. "Homegrown Democrat" Garrison Keillor-don't forget why you're a Democrat.
3. Anything by Richard Hofstadter..."The Paranoid Style in American Politics," "Social Darwinism in America," "Anti-Intellectualism in America"...[note "The American Political Tradition" is his best known]
4. "The Prize," Daniel Yergin-just so don't forget the war on terror happens to be centered where 2/3rds of the world's proven oil reside.
5. "All the Shah's Men," Stephen Kinzer-are we going to see a repeat of 1953?
6. "A Very Private Woman" Nina Burleigh-yes it was sold as trash, the murder of Kennedy's mistress, but it's worth reading to get a feel for the society of the Washington and those in power.
7. "A People's History of the United States" Howard Zinn
8. "Living My Life" Emma Goldman-experience America from a the perspective of an anarchist revolutionary.
9. "United States," "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace," "The Last Empire," Gore Vidal-our best essayist takes on American hegemony.
10. "Babbit" Sinclair Lewis- the company man in America
11. "The Disappearance of Childhood," Neil Postman; "Bowling Alone" Robert Putnam; "The Lonely Crowd," David Reisman- pick one or all three for modern sociology that doesn't suck
12. "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs" Chuck Klosterman-pop culture
1. "What's the Matter with Kansas?" Thomas Frank-learn about the GOP backlash
2. "Homegrown Democrat" Garrison Keillor-don't forget why you're a Democrat.
3. Anything by Richard Hofstadter..."The Paranoid Style in American Politics," "Social Darwinism in America," "Anti-Intellectualism in America"...[note "The American Political Tradition" is his best known]
4. "The Prize," Daniel Yergin-just so don't forget the war on terror happens to be centered where 2/3rds of the world's proven oil reside.
5. "All the Shah's Men," Stephen Kinzer-are we going to see a repeat of 1953?
6. "A Very Private Woman" Nina Burleigh-yes it was sold as trash, the murder of Kennedy's mistress, but it's worth reading to get a feel for the society of the Washington and those in power.
7. "A People's History of the United States" Howard Zinn
8. "Living My Life" Emma Goldman-experience America from a the perspective of an anarchist revolutionary.
9. "United States," "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace," "The Last Empire," Gore Vidal-our best essayist takes on American hegemony.
10. "Babbit" Sinclair Lewis- the company man in America
11. "The Disappearance of Childhood," Neil Postman; "Bowling Alone" Robert Putnam; "The Lonely Crowd," David Reisman- pick one or all three for modern sociology that doesn't suck
12. "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs" Chuck Klosterman-pop culture
trolling on a book thread... sigh. How silly.
haven't had much time for deep reading lately, but I would recommend anything by David Suzuki. I've a pile of William Gibson to work through as well. Lighter stuff - Lawrence Block, one of my favorite mystery writers. His Matt Scudder series offers a fascinating glimpse at the day-to-day life of a recovering alcoholic. For fun- Dave Barry, and America the Book by The Daily Show staff.
Also - just finished I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (the inspiration for The Omega Man). Good stuff... you can see where he really inspired Stephen King.
Happy reading, all! Thanks for the multitude of suggestions!
trolling on a book thread... sigh. How silly.
haven't had much time for deep reading lately, but I would recommend anything by David Suzuki. I've a pile of William Gibson to work through as well. Lighter stuff - Lawrence Block, one of my favorite mystery writers. His Matt Scudder series offers a fascinating glimpse at the day-to-day life of a recovering alcoholic. For fun- Dave Barry, and America the Book by The Daily Show staff.
Also - just finished I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (the inspiration for The Omega Man). Good stuff... you can see where he really inspired Stephen King.
Happy reading, all! Thanks for the multitude of suggestions!
theodoric, you are amazing! i have never met anyone else who read "james, the brother of jesus". i loved it, but i hate the apostle paul with a passion anyway.
theodoric, you are amazing! i have never met anyone else who read "james, the brother of jesus". i loved it, but i hate the apostle paul with a passion anyway.
Try "Perfume" by Patrick Suskind - a hypnotic novel that will take you places you haven't been before.
"War and Peace" (pick a translation you like) - don't be scared... it's really, truly wonderful. It will enhance your appreciation of all humanity, plus you'll look at Napoleon in a whole new light. Its influence is perceptible in "Middlemarch" by George Eliot - if you ignore the daunting first chapter, you meet characters you'll never forget. It also becomes apparent that "Gone With the Wind" is a pale imitation of "War and Peace."
"Lolly Willowes" by Sylvia Townsend Warner - in this 1926 novel of female empowerment, a bland spinster, everyone's respectable aunt, sells her soul to the devil and becomes a witch. In Warner's "Summer Will Show," a British lady of the manor goes to Paris and becomes a lesbian Marxist revolutionary in 1848. Reading Warner's prose is like sinking into a warm, transparent pool.
You can't go wrong with Donald Westlake (the Dortmunder books for laughs, or "The Ax" for a serious chill), Dickens ("Bleak House" may be his best), or Carl Hiaassen for wicked pro-environmental satire.
"So many books, so little time!"
Try "Perfume" by Patrick Suskind - a hypnotic novel that will take you places you haven't been before.
"War and Peace" (pick a translation you like) - don't be scared... it's really, truly wonderful. It will enhance your appreciation of all humanity, plus you'll look at Napoleon in a whole new light. Its influence is perceptible in "Middlemarch" by George Eliot - if you ignore the daunting first chapter, you meet characters you'll never forget. It also becomes apparent that "Gone With the Wind" is a pale imitation of "War and Peace."
"Lolly Willowes" by Sylvia Townsend Warner - in this 1926 novel of female empowerment, a bland spinster, everyone's respectable aunt, sells her soul to the devil and becomes a witch. In Warner's "Summer Will Show," a British lady of the manor goes to Paris and becomes a lesbian Marxist revolutionary in 1848. Reading Warner's prose is like sinking into a warm, transparent pool.
You can't go wrong with Donald Westlake (the Dortmunder books for laughs, or "The Ax" for a serious chill), Dickens ("Bleak House" may be his best), or Carl Hiaassen for wicked pro-environmental satire.
"So many books, so little time!"
Biblo,
YES! Thank you! Damn, I hate when my mind goes blank like that. It's been bugging me this whole thread.
Peace!
Biblo,
YES! Thank you! Damn, I hate when my mind goes blank like that. It's been bugging me this whole thread.
Peace!
Einstein's Dreams by Lightner
Einstein's Dreams by Lightner
Everybody knows Sartre is for fags.
Everybody knows Sartre is for fags.
Back to Dune for a moment:
Why wasn't Leto more thoroughly prepared for treachery when they reached Arrakis? When the connection was made between the Atriedes and Harkonnen family did each change anything on either side? Why Jessica try to change the water when she knew what it would do to Alia? Does this make her selfish? Was Leto II really as bad as the opposition made him out to be? These are questions that I still have and I read the books over five years ago (the originals.)
Back to Dune for a moment:
Why wasn't Leto more thoroughly prepared for treachery when they reached Arrakis? When the connection was made between the Atriedes and Harkonnen family did each change anything on either side? Why Jessica try to change the water when she knew what it would do to Alia? Does this make her selfish? Was Leto II really as bad as the opposition made him out to be? These are questions that I still have and I read the books over five years ago (the originals.)
Any Lorrie Moore fans here? "Happy all the Time" was the first adult novel I read that wasn't generic genre fic. I was about 14 and I fell in love with her characters. I knew I wanted to grow up to be just like them- literate, witty, passionate and good.
When she died, I was heartbroken.
Any Lorrie Moore fans here? "Happy all the Time" was the first adult novel I read that wasn't generic genre fic. I was about 14 and I fell in love with her characters. I knew I wanted to grow up to be just like them- literate, witty, passionate and good.
When she died, I was heartbroken.
Biblio and All,
Thanks so much for relieving my suffering. Heh.
Biblio and All,
Thanks so much for relieving my suffering. Heh.
Please. Lorrie Moore is a dyke.
Please. Lorrie Moore is a dyke.
And why did Jessica give up on Alia? And why can't Monica spell? Will the madness end?!
And why did Jessica give up on Alia? And why can't Monica spell? Will the madness end?!
last three fav books:
Portnoy's Complaint by Phillip Roth
A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
3 Fav Books All Time:
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
Lolita by Vladamir Nabokov
last three fav books:
Portnoy's Complaint by Phillip Roth
A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
3 Fav Books All Time:
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
Lolita by Vladamir Nabokov
We're readers. That's a good thing.
We're readers. That's a good thing.
Brick Lane, by Monica Ali. It won the Booker a few years ago. It's amazing.
Brick Lane, by Monica Ali. It won the Booker a few years ago. It's amazing.
We're readers. That's a good thing.
We're readers. That's a good thing.
Barndog, if you're still around:
What about With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge? Marines in WWII, on Peleliu and Okinawa.
I second kei & yuri's recommendation of Casanova. I've only read the old Machen translation from a hundred years ago, not the newer Trask version. I also second Gozer's recommendation of Gibbon, who is an old favorite of mine, and whom I try to reread every few years.
Currently (re)reading Thomas Carlyle's French Revolution and Theodore White's Making of the President 1960. (Okay, I began the latter when I thought we'd be electing another Massachusetts senator as president; still interesting to see how much politics has changed in the last forty odd years.)
Reading Lindsey Davis' Scandal Takes a Holiday. (I prefer her to Saylor.) Also reading John Ramsden's Man of the Century; Winston Churchill and His Legend since 1945. It's grotesque that the wingnuts want to compare W to him.
I like to have several books going at once, and switch when I get bored with or need a break from one I've been reading.
Barndog, if you're still around:
What about With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge? Marines in WWII, on Peleliu and Okinawa.
I second kei & yuri's recommendation of Casanova. I've only read the old Machen translation from a h