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Author Topic: Reading this summer  (Read 69046 times)

Emikins

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #100 on: 15 Jun 2008, 17:20 »

I read constantly. I think it is because I don't really do much else in my day-to-day life and so reading just fills in the time and allows me an escape into different words. I'm also rather suseptible to day dreamin'. Every time I finish a book I have decided no a new career path I want to take, or a new time/place I want to live in. Recently I read a book about the profiling of serial killers and decided that I just had to find some way to work at the BSU of the FBI. Probably not likely considering i'm English, and live in England, but a dream none the less. Similarly, I read Tender is the night last week and decided that I needed to live in 1920/30's America, and be rich, and a socialite.

I'm an English Literature student and so reading for the summer is going to be taken up by a hell of a lot of my course books, unfortunately. With over fifty to read next year, a whole module to devise myself and everything I just want to read, this leads to a lot of booktime. Plus, I have a tendency to attempt to make my small, cubelike bedroom, look like a miniature library - with four large floor to ceiling bookshelves filled already, the dream is coming along swimmingly. So, reading this summer? Well, I travel to America on thursday for two months with some webfriends. I presume they'll have books, they're quite geeky. So i'm only going to take a few on the plane and then i'll raid what they have on their bookshelves and devour everything possible. Or, i'll buy books there, because its cheaper.

Summer Reading LIst

Tender is the Night
Profiling the Serial Killer
How to write/read fiction
The Saga of Darren Shan (all twelve)
The Interpretation of Murder
Eragon
A Clockwork Orange
Mrs. Dalloway
Catcher in the Rye (again)
The Noodle Maker
Shades Children
Superior Saturday (I <3 Garth Nix)
The Communist Manifesto
The Book Theif
War and Peace
The God Delusion
The Ancestors Tale
A Brief History of Time
Brisingr
Poetry of Charles Bukowski

And then probably a lot of other stuff that I just pick up when I have the time. So ya know, any suggestions that people may have, i'm sure I can find the time to fit them in.

Pff. I read a lot more than I thought I did.
-Shall go find a life now-
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a pack of wolves

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #101 on: 15 Jun 2008, 18:02 »

Yeah, as a writer/musician/visual artist myself I'm definitely gonna have to say it annoys me that some people think my intentions and input can be completely removed from a comprehensive analysis of my work and still have said analysis be more than intellectual masturbation.


The thing I like about the idea of the death of the author isn't that I entirely agree with it, but that it puts artistic practice on the defensive. It questions why your intentions and identity should be important. After all, knowing an author's intentions is incredibly hard. Statements about a work may not be entirely true even if the author has the best intentions of clarity when they make them, and you can end up in a ridiculous situation of trying to psychoanalyse someone through their art. Since we can never know what an author was exactly meaning to convey should this bother us?

However, I do think readers have more agency than Barthes seems to describe them as having. Also, I think authors become a part of the text. Or at least, ideas about what they might have intended or who they are influence the reading of the text. Personally I have the exact opposite reaction to you, I love the idea of my work becoming something not my own, and instead being part of someone else's creation of meaning. This might differ if I made different art, but I don't think biographical detail about me or what my intentions were when making the art are very important at all when compared to what happens when someone reads it. If that wasn't the most important part of the whole process then why put anything out there?
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Emikins

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #102 on: 15 Jun 2008, 18:11 »

Once, Samuel Beckett was sat at the back of a lecture about some of his dramatic works.  The speaker analysed his plays for all assembled, telling everyone exactly what Beckett 'meant' by what he had written. At the end of the lecture Beckett stood, disgusted, and shouted. "But that isn't what I meant at all..." and walked out.

That anecdote is something which reminds me of how little we can really know about an author, or authorial intention, unless we're blatantly told by the author themselves.
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Jackie Blue

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #103 on: 15 Jun 2008, 23:21 »

you can end up in a ridiculous situation of trying to psychoanalyse someone through their art.

I would say that attempting to glean insight into an artist's mind by analysing their work is just as valid as any other of the various forms of analysis.

I know personally my fiction writing reveals a veritable laundry list of mental quirks!   :wink:
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loam

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #104 on: 24 Jun 2008, 12:54 »

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This [Maps & Legends by Michael Chabon]  looked pretty cool. How is it?

I shall report back when I am finished. I'm not very far at the moment.
[/quote]

I'm finished now, and I highly recomend it. It's a very loose confederation of essays all having something more or less to do with Genre Fiction. Some are about works he's enjoyed, some are about the place of Genre works in the world, some about writing Genre Fiction himself. It sounds a lot more booring than it is - on the contrary I suspect that reading Mr. Chabon's essays about the stories he loves may be more interesting than reading his actual novels, although I haven't ever actually read any of them (a situation I will rectify asap) and I am probably wrong about that. I certainly enjoyed Maps & Legends, although people who view themselves as literary critics will probably get their knickers all knotted over Mr. Chabon's criticisims of the litterary world's tendancy to dismiss all Genre Fiction out of hand. If however you are like me and couldn't give a fig for litterary criticisim, tend to view litterary (and art) critics as pompous blowhards who kill the joy right out of everything, and in general just love reading... you'll probably enjoy Mr. Chabon's musings.
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RedLion

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #105 on: 24 Jun 2008, 16:27 »

During the plenty of hours I'll have taking EuRail trains the next few weeks, I'm hoping to read the remainder of my Nabokov books and finish the last two Thomas Pynchon books I've yet to read--Mason & Dixon, and V.   So for the next few weeks, I'm going to be reading nothing but my two favorite authors.

At the same time, I've been reading a number of nonfiction books off an on, including A Short History of Nearly Everything, The Coldest Winter (an AMAZING chronicle of the Korean War; if anyone is interested in history at all, I can't recommend this book enough!) and Reefer Madness: Inside the American Black Market, whose title is pretty self explanatory, though it deals more with things like counterfeiting and prostitution than drugs.
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Jimmy the Squid

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #106 on: 26 Jun 2008, 02:21 »

I picked up copies of The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man in a secondhand bookshop the other day. I've always wanted to read them but I've never had the time. I guess now I have the time.
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Tom

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #107 on: 27 Jun 2008, 14:07 »

I've changed my mind, I'm heading to my local library today and I'm gonna grab a copy of A Clockwork Orange.
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morca007

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #108 on: 27 Jun 2008, 16:16 »

Things I am reading(bold)/will be reading:

-Soldiers of God.
-Father Brown: The Essential Tales
-Eye - Short stories by Frank Herbert
-Godfather of the Kremlin
-King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
-Rebel without a crew
« Last Edit: 27 Jun 2008, 16:41 by morca007 »
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Tom

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #109 on: 27 Jun 2008, 16:55 »

Isn't Rebel Without a Crew about Robert Rodriguez filming and doing other necessary shit for his film El Mariachi?
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morca007

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #110 on: 27 Jun 2008, 18:14 »

Isn't Rebel Without a Crew about Robert Rodriguez filming and doing other necessary shit for his film El Mariachi?
Yup, subtitle is Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player.

From wiki:
"Rebel Without a Crew (subtitle: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker with $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player) is a 1995 non-fiction book by Robert Rodriguez. Presented in a diary format, Rebel details Rodriguez' beginnings as a young filmmaker; his stint at a medical testing facility to raise money for a feature film; the making of that film (El Mariachi) for $7,000, and his subsequent experiences in Hollywood selling the film and going to film festivals promoting it.

Later editions of the book also feature one of Rodriguez' tutorials on low-budget filmmaking ("Ten Minute Film School") and the screenplay to El Mariachi."
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Uber Ritter

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #111 on: 29 Jun 2008, 19:02 »

This summer I'm so far reading yet more PatricK O'Brian Novels (almost done with the Aubrey-Maturin Books), finishing up Go Down Moses[ by Faulkner (started it with selections in school, fell in love) and an assload of comic books.
Eventually intend to read Kristin Lavransdatter and maybe some more George Eliot.
And when summer's over I can attack philosophy again, probably with more Kierkegaard, maybe some more Nietzsche and more recent thinkers like Rorty and Quine.
Oh, and I need to read even more Faulkner.  God I love this stuff.
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Plasticity

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #112 on: 30 Jun 2008, 12:35 »

I started The Once and Future King, but I am having trouble getting into it.

Just finished Irving Welsh's Porno.
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Lines

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #113 on: 30 Jun 2008, 12:47 »

It picks up. I really enjoyed that book, but I'm almost always a fan of Arthurian legend. La Morte D'Arthur is on my list of things to read this summer.
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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #114 on: 30 Jun 2008, 18:31 »

By the way, King Leopold's Ghost is really, really good and rather terrifying.  The amount of evil that someone can bring into the world just with greed and incompetence is pretty staggering.
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jimbunny

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #115 on: 01 Jul 2008, 01:58 »

Guys I just read the first few pages of Titus Groan before I left for work tonight.

Summer reading is looking up.
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CamusCanDo

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #116 on: 01 Jul 2008, 03:53 »

Mervyn Peak is the shit.
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waterloosunset

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #117 on: 01 Jul 2008, 06:42 »

i've revisited a childhood favourite, the chronicles of narnia. now almost finished the last book
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ptfreak

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #118 on: 01 Jul 2008, 12:28 »

I'm probably going to be consumed with trying to comprehend The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. Superstring Theory is fun. It just takes a while. The chapter on General Relativity took me long enough, I can't imagine what it'll be like working through the 11 dimensions.
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StreetSpirit

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #119 on: 01 Jul 2008, 12:40 »

I am currently re-reading "Another Roadside Attraction" by Tom Robbins, but am too distracted to sit down and really dedicate myself to it. Hopefully if I finish it soon I'll delve onto some other books that some of you are reading - it is past time for me to branch out more in the literary realm! Thanks for everyone's interesting posts and suggestions, by the way, because there are a lot of interesting options out there for those of us not in school to sift through and find some gems. Very nifty thread! ^_^
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RachelAllshiny

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #120 on: 01 Jul 2008, 19:13 »

So while on the subject of werewolves, does anyone have any suggestions for other werewolf-related books?

Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Millar is on my list.  I just read The Good Fairies of New York and it was great...punk rock Scottish thistle fairies causing trouble!

I read a lot...a ridiculous amount, even...but I have so many that I'm excited about in line.

First, I'm finishing the John Connolly books.  I read The Book of Lost Things (dark fantasy) and fell in love with him.  He also has Nocturnes, supernatural short stories.  And I'm making my way through his mystery/thriller series.  (If you like your thrillers to have lots of action, but also some thought and a supernatural twist, try his.)

Currently I am reading: The Princess Bride by William Goldman.  The movie is great, but you get even more background/details in the book.  Maybe too much..?  But it's fun.

Somehow I have never read any Le Guin.  So The Left Hand of Darkness awaits me patiently.

By the way - so many Lit majors here!  I have a degree in it, and I work at a bookstore, so it's like an addiction for me.
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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #121 on: 01 Jul 2008, 20:43 »

Currently I am reading: The Princess Bride by William Goldman.  The movie is great, but you get even more background/details in the book.  Maybe too much..?  But it's fun.
You mean S. Morgenstern. William Goldman is a phony!
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jimbunny

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #122 on: 01 Jul 2008, 22:21 »

Quote from: RachelAllshiny
Somehow I have never read any Le Guin.  So The Left Hand of Darkness awaits me patiently.

Good choice. Stick with it; it's a little dry.
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CamusCanDo

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #123 on: 02 Jul 2008, 01:30 »

Currently I am reading: The Princess Bride by William Goldman.  The movie is great, but you get even more background/details in the book.  Maybe too much..?  But it's fun.

Somehow I have never read any Le Guin.  So The Left Hand of Darkness awaits me patiently.

The Princess Bride is one of my all time favourite books. I've yet to read a book that's filled with as much romance, adventure and comedy. So good.

If you end up liking The Left Hand of Darkness I highly recommend The Dispossessed as it's generally considered the first book in the Hainish Series, then just make your way through the rest of the books. While you're at it, don't forget The Earthsea novels.

Today I picked up 'Scar Night' by Alan Campbell and 'Shriek: An Afterword' by Jeff Vandermeer, which are probably just going to end up in my pile of to read books, because as of right now I'm trying to make my way through the Wraeththu Trilogy. Also a few days ago I bought Gaiman's 'M Is For Magic' and the first three books in the Neveryon series by Samuel R. Delany.
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Dissy

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #124 on: 02 Jul 2008, 08:35 »

Currently I am reading: The Princess Bride by William Goldman.  The movie is great, but you get even more background/details in the book.  Maybe too much..?  But it's fun.
You mean S. Morgenstern. William Goldman is a phony!

This is the William Goldman version.  The S. Morgenstern version was rich with useless background of the country of Florin, and really wordy, so Goldman edited those parts out.  And he interjects everynow and then to make comments about nothing.
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idiosyncratic

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #125 on: 02 Jul 2008, 10:35 »

I read pretty constantly, but I always catch the reading bug pretty hardcore in the summer.  Must have something to do with the heat and that whole not wanting to move business.  :) 

The list:
- Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
- In The Pond by Ha Jin
- Tokyo Doesn't Love Us Anymore by Ray Loriga
- Is Nature Enough?: Meaning and Truth in the Age of Science by John F. Haught
- Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure by Michael Chabon
- The Cinnamon Peeler: Selected Poems by Michael Ondaatje
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
- If They Give You Lined Paper, Write Sideways by Daniel Quinn
- The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene (I am waiting on this one as I just read Godel, Escher, Bach: And Eternal Golden Braid and that was rather heavy,  Brian Greene has an awesome TED.com video on string theory that can be found http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/brian_greene_on_string_theory.html.)

So that is what I have planned for the next few weeks.  :)  I am looking forward to it!
« Last Edit: 02 Jul 2008, 10:41 by idiosyncratic »
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Tom

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #126 on: 04 Jul 2008, 16:31 »

I've just finished reading Fight Club, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Jingo, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007 and I am halfway through Three Days To Never by Tim Powers. What a fantastic 5 days it's been.
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Tom

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #127 on: 04 Jul 2008, 17:00 »

It was pretty awesome and I was only just running through it for my English Extension 1 presentation and am planing on reading The Island of Dr Moreau as well. I'm going to go through it with a fine toothed comb later this week and get as much on 'the alien self' as I can. For the same topic we had to read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and it was a fuckin' bitch to read.
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MissAmbiguity

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #128 on: 05 Jul 2008, 11:22 »

Oli

You will never finish Ulysses....ever.  Anyone who says that they've read Ulysses is a liar UNLESS they've read it over a period of at least 3 months.  If anyone tries to tell you that they've read that book in a week first laugh and then kill them in a horrible way, liars like that should be punished. 

I'm personally planning to tackle it summer of next year as it will be my first year of university and I'll have 2 months longer for summer which will hopefully allow me to get somewhere through it.

I read it in three weeks... though I was reading it for academic purposes. *shrug* Could have done it faster if I didn't have four other classes. I'm so delighted there are so many Jim Butcher fans here. I read Storm Front and then got sidetracked by finals. I'm midway through Fools Moon. I'm also rereading Fall on Your Knees by Marie-Ann MacDonald. One of the best Canadian writers imo.

I'm also really surprised at how many people here are English students. For anyone that's not I have an eight page double spaced paper which is a summary to half a year's worth of my second year English theory class. It's a bit of a dull read, but I got an A on it. It was the minor portion of my midyear final -- I don't do things like this for fun =D
« Last Edit: 05 Jul 2008, 11:35 by MissAmbiguity »
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allison

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #129 on: 16 Jul 2008, 19:17 »

I've read lately what I think to be great stuff for summer. It's kinda light reading but it's still worth it.

jPod - Douglas Coupland (made me laugh so hard, people stared.)
The Gum Thief - Douglas Coupland
Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
The Birth House - Ami McKay
Belong to Me - Maria Del Los Santos
The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards
Moody Food - Ray Robertson (this book will be a big hit amongst people who love music, hippies, drugs or Toronto.)
Box Socials - WP Kinsella
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Bayley

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #130 on: 17 Jul 2008, 16:30 »

I have so many books I have to read for next semester and I haven't even started on them. I've been in a very philosophical mode this summer; if I don't stumble across at least one  previously unconsidered kernel of wisdom (or at least food-for-thought) each day I feel like I'm wasting time. I've been meaning to read Mrs. Dalloway and Lolita and Walden and People's History of the United States and a million others, but so far I've read:

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (I picked up Lila but I haven't cracked it yet). This man reconciled me with my crazy thoughts and made me feel sane again. Aaaand then halfway through the book I again felt crazy. I swear, aligning too much with this man's mind can have schizophrenic effects. End up feeling so open to everything, looking for deeper meaning in a non-mythologically based world can really make you feel nuts. My personal experience at least.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Skip Dawkins, son. I guess it's hard to talk about Nietzsche at all unless I have the person I'm talking to in front of me, because I'm quite new to him and I'm sure I'd sound like a fool. Either that or the person wouldn't have read him and would have some preconceived notion about what an asshole he was. Though I have a much higher confidence in the intellects of this message board. Reading this after Zen made me feel sane, and then bitter and misanthropic, and then hermetic. I wanted to buy a motorcycle and live on a fucking mountain. And then I finished it and felt like I had a great deal of new power over my own life, and again managed to love the world.

Maybe I let the things I read affect me too much, but that's kinda how I like to roll. Complete absorption, completely coming over to the author's way of thinking. And then I finish the book, get a little distance and look at it a bit more objectively. I remember in the first portion of The Stoic by Seneca he wrote a letter to a student of his talking about how the student shouldn't jump around to too many authors, but instead stick on one for a while and really allow yourself to understand their worldview before moving on to another. I thought it was wisdom.

Now workin on Beyond Good and Evil. Looove it.

Last thought to anyone who's read Nietzsche: Do you notice some sort of social aversion to talking about the man? In my perception it almost seems like he's danced around. We can talk about eight hundred authors who are clearly disciples of him, but for some reason bringing him up is almost a faux pas, like it's something that should be kept very much to yourself, because it's so personally revealing. Or something. I dunno. Response?
« Last Edit: 17 Jul 2008, 16:32 by Bayley »
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wesleyv

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #131 on: 19 Jul 2008, 11:01 »

so far this summer I read:

ayan rand - atlas shrugged/ can become tedius when she describes how great her characters are but there's enough interesting things going on to warrant this rather large book.

david sedaris - when you are engulfed in flames/ perfect summer read, very funny.

dbc pierre - vernon god little/ lot of people dont like this one but I thought it was a nice satire and can definitely recommend it.

then I started readin david mitchel's ghostwritten but it was a missprint so I send it back and while waiting for a new copy I decided to read 2 small books

jay mcinery - story of my life/ really got into this, was only dissapointed by the ending. for fans of "rules of attraction"

kurt vonnegut - slaughterhouse five/ very good read and interesting structure but I guess I just expected a little more after reading the reviews.

now I got my new copy of ghostwritten so i started reading where I left off. So far it's quite good. especially the tokyo chapter, reminded me of "murakami" novels.



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idiosyncratic

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #132 on: 19 Jul 2008, 14:05 »

...I've been meaning to read Mrs. Dalloway and Lolita and Walden and People's History of the United States and a million others, but so far I've read:

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Maybe I let the things I read affect me too much, but that's kinda how I like to roll. Complete absorption, completely coming over to the author's way of thinking. And then I finish the book, get a little distance and look at it a bit more objectively. I remember in the first portion of The Stoic by Seneca he wrote a letter to a student of his talking about how the student shouldn't jump around to too many authors, but instead stick on one for a while and really allow yourself to understand their worldview before moving on to another. I thought it was wisdom.

Now workin on Beyond Good and Evil. Looove it.

Last thought to anyone who's read Nietzsche: Do you notice some sort of social aversion to talking about the man? In my perception it almost seems like he's danced around. We can talk about eight hundred authors who are clearly disciples of him, but for some reason bringing him up is almost a faux pas, like it's something that should be kept very much to yourself, because it's so personally revealing. Or something. I dunno. Response?

I highly recommend Lolita.  I really enjoy Vladmir Nabokov's writing.  I also really enjoyed his memoir Speak, Memory.  I hope you get around to reading it eventually.  Also, I was really pleased to see that someone else has read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  Not many people that I know around here have read it much less heard of it. 

As far as Nietzsche is concerned, I really enjoyed the philosophy class that I took that was centered entirely around his works, but I too noticed that there seem to be a lot of preconceived notions of him and his works.  I think that Nietzsche is probably one of the more misunderstood well-known philosophers (well-known meaning that most people have at least heard of him but not necessarily read anything by him, and "God is dead" is quoted out of context so frequently it makes me a little sick), and because I doubt that there are a significant number of people that are willing to put in the work to understand Nietzsche better, the misconceptions are a standard that is pretty well unavoidable.  I suppose I just don't have a lot of confidence in the majority of the public to care enough about something to understand it.  Anyway, in my experience the people that are most averted to talking about Nietzsche's philosophy are those that do not properly understand him and those that are content with thinking that he was a bad person.  Anyway, I am sorry if that was incomprehensible.  I have been up all night working, so my brain is quite fuzzy at the moment.  :)

I wouldn't worry too much about becoming so involved in the things that you read.  I am very similar in that respect, and I always viewed it as being a positive thing.  I suppose I kind of feel that one needs to get to know the book before one can fully comprehend it, and what better way to do so than to become emotionally attached/involved? 

Book I am reading now: Letters from the Hive: An Intimate History of Bees, Honey, and Humankind by Stephen Buchmann, Banning Repplier. 
I am really enjoying this book.  I am a dork and I love my bees, what can I say?   :)  Even if you are not a beekeeper, I recommend this book.  It is rather poetic, and those little insects have more an effect on our lives than you may think.  Here is a link to the google book search page:  http://books.google.com/books?id=Z_Z4AAAACAAJ&dq=letters+from+the+hive
« Last Edit: 19 Jul 2008, 14:16 by idiosyncratic »
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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #133 on: 23 Jul 2008, 10:37 »


The Acid House by Irvine Welsh


I love summer reading.

I love you.

I didn't know anyone really knew Irvine Welsh. Although, I do believe Glue is his best novel.
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Dissy

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #134 on: 23 Jul 2008, 14:51 »

I am so pissed right now.  I literally wait well over a year (something like 15 months since I actually purchased it on Amazon) for this book (Fearful Symmetry for anyone who wants to know the title).  Let me explain this book a little bit.   This book is the latest in a series (or a "reboot) of DS9, a tv show that ended in 1999.  Back to the book.  It advances the story by a minuscule amount.  Most of the information in the first half of the book is obtained directly from 2 episodes of the show.  There is a 20 page portion that attempts to fill in a gap that doesn't get fully explained until well over 100 pages into part 2.  Then we get the cliffhanger.  140 pages in, the story is over.  Part 2 is to paint the new villian as a tragic picture.  Oh, but lets throw in references to America's "occupation" of Iraq, and compare them to the Nazis.  GREAT, way to win over an audience.  We get a couple of references to episodes from the show, they explain why our new villain is so twisted (the villian from the show would regularly rape and beat the new villian)  The suspence builds (not really) and builds to the point where we end the novel 8 months before it began.  So, I'm sitting here waiting for 15 months to be told, "wait longer."

Okay, admittedly, the book is well written (its the authors first published novel, and she got a lot of pointers from two of my favourite authors), and as a stand alone (with a little bit more info) it would hold up faily well.  But, as part of a series, especialy following the previous one, I want more.  More Story, more action.  Break the Villian's past into segements that begin each chapter, a couple paragraphs to 2 pages at the beginning of each one, and attack the story.
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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #135 on: 23 Jul 2008, 20:01 »

As far as Nietzsche is concerned, I really enjoyed the philosophy class that I took that was centered entirely around his works, but I too noticed that there seem to be a lot of preconceived notions of him and his works.  I think that Nietzsche is probably one of the more misunderstood well-known philosophers (well-known meaning that most people have at least heard of him but not necessarily read anything by him, and "God is dead" is quoted out of context so frequently it makes me a little sick), and because I doubt that there are a significant number of people that are willing to put in the work to understand Nietzsche better, the misconceptions are a standard that is pretty well unavoidable.  I suppose I just don't have a lot of confidence in the majority of the public to care enough about something to understand it.  Anyway, in my experience the people that are most averted to talking about Nietzsche's philosophy are those that do not properly understand him and those that are content with thinking that he was a bad person.  Anyway, I am sorry if that was incomprehensible.  I have been up all night working, so my brain is quite fuzzy at the moment.  :)


i've been reading beyond good and evil all week, and listening to a berkeley professor's lectures about his On Truth and Lies, and reading various peoples' interpretations that always seem to be flawed, one-sided, short-sighted (i don't mean that pejoratively, simply stating what i perceived), and i am coming to the conclusion that nietzsche is not a writer that can be comprehensively understood. the man will slam something. HARD. and then a few sections later he will justify it, change its definition. and then he will seem to slam people who do what he just did. or some variant of that. perpetually shifting perspectives, shifting angles, but always finds a way to crush something that previously seemed invulnerable, or to build up something that seemed indefensible.

i love it. his writing doesn't directly persuade to any way of thinking by means of affect; it forces the mind to reshape its own thought patterns,  regardless of whether or not you consciously wish to be changed. it's basically made me into a rhetorical acrobat. existance becomes a whole lot more fun, simply because everything that seemed so heavy has been exposed as hilariously inconsequential. puts "unbearable lightness of being" in the proper context, i suppose.


i apologize for sounding like such a shameless convert, but i kind of am one.
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idiosyncratic

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #136 on: 27 Jul 2008, 19:08 »

I don't think any pardon is necessary in regards to being a shameless convert.  I don't see that there is any need to feel any sort of shame whatsoever, especially when it comes to being interested in a very provocative philosopher.  :)

I agree that his writing doesn't necessarily persuade to any one way of thinking, but I also like the fact that there are issues in which he is very adamant on and his sentiments on those subjects are made very apparent with the way he writes about them.  I know that I will never be able to fully comprehend him, and I do think that it is probably an impossible undertaking to try.  But I am enjoying trying just the same.  :)  With all of this talk I picked up Thus Spoke Zarathustra again, and I am diving back in.  It should be a good time. 
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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #137 on: 27 Jul 2008, 20:08 »

My mom and I went to a bunch of garage sales on Saturday and I bought three books that I am quite excited about. I got Slaughterhouse-Five, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and Holy Blood, Holy Grail. All for $1 total. I love garage sales.
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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #138 on: 28 Jul 2008, 12:52 »

If I may quote the late Pope Robert Anton Wilson:

"Nietzsche masturbated too much."
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Bayley

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #139 on: 28 Jul 2008, 13:47 »

I don't think any pardon is necessary in regards to being a shameless convert.  I don't see that there is any need to feel any sort of shame whatsoever, especially when it comes to being interested in a very provocative philosopher.  :)

I agree that his writing doesn't necessarily persuade to any one way of thinking, but I also like the fact that there are issues in which he is very adamant on and his sentiments on those subjects are made very apparent with the way he writes about them.  I know that I will never be able to fully comprehend him, and I do think that it is probably an impossible undertaking to try.  But I am enjoying trying just the same.  :)  With all of this talk I picked up Thus Spoke Zarathustra again, and I am diving back in.  It should be a good time. 


that book is great. walter kauffman translating?
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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #140 on: 29 Jul 2008, 02:59 »

I've been reading some good books this summer.  So far, I've made it through:

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

The Temple of the Golden Pavillion by Yukio Mishima

Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

I'm currently working on:

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

Music for Chameleons by Truman Capote

And I'm hoping to read:

The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #141 on: 30 Jul 2008, 23:08 »

JPOD! JPOD! JPOD!

XD I can't read this book in public I laugh so hard...

Douglas Coupland is fantastic! I can't even explain what happens in the story without people giving me funny looks. Here's a sample
Writing Ronald McDonald love letters so he can choose a mate
Competition to sell yourself on ebay
 A hugging machine
Desperate housewives go wild -- For Ronald
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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #142 on: 30 Jul 2008, 23:31 »

lol wut?
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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #143 on: 31 Jul 2008, 17:18 »

Guys.

I just read the first three books in the "Twilight" series within the last 27 hours.
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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #144 on: 31 Jul 2008, 20:19 »

Oh. Okay, what'd you think 'bout it?
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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #145 on: 31 Jul 2008, 20:27 »

They are freakishly addicting. They're written well enough, but at the same time they're complete cheese and entirely too predictable. But I still cannot wait for the fourth one, it comes out tomorrow at midnight...
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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #146 on: 31 Jul 2008, 22:36 »

Douglas Coupland is the single worst thing to happen to modern literature.

Really.
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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #147 on: 01 Aug 2008, 01:24 »

They are freakishly addicting. They're written well enough, but at the same time they're complete cheese and entirely too predictable. But I still cannot wait for the fourth one, it comes out tomorrow at midnight...

That's just about what everyone I know who has read it, including myself, have said about it.
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Dissy

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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #148 on: 01 Aug 2008, 08:10 »

They are freakishly addicting. They're written well enough, but at the same time they're complete cheese and entirely too predictable. But I still cannot wait for the fourth one, it comes out tomorrow at midnight...

Is that the one about the vampires?  Man, I got like 120 pages into the first one and put it down in disgust.  Yet, I did preorder the fourth one from Amazon for my sister.
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Re: Reading this summer
« Reply #149 on: 01 Aug 2008, 09:16 »

Yep, vampires and werewolves. They're so bad but at the same time they're so, so good...
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