Books

[Gregsmack]

I started Hyperion by Dan Simmons this weekend. like all sci fi you have to wrap your mind around the concept of a different reality but then it begins to sink in. Elements which rule so far:

1. Every scifi book should have a tard culture and this book has the group which calls themselves the threescore and ten. they have problems with past or future tense.
2. The Shrike - a killing machine, and the namesake of Dead_Lioness's puppy.
3. A drunken poet who has a stroke and for a while can only say nine words: cunt, piss, poop, fuck, peepee, poopoo, goddamn and a few others.

The Hyperion series is one of my favourite set of books ever(second only to Dune). If you have Hyperion, make sure you have The Fall of Hyperion handy when you finish it. Dan Simmons really knows how to tell a story.

 

[lizard]

I bought hyperion and then picked up Fall at the library! so I'm good to go.

 

[lumitalvi]

Got through "The girl who lowed Tom Gordon" by Stephen King, a couple of days ago.
It wasn´t excellent, but definitely worth of reading. And I have to admit I felt that I do not want to get lost in any woods.

 

[speed]

Just finished Wakefield by Andrei Codrescu. A modern day Faust tale set in the modern day USA. The first half was quite excellent, the second half was tripe. Still I would recommend it. Sorry here people, I dont read horror, mystery, fantasy, or Sci fi. I really am a black sheep.

 

[NAD]

Finally finished The Moor's Last Sigh, took me almost a year. This book wasn't anywhere near as good as Fury or The Satanic Verses, but was still okay. Too many characters and a story that didn't really go anywhere.

I haven't so much as even thought about all my philosophy books in over a year now, except Plato's Republic which I keep within close reach at all times.

 

[NAD]

Started reading Al Franken - Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them last night, this book is hysterical but more importantly it's good. I think anyone interested in current American politics that has a sense of humour should give this a try.

I now want to read Ann Coulter's book (even though I hate her), just because she's so... so metal.

 

[Black Winter Day]

"How to Talk to Liberals"? What a douche.

Last week I read "Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev.

 

[lizard]

coulter thinks she's so hot...but she's got an adams apple!

 

[spaffe]

just finished a clockwork orange and i must say i enjoyed it as much as the movie. it's seriously funny, more so than than the flick, and has more of the slavic slang which i had trouble not using when speaking/writing englsih the day after reading it hehe

but i was thoroughly disappointed with the final chapter/ending, stanley kubrick was right to omit it from the movie version. i don't know how many of you have read it but it was very strange and unfitting: in it alex's out again with three different guys bashing people but is starting to like it less and less, he changes and starts longing for chlidren and a wife, and gives up roaming the streets. it's a very strange ending with the main character falling into the treadmill of the bourgeois and a socical and political order which the writer is attacking during the entire book. it really annoyed me and made me wish not having read the last chapter :|

 

[NAD]

Sounds like Kubrick was pro-ultraviolence.

I haven't read the book yet (have a copy on my shelf though), but it's one of my favorite movies.

 

[spaffe]

hehe yeah, he also seems to have had a liking for nude women in his movies;
nothing wrong with that but eyes wide shut was perhaps a bit over the top

i'd say clockwork orange is my favourite movie: the script is awesome, the dialogue is awesome, the photo is awesome, the acting is awesome, the music is awesome, the settings are awesome, the clothes, furniture every detail is perfect and it's smart and funny

 

[Black Winter Day]

Reading 3 books at once rules (only one of them being a real "story", though):

Narcissus and Goldmund - Herman Hesse
Memories, Dreams, Reflections - Carl Jung
No Boundary - Ken Wilber

 

[spaffe]

Memories, Dreams, Reflections - Carl Jung

I've wanted to read something by Jung for some time now, would you say that one's a good starting point?

 

[Black Winter Day]

It's none of his essays, but more of his memoirs of the WEIRD shit that happened to him in his inner-searching life. Poltergeists, multiple personalities, bizarre prophetic dreams, etc. Jung was one of the most fascinating people that ever lived, IMO.

 

[speed]

Narcissus and Goldmund in my opinion is Hesse's best work. I read the entire book in one afternoon, I couldnt put it down. The prose is perfect, there is nothing wasted, and the story of the two characters is just so timeless.

I really should read some Jung, I've read some Freud, and a biography on him; I admire and hate Siggy at the same time. I suppose its time to look into Jung, but as I have stated before I have a very low opinion of the actual science and methodology of psychology.

Well since I got off school and work for the last week, I have read 6 books:

Im in the process of finishing The Moors Last Sigh by Rushdie,

Live From Golgotha by Gore Vidal- not as good as I thought it would be,
Pale Fire by Nabokov- quite excellent
The Antichrist-by Nietzsche
Spice- This history of Spice, by some fellow named somehting Harris. Anyway its a fascinating history of the impact of Spice upon the world.
And some Bourne knockoff I think the Bourne Protocol, a book licensed by Robert Ludlum's estate- i cant remember the name, but it was a fun read.

 

[SunMontage]

Just recieved Healing Image: The Great Black One by William Stablein in the mail today and I'll be starting it in a little while...

 

[Black Winter Day]

Narcissus and Goldmund in my opinion is Hesse's best work. I read the entire book in one afternoon, I couldnt put it down. The prose is perfect, there is nothing wasted, and the story of the two characters is just so timeless.

I really should read some Jung, I've read some Freud, and a biography on him; I admire and hate Siggy at the same time. I suppose its time to look into Jung, but as I have stated before I have a very low opinion of the actual science and methodology of psychology.

Well since I got off school and work for the last week, I have read 6 books:

Im in the process of finishing The Moors Last Sigh by Rushdie,

Live From Golgotha by Gore Vidal- not as good as I thought it would be,
Pale Fire by Nabokov- quite excellent
The Antichrist-by Nietzsche
Spice- This history of Spice, by some fellow named somehting Harris. Anyway its a fascinating history of the impact of Spice upon the world.
And some Bourne knockoff I think the Bourne Protocol, a book licensed by Robert Ludlum's estate- i cant remember the name, but it was a fun read.

Nice books there, I still need to read "Pale Fire".

N&G is having the same effect on me, I just rolled off half the book in one sitting. I enjoy Hesse's simple language, but most of his characters usually seem a bit one-dimensional to me (even though the messages and themes are pretty deep). I enjoy it so far.

I consider Jung less of a psychologist than a spiritualist. He's also much more interesting than Freud, and usually translated better.

 

[speed]

Every character Hesse wrote except for perhaps Steppenwolf, is rather simplistic.

Yes Pale Fire is a postmodern masterpiece. As one is reading the beginning, up to the long canto style poem that is the centerpiece of the book, one cant help but thinking this sucks, but then right when the poem, and the third book starts, it turns into this amazing surreal, literary experience. If you like it, I would strongly recommend The Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic which is just as brilliant. Its this fantastic epic of the legendary Khazar people, told from three religions perspectives-Islam, Orthodox Christianity, and Judaism; in three seperate books, all telling the same story--but in each religions viewpoint.

Good to have another bibliophile.

 

[Black Winter Day]

Dude, I'm unhappy unless I'm reading some heady book. I bet I read 15 books this semester just for classes and am ready to read a bunch more for break. My roommate is reading "Pale Fire" now, actually, it's been laying around our dorm room for weeks. I think he started it for Christmas break, I'll have to borrow it when he's done. The only Nabokov I've read is "Lolita" and "The Gift".

 

[NAD]

I think I'm getting Pale Fire for Christmas, which means I'll start reading it in 2007.

Currently reading War of the Worlds and still thumbing my way through Desolation Angels (this is a really fun one to read small bits at a time, unlike most Kerouac which I usually finish within 24 hours). I always read 2 books at once, it just feels natural.