The Books/Reading Thread

[Einherjar86]

finished Paradise Lost
now on to Paradise Regained

Pales in comparison. The great thing about Paradise Lost is that the character of Satan is so humanistic, individualistic, and basically real. In Paradise Regained, who's our hero? Oh, that's right; the Son of God, incapable of error or sin, perfect in every way. Yeah, that's what I want to read about.

I prefer Comus to Paradise Regained. That's a fun read.

 

[Thoth-Amon]

Pales in comparison. The great thing about Paradise Lost is that the character of Satan is so humanistic, individualistic, and basically real. In Paradise Regained, who's our hero? Oh, that's right; the Son of God, incapable of error or sin, perfect in every way. Yeah, that's what I want to read about.

I prefer Comus to Paradise Regained. That's a fun read.

I'm reading the complete poetry of Milton... so I've read all of the misc. poetry including Comus and I just finished PL. I have PR and Samson and the Greek and Latin poems left and the book will be finished.
I liked PL but I prefer Homer and Dante for my epic poetry tbh.

 

[Einherjar86]

Yeah; personally, I think Milton's overrated. Still, he's composed some of the most important works of Western literature.

 

[Zephyrus]

I put him up with Shakespeare in terms of greatest work in English.

 

[Thoth-Amon]

I put him up with Shakespeare in terms of greatest work in English.

I liked PL more than any Shakespeare poetry... but I like (most) of Shakespeare's plays alot more than PL.

 

[Zephyrus]

Julius Caesar and The Tempest are my favorites. One for the history the other for the Platonic metaphors. Image of the ship, bitch.

 

[Thoth-Amon]

Julius Caesar and The Tempest are my favorites. One for the history the other for the Platonic metaphors. Image of the ship, bitch.

Those are two of my favs by him also.
Hamlet is #1 for me... Macbeth is high on the list as is Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Comedy of Errors (very funny and underrated), Henry IV 1&2 (very difficult but very funny and rewarding)... yeah honestly most of his plays are really great... there are a few I don't care for much though... Troilus and Cressida, Henry VIII, Love's Labours Lost.

 

[Einherjar86]

I put him up with Shakespeare in terms of greatest work in English.

Paradise Lost maybe...

...but as far as the greatest works of English literature go, I would disagree.

I would place:

Blake
Shelley
Keats
Yeats
Byron
Coleridge;

all above Milton. I realize that I neglected Wordsworth, but I did so for good reason. At any rate, Milton was an incredible thinker, but Blake expanded upon his ideas more than any genius in the history of English literature. He's one of my favorites in the Western canon.

 

[meeseface]

Lotta D&D shit Terry Brooks and Tolkien when I was in grade school, and Wheel of Time and Sword of Truth a while ago. Nothing lately. I started a Tale of Ice and Fire a couple years back, but got distracted. I'm probably going to start that over unless something else catches my eye.

the belgariad by david eddings is really good. kind of reminds me of the lord of the rings but better. my pops recommended me this 5 novel-long story. the first book is called "pawn of prophecy". another great novel, is dune, however its more sci-fi than fantasy, highly recommended though

 

[Cythraul]

I'm reading a lot of books right now. Currently reading:

For and Against the State edited by John T. Sanders and Jan Narveson

Power & Market: Government and the Economy by Murray N. Rothbard

An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard by Justin Raimondo

I'm also rereading Anarchy, State and Utopia by Robert Nozick. This one in particular is of great interest to me. I am doing an independent study next semester on this book with a guy who is a pretty big deal in political philosophy. He did his dissertation under John Rawls.

 

[unknown]

so I finished The End of Education, and overall I liked it. Postman's style was very readable, but he would digress a lot, ask a lot of nonessential questions and wander. other than those stylistic issues, the ideas and propositions he made were interesting. the four possible narratives to provide a "why" for schooling were thought provoking, and Postman was honest in his defenses. good stuff

 

[aydinerro]

Fight Club! by Chuck Palahnuik.
White Fang by Jack London.

 

[meeseface]

i'm about to go to a book store, any horror, fantasy, and/or literature books any of you guys can recommend?

 

[Einherjar86]

I recently read the first two books in Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos tetralogy; Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. I would recommend those if you're a fan of science fiction.

So, I know I listed three books a few days ago that I was planning to read, but I've ended up settling on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I'm fifty pages in and I'm hooked.

 

[Dak]

i'm about to go to a book store, any horror, fantasy, and/or literature books any of you guys can recommend?

George RR Martin: A Game of Thrones.

 

[unknown]

i'm about to go to a book store, any horror, fantasy, and/or literature books any of you guys can recommend?

anything by H.P. Lovecraft or Thomas Ligotti


so I've started Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States". It's pretty interesting, but it's definitely gonna take a while to read...700 pages

 

[meeseface]

I recently read the first two books in Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos tetralogy; Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. I would recommend those if you're a fan of science fiction.
i've been wanting to read olympos and ilium, do you know which one comes first?

So, I know I listed three books a few days ago that I was planning to read, but I've ended up settling on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I'm fifty pages in and I'm hooked.

George RR Martin: A Game of Thrones.

I actually have that book, i read about a fourth of it but had to stop because school became pretty hectic. What little i read was good though

 

[meeseface]

has anyone read any dean koontz?

 

[cookiecutter]

So, I know I listed three books a few days ago that I was planning to read, but I've ended up settling on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I'm fifty pages in and I'm hooked.

Perhaps the worst work of fiction ever to be taken seriously

 

[Einherjar86]

But treatises always take on hyperbolic examples in order to prove their point; you have to take Ayn Rand with a grain of salt. She's writing from a unique perspective, and while some of her ideas may be realistically implausible, they make sense in a more philosophical and idealistic sense. She's an intelligent human being, and a damn fine writer.

And you have to realize, her life was completely derailed by communism; it only makes sense that she would take the extreme opposite approach.