What are reading?

brillig · Post by **brillig** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 12:57 pm

I'm reading The Punic Wars. I'm enjoying it, but it's for history buffs. So I'll add a book I just finished and recommend:

Little Black Book of Stories, by A. S. Byatt. Now Byatt often usually writes long and complex novels, that can be a little dry. The stories here have emotion & humor.

Rian Jackson · Post by **Rian Jackson** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 10:58 am

Out of It: A Cultural History of Intoxication

The aforementioned tome is fucking excellent. Informative, unruly, and one of the most well written books I've read in a long time. I find myself looking up words in the dictionary, and being utterly ashamed of my lack of mastery over the english language.

LeChatNoir · Post by **LeChatNoir** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 9:49 pm

From the Mountain From the Valley
New and Collected Poems - James Still

touches me deeply since it was inspired by the mountains that bore me. If you think you’ve got a great grasp for the power of language, then read this and see. Just beautiful, glorious things in here.

blueniteowl · Post by **blueniteowl** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:58 pm

One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey
by Sam Keith, Richard Proenneke

I haven't read this but saw a tv program on pbs, and would like to read it. LeChat you might like it.

From Amazon:
"This book made a big splash when it debuted in 1973. Keith based the text on the journals and photography of Richard Proenneke, who, after racking up years of 50-hour work weeks, did what many of us only fantasize about: he chucked it all and went to live in the woods. Now in his 80s, Proenneke still abides in the log cabin he built with his own hands and has become an icon for naturalists. Though few will follow Proenneke's lead, his story can be quite inspiring."

tonytohono · Post by **tonytohono** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 11:05 pm

A Picture of Dorian Gray...

I managed to avoid reading it many times over the years, but I am now reading it by request of one of my Chitown buds...

Freaky book!

blueniteowl · Post by **blueniteowl** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 11:09 pm

Here's a book that I've read already but recommend.

The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters
by Chip Kidd

Excellent read, especially for anyone who's been to art school.

From amazon:
"A sharp, fast-paced, and well-packaged academic satire, along the lines of James Hyne's The Lecturer's Tale (LJ 12/00), this is a coming-of-age story from the point of view of the paying victim (a.k.a. the student). A naive fellow finds himself in the hallowed, cinderblock halls of his state art school in the 1950s where, try as he might, he can't quite capture in pencil the essence of a decapitated waterfowl, an old shoe, and a detumescent pomegranate."

LeChatNoir · Post by **LeChatNoir** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 10:14 pm

Part way through Silent Night - The Story Of The World War I Christmas Truce

The true story of the truce that broke out along the Western Front on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, 1914... the first year of the war. It's helping me to continue to believe in the potential buried within humanity.

Orghua · Post by **Orghua** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 9:30 am

The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann. Killer.

Rian Jackson · Post by **Rian Jackson** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 2:51 pm

Umberto Eco (In the Name of the Rose)
Dostoevsky (Nntes from Underground)
and the Walton, still.

Me thinks i'm having trouble focusing.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 3:07 pm

It;s just something wrong with your liver.

Donita · Post by **Donita** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 4:55 pm

Cold Mountain: A Novel by Charles Frazier

I am a hopeless romantic. And I love history. This is a true story, a lot of it taken from letters, histories and diaries from the Civil War. The love letters this woman (Ada Monroe) wrote to her beau (Inman) during the 4 years he was away in the war are...passionate...tearful... I can hear her southern voice speaking out to him...

Get me a fuckin' Kleenex, will you?

Ranger Genius · Post by **Ranger Genius** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 6:52 pm

Wow, Donita, that sounds...uh...really bad.

I'm glad you enjoy it, though.

R-Jack: it's not just you.

Yevgeny Zamyatin, The Dragon (damn you, LoopLoop!)
Mark Twain, Roughing It
David Crystal, The Stories of English

How are you enjoying Notes? I'd recommend Something Happened by Joseph Heller as a follow-up.

samtzu · Post by **samtzu** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 7:01 pm

RG, we're going to have to stop meeting like this...

Roughing It~ Mark Twain
The Elegant Universe ~ Brian Greene

Ranger Genius · Post by **Ranger Genius** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 7:04 pm

I just finished The Elegant Universe a few weeks ago, Sam. Very, umm.... Yeah.

samtzu · Post by **samtzu** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 7:07 pm

Ranger Genius wrote:I just finished The Elegant Universe a few weeks ago, Sam. Very, umm.... Yeah.

I don't have the math, but I have the love of structure... don't tell me how it ends... I love surprises...

It does have a happy ending, right? .... right?

Ranger Genius · Post by **Ranger Genius** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 7:11 pm

Yeah, the guy gets the girl. But there's a plot twist that will knock your socks off.

samtzu · Post by **samtzu** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 7:15 pm

Ranger Genius wrote:Yeah, the guy gets the girl. But there's a plot twist that will knock your socks off.

Great!! And I loved the chase scene between Einstein and Nehls Bohr... it fuckin' rawked!!

Ranger Genius · Post by **Ranger Genius** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 7:28 pm

There's a big chorus number at the end..with a kick line. "Who's afraid of Schroedinger's Cat?"

incidentally, I find it funny that Schroedinger's cat was meant to be a reductio ad absurdum of uncertainty, and is now used as an illucidating allegory. heh, heh.

samtzu · Post by **samtzu** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 7:30 pm

Yeah.. simple things for simple minds...

Rian Jackson · Post by **Rian Jackson** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 8:27 am

Genius, Notes itself is so far my least favorite of all the Dostoevsky I've read. I liked a lot of the other pieces in the book, but this one is wearing a bit long. I think it's something about the lack of motion. The musing of his characters often needs to be offset by some small action. With him, it's never anything big, mind you, but it keeps the prose moving. Maybe I'm just simple minded, but I'd prefer Crime and Punishment any day.

Eco, on the other hand, is hard to put down. I just need (and lack) a Latin dictionary.

samtzu · Post by **samtzu** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 8:34 am

The Name of the Rose beat the crap out of me, and I studied Latin in high school... he enjoys writing lists of words, words, words... and you just have to wade through them.... Foucault's Pendulum, on the other hand, just sucked me in.

Rian Jackson · Post by **Rian Jackson** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 8:35 am

See, you don't miss a lot of the meaning even if you can't translate the Latin. What gets me more is that the pace of the book is engaging enough that i have no desire to stop to look up the English words i don't know.

Rian Jackson · Post by **Rian Jackson** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 8:37 am

Although, I should say that I want to read up on my church history today to make total sense of the Franciscan/ Spirituals drama... there was one part he was less than clear on.

I remember my learned father reading this book and keeping a notebook as he did...

Must have been the Latin.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 8:45 am

Ah, I read Notes when I was a really depressed 18. The near total lack of action made total sence under those circumstances. Just 125 pages of rant.

Isotopia · Post by **Isotopia** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 8:50 am

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed -- by Jared Diamond

The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations -- by James Surowiecki

Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking -- by Malcolm Gladwell

Bedside stuff.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 8:56 am

Oh i want collapse.

Rian Jackson · Post by **Rian Jackson** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 9:02 am

In the elevator the other day, I was reading Notes. A man said 'Kind of heavy reading, isn't it?' I looked at him blankly and explained that this was my break from the heavy stuff.

Rian Jackson · Post by **Rian Jackson** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 9:44 am

anyone have a good definition for omnibus?

i'm trying to parse it using the Notre Dame 'Latin Word Lookup', but it doesn't have it. I've tried a few combinations.. but alas, I know little about Latin.

Ranger Genius · Post by **Ranger Genius** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 10:57 am

You'll know it as a 'bus.

Rian Jackson · Post by **Rian Jackson** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 11:03 am

thanks, RG. not that kind of omnibus. you're so helpful.
actually, i found a decent online tool:
WWW

What are reading?

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