Now Reading

norwegian wood lol

Some interesting linguistic games going on here. His most overtly Ursula Le Guin influenced book. City and the City and The Scar are still my favorites though.

I really wish I could read books still, but I'm too damn lazy. Any good books to suggest that are short but good? Like, novella length. Maybe I should try The Stranger again.

  On 4/2/2012 at 5:28 PM, gmanyo said:

I really wish I could read books still, but I'm too damn lazy. Any good books to suggest that are short but good? Like, novella length. Maybe I should try The Stranger again.

if that's how you feel about reading, don't read

  On 4/2/2012 at 6:33 PM, KY said:

  On 4/2/2012 at 5:28 PM, gmanyo said:

I really wish I could read books still, but I'm too damn lazy. Any good books to suggest that are short but good? Like, novella length. Maybe I should try The Stranger again.

if that's how you feel about reading, don't read

I feel that reading is great, but I'm not persistent with anything I do. I was doing a music video for Lloop at one point (fan one, not official, although I did get his approval) and it was going great but production has essentially stopped. I'd love to finish a book or two every now and then.

le-sigh...

I read this for the third time. It is maybe just the greatest book that I know of.

  On 4/2/2012 at 12:54 PM, chenGOD said:

Good analysis of the book. Interesting, but flawed. Not to be taken a serious history, but revisionist historians play a vital role in challenging our assumptions about the past.

I think it is serious history, but like everything that's ever been written, it's a product of personal circumstance, it's subject to personal context. And when you're an actor in the events you write about (author was born to working class European immigrants and was WWII combatant), there's no way you can ever produce something impartial, detached or objective, doubly so when you're looking for 'grand narratives' such as the one contained herein. But that said, it's good history. It's an influential book and I think most people could do a lot worse than reading it.

  On 4/2/2012 at 1:51 PM, gmanyo said:

norwegian wood lol

What's wrong with norwegian wood? It's an awesome book.

I really wish I could find the first two books of "the trilogy of the rat".

  On 4/2/2012 at 6:51 PM, StephenG said:

 

 

le-sigh...

If you don't like what you're studying, why are you studying it? That doesn't make sense.

  On 4/2/2012 at 11:14 PM, Ron Manager said:

  On 4/2/2012 at 12:54 PM, chenGOD said:

Good analysis of the book. Interesting, but flawed. Not to be taken a serious history, but revisionist historians play a vital role in challenging our assumptions about the past.

I think it is serious history, but like everything that's ever been written, it's a product of personal circumstance, it's subject to personal context. And when you're an actor in the events you write about (author was born to working class European immigrants and was WWII combatant), there's no way you can ever produce something impartial, detached or objective, doubly so when you're looking for 'grand narratives' such as the one contained herein. But that said, it's good history. It's an influential book and I think most people could do a lot worse than reading it.

I think there are too many mis-characterisations, and too much of his personal politics in it to be taken as a serious history. I do think people should read it, if only to make them think differently about narratives and hegemony.

  On 4/3/2012 at 3:43 AM, chenGOD said:

  On 4/2/2012 at 1:51 PM, gmanyo said:

norwegian wood lol

What's wrong with norwegian wood? It's an awesome book.

I really wish I could find the first two books of "the trilogy of the rat".

 

  On 4/2/2012 at 6:51 PM, StephenG said:

 

 

le-sigh...

If you don't like what you're studying, why are you studying it? That doesn't make sense.

 

  On 4/2/2012 at 11:14 PM, Ron Manager said:

  On 4/2/2012 at 12:54 PM, chenGOD said:

Good analysis of the book. Interesting, but flawed. Not to be taken a serious history, but revisionist historians play a vital role in challenging our assumptions about the past.

I think it is serious history, but like everything that's ever been written, it's a product of personal circumstance, it's subject to personal context. And when you're an actor in the events you write about (author was born to working class European immigrants and was WWII combatant), there's no way you can ever produce something impartial, detached or objective, doubly so when you're looking for 'grand narratives' such as the one contained herein. But that said, it's good history. It's an influential book and I think most people could do a lot worse than reading it.

I think there are too many mis-characterisations, and too much of his personal politics in it to be taken as a serious history. I do think people should read it, if only to make them think differently about narratives and hegemony.

Just because something is taxing/difficult/stressful doesn't mean I don't like it.

Not to mention I like money. Even if I didn't like what I was studying at least the end result is money. People face tradeoffs, many trade-off enjoyment for financial success.

That makes sense to me Mr Chengodboss =)

  On 4/3/2012 at 3:43 AM, chenGOD said:

  On 4/2/2012 at 1:51 PM, gmanyo said:

norwegian wood lol

What's wrong with norwegian wood? It's an awesome book.

I really wish I could find the first two books of "the trilogy of the rat".

I was just making an immature sex joke. It actually sounds like a really good book.

  On 4/3/2012 at 3:43 AM, chenGOD said:

If you don't like what you're studying, why are you studying it? That doesn't make sense.

lol, ikr? you never take boring classes in college

Just got done reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It was good but it wasn't great. It's basically fallout 3 if you made it into a father/son drama. It's pleasantly screwed up and was even made into a movie with Viggo Mortensen. The movie's a great companion for the book as it stays very true to the story. The book itself is very minimalist and its reasonable for someone to say that nothing really happens. Although, running just under 300 pages I would recommend it because it is very atmospheric and surprisingly touching at times. If you've already scene the movie, there's not much more that is in the actual book.

  On 4/3/2012 at 4:50 AM, StephenG said:

 

 

Just because something is taxing/difficult/stressful doesn't mean I don't like it.

 

Not to mention I like money. Even if I didn't like what I was studying at least the end result is money. People face tradeoffs, many trade-off enjoyment for financial success.

 

 

Totally not the impression i got from your post, but text is such a limited medium.

  On 4/3/2012 at 6:36 AM, Joseph said:

  On 4/3/2012 at 3:43 AM, chenGOD said:

If you don't like what you're studying, why are you studying it? That doesn't make sense.

 

lol, ikr? you never take boring classes in college

I guess I must be lucky - I have had the odd boring prof - but the subject matter in all of my classes has been very interesting.

Anyways as this is the now reading thread - beyond textbooks I've read or am currently reading:

  On 4/2/2012 at 7:06 PM, dese manz hatin said:

 

I read this for the third time. It is maybe just the greatest book that I know of.

I want to read it now too just because of the cover. Sure looks great.

  On 4/1/2012 at 6:06 PM, KY said:

  On 3/31/2012 at 3:21 AM, Philip Glass said:

I just didn't like most of them. Meta or not, I didn't care about the stories. A couple were awesome though...

Hm, I suppose I can see what you mean. In the ones I've read so far, there aren't any really relatable or fleshed-out characters. A lot of them just seem like fictional firsthand accounts of unexplainable sort of pauses in (largely literary-based) logic, so there isn't a lot to get attached to in the first place. But to me, a lot of them almost read as enigmatic, self-contained parables, which I find pretty awesome.

most of Borges is super boring and pretentious, you can tell he's just trying to show over and over again how much of an intellectual he is. He wasn't much of a writer anyway, more of a pure erudite. A few great short stories but that's it. Now, Cortazar on the other hand...

  On 4/5/2012 at 6:18 AM, GORDO said:

  On 4/1/2012 at 6:06 PM, KY said:

  On 3/31/2012 at 3:21 AM, Philip Glass said:

I just didn't like most of them. Meta or not, I didn't care about the stories. A couple were awesome though...

Hm, I suppose I can see what you mean. In the ones I've read so far, there aren't any really relatable or fleshed-out characters. A lot of them just seem like fictional firsthand accounts of unexplainable sort of pauses in (largely literary-based) logic, so there isn't a lot to get attached to in the first place. But to me, a lot of them almost read as enigmatic, self-contained parables, which I find pretty awesome.

 

most of Borges is super boring and pretentious, you can tell he's just trying to show over and over again how much of an intellectual he is. He wasn't much of a writer anyway, more of a pure erudite. A few great short stories but that's it. Now, Cortazar on the other hand...

I have to disagree with you, considering my post—which you replied to—was explaining how much I enjoy him

So I read like, two pages of Gravity's Rainbow one time and it was an amazing two pages. How hard is it to get through that whole book?

still working my way through George R R Martin's A Clash of Kings.

Finishing up "Freakonomics".

Has anyone read the 2nd one?

no

Been getting into HP Lovecraft recently. Currently reading his 'The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories' which I got from the local library.

Short stories which are chilling and atmospheric. Proper horror stuff. I highly recommend it.

  On 4/8/2012 at 8:00 PM, lifeforce said:

Been getting into HP Lovecraft recently. Currently reading his 'The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories' which I got from the local library.

Short stories which are chilling and atmospheric. Proper horror stuff. I highly recommend it.

I bought a couple of Cthulhu Mythos books a few years back in a sale, but I could never really get into them. Maybe I should give them another chance.

Currently reading Moebius' "The Incal" which I should have done years ago, its great.