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Summer Reading


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Considering we are mid Summer, I figured its a good time to start discussing what we`re all reading...

 

In The Woods by Tana French

Normally, I don`t read books like this (mysteries) but wanted to lighten up my reading which has been really heavy of late so I figured this would do the trick. Good story but a little disappointing towards the end, perhaps too realistic.

 

Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

This is my second read. First read it over the summer of `07 and keep being drawn to this amazing book. Not necessarily an easy read but if you read it slowly, I think it will give you some new perspective. I think this book deserves an entire semester or two to be studied properly, its that deep. So much for light reading.

 

Only Love Is Real by Brian Weiss

About finding your soulmate(s) from past lives. I`ll leave it at that.

 

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

For some reason, I`ve been drawn to these books of late. Another classic about society losing its perspective... sort of along the lines of 1984 and Fahrenheit (which is going to be my next read). I read Fahrenheit 3 times already, keep thinking about it and how much society is fallen into similiar traps. Scary...

 

If anything, these books get the creative ideas flowing for me.

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I love the book threads!!

 

Don Quixote de la Mancha - Miguel de Cervantes

I'd never read it. This is being taken slowly and it's very funny. Sits next to "the throne"

 

Travels With Charley: In Search of America - John Steinbeck

I read this when I was 20 and loved it so I'm at it again. I was reminded of this book while reading Cervantes' description of Quixote's horse named Rocinante. In the translator's foreword he discusses the meaning of the word, "Without equal" I believe was the meaning. A joke because Quixote's horse is old and skinny. Steinbeck names his new truck / overhead camper Rocinante. and like Quixote, he sets out on his journey of adventure. Sits on my bedside table currently.

 

And with those, which are on again, off again, I'm currently engrossed in the mystery genre. I like diving into a popular genre and reading all the best that particular niche has to offer. I take in maybe 1 mystery novel a week this past year.

 

John Connelly's The Reapers

Micheal Connelly's The Poet

Meg Gardiner's China Lake series

Harlan Coben (disposable yet so fun)

James Lee Burke's Swan Peak (he's particularly good)

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The Inferno - Dante

Talk about heavy reading... sheesh. I think I've been at this book for 3 months. I can only take it in small doses.

 

His Needs/Her Needs

Great book to learning the idiosyncracies (sp?) of women, and learn a little more about myself as well.

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Same old fare with me....all year long; Steinbeck and Dickens entire catalog over and over.

Any book on WW11...I like to immerse myself in indepth (somewhat obscure) facets of the War...right now I'm into the Polish Expats who escaped the squeeze of the Germans and Russians and made their way to safety, some traveling thousands of miles to form up in Divisions supplied by the Brits to redeem and avenge.

Right now I'm reading about the 15th Lancers, one of the Polish Units that finally catured the Monastary at Monte Cassino from crack German Paras.

 

I was obliged to read scores of books that I didn't really care for while working on my Masters in English Lit.

Now I read for enjoyment.

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Have you tried any Phillip K. Dick?

 

 

Nope but I`ll check it out. Thanks Lee.

 

btw- I should mention video series as well... I watched this years ago and was having a conversation with a friend yesterday who was equally affected by it...

 

The Power Of Myth by Joseph Campbell (DVD)

You can also get the transcript in book form but the DVD has artwork and film to correspond with what they`re talking about. Its an interview with Bill Moyer (PBS) and Campbell discussing his books.

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Luke, have you read Warlords by Simon Berthon , Joanna Potts

 

It is a really cool acccount of WWII through the eyes Churchhill, Roosevelt, Hitler, and Stalin. It follows their day to day, decision making and thought processes through the war. Very well done

 

Ghoust Soldiers by Hampton Sides was also really good

 

A cool account of a Ranger raid behind enemy lines in the Phillippines to rescue POWs, survivors of the Batan Death March

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Same old fare with me....all year long; Steinbeck and Dickens entire catalog over and over.

Any book on WW11...I like to immerse myself in indepth (somewhat obscure) facets of the War...right now I'm into the Polish Expats who escaped the squeeze of the Germans and Russians and made their way to safety, some traveling thousands of miles to form up in Divisions supplied by the Brits to redeem and avenge.

Right now I'm reading about the 15th Lancers, one of the Polish Units that finally catured the Monastary at Monte Cassino from crack German Paras.


I was obliged to read scores of books that I didn't really care for while working on my Masters in English Lit.

Now I read for enjoyment.

 

 

I went through a WWII interest years ago, too heavy reading for a 19 year old but for some reason, felt the need to do so. Very disturbing reading and to this day, I have no desire to get back into it. As for reading for pleasure, thats funny because I find myself interested in all the classics I read back in HS and college. Now that I`m older, I appreciate the writing more.

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For some reason, I`ve been drawn to these books of late. Another classic about society losing its perspective... sort of along the lines of 1984 and Fahrenheit (which is going to be my next read). I read Fahrenheit 3 times already, keep thinking about it and how much society is fallen into similiar traps. Scary...

 

If anything, these books get the creative ideas flowing for me.

 

I'd suggest adding Huxley's Brave New World to complete the dystopian trilogy

 

In some ways, I think we see a modern reflection of that in post-cyberpunk

maybe

Zeitgeist - Sterling

Pattern Recogntion - Gibson

Snow Crash (or possibly Diamond Age) - Stephenson

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The Inferno - Dante

Talk about heavy reading... sheesh. I think I've been at this book for 3 months. I can only take it in small doses.

 

 

Make sure you don't stop with Inferno, without reading Purgatorio and Paradisio it really loses something.

 

I have been reading

 

Peter The Great and Angela's Ashes... the later seems all the more poignant since F.M.'s passing...:cry:

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Okay, it's time to lower the intellectual tone

 

I recently bought an 'adult version' box-set of the Harry Potter books. I'm currently nearing the end of 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'

 

I'm not sure what 'adult version' refers to. Maybe it's that the covers are darker in tone, or maybe it's that Hermione takes it up the trumper in 'The Deathly Hallows' :confused:

 

Harry Potter box-set

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nothing wrong with a little Potter -- i ave been waiting for the adult series "Hogwart's nights" myself

 

one I read last year that I enjoyed was "Blindsight" - Peter watts

I think it's avail as a cc e-book too

 

It's had kind of a funky history and I think folks either love it or hate it -- even within its genre

 

It's Hard SF BUT it isn't really tech-fiction -- Watts is a marine mammal biologist and approaches things from a cognitive psych and life sciences perspective. A lot of hard SF readers (i count myself among them) have largely , I think, become accustomed to the extrapolative idiom where the story looks how things are, how they might develop and how that could all play out...sort of a synthesis. Watts works more from analysis - looking at something fully developed (as opposed to its development) and exploring it as it is

So I think that throws some Hard SF guys

 

I think it's sort of anti-literary in a way (which rubs some people the wrong way) . A lot of times the "alien" (as in "them"...a different country, different lifeform, etc) is used as a literary device to COMPARE different facets of the human condition, SF can sometimes amplify this, extend it into absurdity, etc to really show this.

BUT Watts --and I think this has to do with Watts' background working with non -human intelligences -- shows us an alien that is truly alien, a CONTRAST.

And, at times, the work does delve into the human condition, but again from that contrast -- how we can be alien to one another

 

Stylistically, It's pretty technically dense, but has moments of poetic flight USING the technical -- which I think some people find offputting. I think there's even a self-referential little situation in there as a nod to that.

 

eh anyway - I think for this book, with a pretty fresh voice that still uses some traditional SF elements and devices (and, yup, even some of the trad weaknesses too), the mixed reviews are a PLUS

It's a dense challenging read and the reader can't just go into it on his/her own terms.

 

maybe more of a trad "winter read" than a "beach book" -- While I do recommend it (and I do), I'm also cool with some folks not liking it

 

----------

 

On the More Trad SF front

 

"Ender's Shadow" Orson Scott Card is an interesting companion to "Ender's game"

It's pretty cool -- it's the same story told from a different character's perspective BUT what's cool about it is that it's told from a different author's perspective as Card has had a couple of decades to mature himself get his writing ya yas out in other stories, etc (so the whole different character-same story is not just a contrived confection of cleverness but a real revisitation)

 

-------------

 

On a non fic note "Parasite Rex" is a perennial fav noodle tweeker round my parts

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Luke, have you read
Warlords
by Simon Berthon , Joanna Potts


It is a really cool acccount of WWII through the eyes Churchhill, Roosevelt, Hitler, and Stalin. It follows their day to day, decision making and thought processes through the war. Very well done


Ghoust Soldiers
by Hampton Sides was also really good


A cool account of a Ranger raid behind enemy lines in the Phillippines to rescue POWs, survivors of the Batan Death March

 

 

Thanks Podnah, gonna check out Warlords...I read Ghost Soldiers last April on a beach in Puerto Rico, Then read Prisoners othe Japanese on the plane ride home.

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hey rhino you may dig

 

"Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy's Story "

 

it's about WWII japanese naval situations/practices/decisions (including pre WWII treaty and build up practices) - written by a couple of Japanese officers who were in the thick of it

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I'm about 3/4 the way thru The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. I am always looking for good sci-fi, but disappointed 90% of the time. This one does not disappoint.

 

Finished The Odyssey for about the 5th time. Fitzgerald translation, which I particularly like. Recommend his Illiad translation, also.

 

The book that's had the most impact on me personally as of late is the english translation of the novel Sepharad by Antonio Muniz Molina (spanish author). Deeply compassionate and vivid book about loss, memory, dislocation, identity. A whole bunch of stories all revolving around these themes, the place settings ranging from WWII Germany, Spain, Morocco, many of the characters with Sephardic Jewish backgrounds. Outstanding translation, too - won some big translator's award.

 

Tip for those attempting Dante - his worldview is very,very,very distant to ours, Catholic or otherwise. The medieval model of the universe is a fascinating cultural construction. But it's implicit and assumed in Dante, so reading The Divine Comedy without some professorial guidance can be a heavy slogging chore, plus you'll just miss so much.

 

I recommend this for those attempting to climb down through hell and up through purgatory to heaven with Dante:

 

1. a good annotated version - and read the notes, or at least enough to help you understand the depth of the resonances and the encyclopedic range of historical references that Dante is working through.

 

2. get a copy of The Discarded Image by CS Lewis. It's his Oxford lecture series on the medieval world view and model of the universe. He's always an entertaining author even at his most academic.

 

3. peruse artbooks from the 12th - 15th centuries.

 

Personally, I dislike the prose translations of Dante. The verse format is part of the essential deal - I have a copy with the Italian on one side, english on the other. All I can do with the Italian is read it phonetically, but even doing just that adds much to the effect. The whole work is very musical, and without a notion of the music, it can be very gritty plodding indeed.

 

nat whilk ii

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hey rhino you may dig


"Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy's Story "


it's about WWII japanese naval situations/practices/decisions (including pre WWII treaty and build up practices) - written by a couple of Japanese officers who were in the thick of it

 

 

SWEET I'm there

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"The Year Everything Changed 1959" Fred Kaplan Great book.

 

 

"Take a ride on the New Frontier with Fred Kaplan, your insightful (and hip) guide to the space race, thermonuclear war, the civil rights movement, the "sick comics", the Beats, and the beginings of the Vietnam war, all to a soundtrack by Dave Brubeck, Ornette Coleman, Miles, and Motown."

 

Donald Fagen

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