Book talk.

qeee1 · Post by **qeee1** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:09 pm

MMM, Catch 22, I was kinda undecided as to whether I liked the book until the end, well I mean I liked it up until that point, but sorta in an it's funny, but it doesn't really go anywhere. I guess I thought it dragged a bit in the middle, but yeah, the ending pushed me into the I loved it camp...

Never read any of his other stuff, was a little worried he was a one trick pony, and didn't want to ruin my good feeling for Catch22.

Last thing I read was Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Technically re read it, but yeah some beautiful poetry there, comes highly recommended, but you might want to read some works of other transcendentalists, (such as Emmerson of Thoreau... Walden gets a nod for being my favourite such work) before reading it, as otherwise it might seem... I dunno, inacessible, mystical etc.

Now I'm readingMelville's short story Bartleby, and I'm not a huge fan of Melville's writing style so far, but I've only read ten pages.

Guiscard · Post by **Guiscard** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:12 pm

Skittles! wrote:Also, another book that just came out a few months ago
-The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins..

I would think some people would of heard of this book. I really like it, also, the last time I checked, it was the #1 best seller in Australia. Quite a good argument too.

Dawkins has some interesting (and convincing) ideas, and I like the whole 'being able to live on through your contribution to the culture of humanity' thing, but recently I've been seeing him on TV and his whole slightly aggressive cynical style is a bit too much, in my opinion. He seems to be going for the whole sensationalist thing to make a quick buck these days, whereas he used to be much more widely respected in the field of Philosophy (at least to my knowledge).

Incandenza · Post by **Incandenza** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:19 pm

A few of the books mentioned earlier are right classics (catch-22, catcher, even triffids)

But as a writer, I feel the need to spread the gospel of some of my favorites...

Neal Stephenson (in fact, I'm surprised he hasn't been mentioned already)
David Foster Wallace (especially Infinite Jest and his collections of essays)
Chuck Klosterman (best pop-culture essayist on the planet)
Frank Miller (yeah, he writes comic books, but they're hard-edged and bloody)
Warren Ellis (also a comics guy, funny in a mean awful stabby kind of way)
Mike Davis (radical leftist who's a top-notch urban theorist)

Those are a few. I've got enough books that I could use them to create a 1:1 replica of the Great Pyramid of Giza...

Skittles! · Post by **Skittles!** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:22 pm

Also.. Sara Douglas is one of my favourite authors, also Terry Goodkind and Ian Irvine, and I can't forget Jennifer Fallon.

Hmm. I read a lot of books..

btownmeggy · Post by **btownmeggy** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:30 pm

qeee1 wrote:I think Catcher speaks a certain truth, that has not found such beautiful or genuine expression anywhere else in literature, and to dismiss it because the main character is too angsty is a great tragedy. It's like dismissing Don Quixote for being too detatched from reality. Salinger's other works are also great, but Catcher is truly his master piece.

The angstyness is not my main gripe with Catcher in the Rye. I DON'T find Holden relateable, likeable, or even compelling. He's not written as a character whose distance from the reader improves the story. It seems to me that he's meant to resonate within you, withstanding his foibles and goofs, but he certainly does not resonate within me.

btownmeggy · Post by **btownmeggy** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:36 pm

AndyDufresne wrote:Ah, one of my favorite authors...Joseph Heller.

I loved Catch-22...it was one of the few books I ever actually laughed out loud while reading.

And many other Heller books are pretty good, but I always smile when I think of Catch-22.

--Andy

I really liked Catch-22. See, now, I think that's a good book to compare to Catcher in the Rye. Both are exceedingly masculinist with characters offensive to any sensible feminist, but Catch-22 caught me. Disliking the Catch-22 characters was enjoyable, dislking Holden Caulfield was not. *shrug*

:wink:

hecter · Post by **hecter** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:45 pm

So far, it really has been only good books. I will know through out an author I don't really like. His name is Piers Anthony. He wrote the Incarnations of Immortality books, and the writing is terrible. His female characters are all the same, and he (Piers) really needs to get laid. Stay away from him.

CrazyAnglican · Post by **CrazyAnglican** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:52 pm

17th Century novel "Tom Jones" (incredibly long, but funny if you can
hang with it)

"The Sun Also Rises" (hey this character makes no sense, oh okay he's
drunk :-)

he makes sense now!)

Robert L. Asprin's Myth Adventures series: (Great humorous fantasy /
stay away from the Myth inc.
stuff not quite as good)

Anything by Raymond E. Fiest (probably the best fantasy writer you've
never heard of, can't recommend him
enough, especially his collaborative
works with Janny Wurts) Start with
"Magician: Apprentice" and its three rift
war saga sequels to set the stage, but
then go nuts! Hector if you played D&D
you will see him playing in a world very
similar.

J.R.R. Tolkien of course

and if you are receptive to Christian ideas anything by
C.S. Lewis (Hey, I'm an Anglican did you really think I wouldn't recommend him) put him on your must miss list if not. I highly recommend "The Screwtape letters" and "Mere Christianity"

I'll probably read "The God Delusion". Thanks for the recommendation.

hecter · Post by **hecter** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:55 pm

CrazyAnglican wrote:17th Century novel "Tom Jones" (incredibly long, but funny if you can
hang with it)

"The Sun Also Rises" (hey this character makes no sense, oh okay he's
drunk he makes sense now!)

Robert L. Asprin's Myth Adventures series: (Great humorous fantasy /
stay away from the Myth inc.
stuff not quite as good)

Anything by Raymond E. Fiest (probably the best fantasy writer you've
never heard of, can't recommend him
enough, especially his collaborative
works with Janny Wurts) Start with
"Magician: Apprentice" and its three rift
war saga sequels to set the stage, but
then go nuts! Hector if you played D&D
you will see him playing in a world very
similar.

J.R.R. Tolkien of course

and if you are receptive to Christian ideas anything by
C.S. Lewis (Hey, I'm an Anglican did you really think I wouldn't recommend him) put him on your must miss list if not. I highly recommend "The Screwtape letters" and "Mere Christianity"

I'll probably read "The God Delusion". Thanks for the recommendation.

I love D&D. I also find that few people know that the Narnia series is christian. I find that odd. Thank you for the recomendations though.

flashleg8 · Post by **flashleg8** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:08 pm

So many good books mentioned now! Catch-22 is fantastic - I love the rambling insane style of it - just cracks me up ever time I read it, one of the very few books that makes me laugh out loud!

And to Guiscard - love I Orwell also - never knew he fought in the Spanish Civil war to my shame :oops:

So I've bought that one tonight off Amazon. Staying on the Spanish Civil war has anyone read "For whom the bell tolls" by Hemingway? I know a lot of people don't rate him but I loved it.

To btwonmeggy: I'll check out "Ficciones" by Jorge Luis Borges as well, I see from Amazon its a contemporary twist on Don Quixote (which I liked) so I'll give it a bash - though not in the original Spanish unfortunately!

P.S. Love John Wyndham also - Day of the Triffids is great.

freyme · Post by **freyme** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:08 pm

Mystery/Murder crime solving:

John Sandford, Patricia Cornwell are my favorites when just reading for fun.

Eli Wiesel--Holocaust writer.

I don't always pay attention to the authors as much as just reading anything that sounds interesting.

CrazyAnglican · Post by **CrazyAnglican** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:13 pm

hecter wrote:[ I also find that few people know that the Narnia series is christian. I find that odd.

Yeah me too. I read them first when I was Thirteen and it was obvious to me. Its actually Tolkien who is surprising; Lewis credited him with his conversion.

Oh yeah,

"The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton (can you believe she wrote it when she
was fifteen)

Yeah Eragon....Eldest....and all of the Harry Potter books :oops:

guilty!

hecter · Post by **hecter** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:15 pm

The Harry Potter BOOKS really aren't that bad. It's the movies that suck.

btownmeggy · Post by **btownmeggy** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:23 pm

flashleg8 wrote:To btwonmeggy: I'll check out "Ficciones" by Jorge Luis Borges as well, I see from Amazon its a contemporary twist on Don Quixote (which I liked) so I'll give it a bash - though not in the original Spanish unfortunately!

Well, it's NOT like Don Quixote at all. I don't even know what that means to compare the two, though I like both.

Go ahead and learn Spanish. It's easy, and I mean REALLY EASY. It'll open up a whole new world.

flashleg8 · Post by **flashleg8** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:37 pm

btownmeggy wrote:Go ahead and learn Spanish. It's easy, and I mean REALLY EASY. It'll open up a whole new world.

Trying at the moment to learn French (my fiancé’s French). It's hard, and I mean REALLY HARD (because my accent is atrocious [Glasgow] Everyone thinks I'm German :oops:

).

hecter · Post by **hecter** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:39 pm

flashleg8 wrote:
btownmeggy wrote:Go ahead and learn Spanish. It's easy, and I mean REALLY EASY. It'll open up a whole new world.

Trying at the moment to learn French (my fiancé’s French). It's hard, and I mean REALLY HARD (because my accent is atrocious [Glasgow] Everyone thinks I'm German ).

French is really hard. I tried hard to learn it but I just couldn't.

btownmeggy · Post by **btownmeggy** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:43 pm

flashleg8 wrote:
btownmeggy wrote:Go ahead and learn Spanish. It's easy, and I mean REALLY EASY. It'll open up a whole new world.

Trying at the moment to learn French (my fiancé’s French). It's hard, and I mean REALLY HARD (because my accent is atrocious [Glasgow] Everyone thinks I'm German ).

French is stupidly difficult. I speak two other Romance languages, and have been working on learning French for years now, but it's not really coming to me. It's orthography and grammar are both very illogical and... contrary.

hecter · Post by **hecter** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:45 pm

btownmeggy wrote:
flashleg8 wrote:
btownmeggy wrote:Go ahead and learn Spanish. It's easy, and I mean REALLY EASY. It'll open up a whole new world.

Trying at the moment to learn French (my fiancé’s French). It's hard, and I mean REALLY HARD (because my accent is atrocious [Glasgow] Everyone thinks I'm German ).

French is stupidly difficult. I speak two other Romance languages, and have been working on learning French for years now, but it's not really coming to me. It's orthography and grammar are both very illogical and... contrary.

I know eh. I also don't know how french people understand each other because they speak so friggen fast. It's crazy. Anyway, if you want to know a hard language, try Klingon. I find it really tough.

flashleg8 · Post by **flashleg8** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:48 pm

But I think you could be right about Spanish, as my fiancé picked it up really quickly - although I think its true that after you learn one language (other than your own!) its easy to learn more - she speaks three and can get by in two more, and you're clearly multi-lingual also.

hecter · Post by **hecter** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:51 pm

That being said, I'm not that good with languages to begin with. I'm more of a math and logic type of person. I really wish I was good with languages though, cause then I could talk to my family on my mom's side (all french).

CrazyAnglican · Post by **CrazyAnglican** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:55 pm

Russian is hard, but I enjoyed German and got roughly comfortable with it.

Nobunaga · Post by **Nobunaga** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 12:32 am

... Anything by Phillip K. Dick is sure to please the "Druggie/Sorta-Sci-Fi/Alternate Reality" crowd. The Man In the High Tower is his best (imho), but he has many more. That film Minority Report, with Tom Cruise was loosley based (very loosely) on his work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_K_Dick

... On the other end of the spectrum is the series of mysteries written by Ellis Peters, the Cadfael Mysteries. The books are so much better than the TV versions. But they're not exactly light reading. A bit of concentration is required - that's a good thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Cadfael

... Joe Haldeman's The Foever War is a personal Sci-Fi favorite - it's basic but very well written "War with Aliens" stuff, as is John Scalzi's Old Man's War - his first novel - this guy is going to be really good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forever_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man's_War

Can't tell why, but that last url isn't working right....

... Dan Brown . . . not a fan, though DaVinci Code was readable.

... off topic, but you guys think French is hard? I'm sure it is.... but try Chinese. Haha! That's a tough one!

hecter · Post by **hecter** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:42 am

If your looking for a laugh or two, check out the "Darwin Awards" books. It's about people who died (or almost died) in incredibly stupid ways. There great to put in your bathroom.

The1exile · Post by **The1exile** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:57 am

Animal Farm (one of Orwell's classics - "All Animals are equal, some are just more equal than others")
Thud! (and indeed most of the Discworld series but i read that one recently and I love it)
The Sum Of All Fears (the book, not the film, took me ages to read anmd i read pretty fast)
Journey To The Centre Of The Earth
Achilles in Vietnam (yeah now I'm throwing everyone right out - it's a book comparing the psychological effects of the Vietnam war to those in the Iliad, and I found it very interesting)
death on the Nile, one of my favourite Poirot's
The Silmarillion was also great...

Many more that I cba to list

Kugelblitz22 · Post by **Kugelblitz22** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:23 am

#1. The Trial Franz Kafaka
Opening Line: Someone must have traduced Herr K., for without having done anything wrong, he was arrested one fine morning.

#2. Cannery Row John Steinbeck
My parents were hippies. After reading this book in the sixties they drove to Cannery Row and lived there for three months.

#3. Ishmael Daniel Quinn
Talks about the big issues without coming across preachy or lapsing into pseudo intellectualism.