• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

What book is everyone reading at the moment?

Status
Not open for further replies.
SnuggleSmacks said:
Blindness by Jose Saramago. I wanted to read it before seeing the movie, and I must say that the first 100 pages flew by, and I almost couldn't put it down. The style seems like it should be awkward, but it actually flows quite well. There are no quotation marks or indicators of who is speaking except through context, and the format is very stream-of-consciousness. I highly recommend it.
Click to expand...

I recall that exact same feeling. A friend of mine gave me the book to read, and I was iffy when I started out, but shocked at how quickly I had torn through it.

However, I would not recommend reading the book prior to seeing the film. From the trailers, I think you're setting yourself up for disappointment. The movie may actually be ok, but it won't be a patch on the book. How can it? So go see the movie, then read the book, and I think you'll actually enjoy both.
 
wollery said:
Journey to the west, by Wú Chéng'ēn (supposedly).

I'm reading the English translation, because my Chinese is nowhere near good enough yet.
Click to expand...

So what do you think? I only got through it by rationing the stories, one a week or so. When I tried to read it the way I normally read books (sitting down with one for hours at a time), the repetitious nature of the stories made it unbearable. But I enjoyed it, properly rationed (and skimming those goddamn poems).

On a similar note, I'm currently reading Outlaws of the Marsh, by Shi Naian; it's flowing much better for me.
 
RobRoy said:
I recall that exact same feeling. A friend of mine gave me the book to read, and I was iffy when I started out, but shocked at how quickly I had torn through it.

However, I would not recommend reading the book prior to seeing the film. From the trailers, I think you're setting yourself up for disappointment. The movie may actually be ok, but it won't be a patch on the book. How can it? So go see the movie, then read the book, and I think you'll actually enjoy both.
Click to expand...

Alas, too late. I finished and found it to be one of the best, most profound books I've had the pleasure of reading. Now I'm reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Also amazing, for a lot of the same reasons.
 
SnuggleSmacks said:
Alas, too late. I finished and found it to be one of the best, most profound books I've had the pleasure of reading. Now I'm reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Also amazing, for a lot of the same reasons.
Click to expand...

You're just hitting all the books-to-read-after-the-movie-releases, aren't you!? :D
 
The House on the Borderland, by William Hope Hodgson.
More of a short horror (or weird fiction) story from the early 1900s.
 
"How to think about weird things, Critical thinking for a new age", by Theodore Schick, Jr. & Lewis Vaughn.
 
two by Walter Kaufmann, the Nietzsche translator and philosopher:

Hegel, and From Shakespeare to Existentialism

Reading Kaufmann may be reading Philosophy Lite, but he brings philosophers and their times to life for me, makes many connections between different figures, and makes good use of his excellent b.s. detector.

I like his takes on Heidegger and Kierkegaard, and of course Fred N.

Good reading to get me through some bleakish times.
 
I just finished reading my first comic, if it can still be called that. I read Watchmen.
Now I have to read it again. It was an amazing book. My husband suggested that I try Fables next. Has anyone read that? Any opinions?
 
Richard Liebmann-Smith, "The James Boys." The premise is that Henry and Wm James, and Jesse and Frank James, are actually brothers; Jesse and Frank are the younger, ne'er do well brothers. It is dryly hilarious. (The four were, in fact, born within 5 years of one another. And Henry and Wm had 2 younger brothers who fought in the civil war, and were regarded as the family dummies, relatively speaking.)

Highly recommended, and in print.
 
Tamarillicent said:
I just finished reading my first comic, if it can still be called that. I read Watchmen.
Now I have to read it again. It was an amazing book. My husband suggested that I try Fables next. Has anyone read that? Any opinions?
Click to expand...

Kind of a weird first comic to read, IMO--a deconstruction of a genre you've never read anything out of. Well, so long as you enjoyed it.

As for Fables, I've only read the first few volumes, but based on those, I'd also recommend it; an interesting idea strongly implemented.
 
It is embarrassing to admit that I'm only just now getting around to reading The Blind Watchmaker...
 
I'm reading Les Miserables (unabridged) right now. Just finished Vineland by Thomas Pynchon.

I kind of wish I got one of the abridged versions of Les Miserables, but it is still fairly engaging.
 
I'm about 3/4 of the way through "Salvation Boulevard" by Larry Beinhart.

It's a mystery novel revolving around the murder of a philosophy professor who had just finished a developing a new proof against the existance of god. One of his Muslim students is accused of the crime and Homeland Security wants him declared a "terrorist" so they can cart him off to a military tribunal. The student's defense attorney, a liberal Jew, hires a born-again Christian ex-cop-turned-PI (the main character) to help prove the student's innocence. The PI's lovely Stepford wife, a thuggish ex-cop who attends the same megachurch, and the congregation's charismatic and politically well-connected pastor are all telling him to drop the case--or else!--while the professor's sexually liberated widow is trying to get into his pants.

So far, a really good book.
 
Last edited:
For lack of book money to indulge myself, I'm re-reading The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton. I've kept the early Hamilton books, as they were the ones that got me hooked. The later porno-books I gave to the library.
 
Drinking in America, Lender and Martin, 1987. Fascinating just for the stats, and interesting for their take on the roots of Prohibition and the temperance movement as a whole. Ought to be twice as long. Ought to be updated every five years.
 
Metallica and Philosophy, believe it or not. I saw the book on the shelf and, upon re-re-rereading the title, could not stop myself from buying it to see just what the hell it was about...

It turns out, it's actually a fairly serious treatise upon the philosophies espoused by various Metallica members at various points in their career, as evidenced through their song lyrics. While interesting, I can't really shake the "this is weird.." feeling I get from seeing the words "Metallica" and "philosophy" in the same title.


~ Matt
 
Postmodernism. Anything can be analysed, and can provide support for any premise you care to mention.

I like to reduce all postmodernism to solipsism and watch them foam at the mouth.
 
Endymion by Dan Simmons. I'm a sucker for Sci-fi, and this is a fantastic SF series.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top Bottom