Dave Rogers
Bandaged ice that stampedes inexpensively through
As a balancing view, I'm a bit sad O'Brien never lived to finish the 21st book in the Aubrey series.
Dave
Books Not to Read
- Thread starter theprestige
- Start date
As a balancing view, I'm a bit sad O'Brien never lived to finish the 21st book in the Aubrey series.
Dave
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
This made me think of something that probably doesn't deserve its own thread. Maybe we can discuss it as a sidebar here: Books to read, but not recommend.
LOTR might be one of these, for PhantomWolf. Read it once, and leave it at that.
I'll add one of my own: American Psycho. I found the book as compelling as it was chilling. I'd like more people to read it, but I can't really bring myself to recommend the experience to anyone.
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
Yeah. It definitely got sucked into the same incident pit all of his writing seemed to be sliding into in the later stages of his career.
But overall, I'm glad he finished it, and I think he ended it very well.
Disbelief
Illuminator
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2007
- Messages
- 3,607
I was rather disappointed with the ending, I was expecting more.
I enjoyed The Belgariad by Eddings, as it didn't take itself too seriously and thought it was a nice easy read. Didn't need a retelling in The Mallorean and again in The Elenium and again in The Tamuli. How about some new ideas?
Major Major
Critical Thinker
- Joined
- May 7, 2007
- Messages
- 438
The way I heard it was that Shatner wrote the story in the form of a screenplay, then Ron Goulart turned the screenplay into a novel.
Goulart is known for his comic José Silvera stories, about a ghost writer who never gets paid for his work, and has to visit his client, who always lives in a wackily exotic place, to get the money. One hopes that Goulart got paid for his work.
Wudang
BOFH
<opens can of applause> Testify, brother.
David Gemmell flirted with this to a degree as well. Not quite EFP (Extruded Fantasy Product) but we was capable of more.
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
Heh. Me too. But I ended up concluding that it was a justified and well-executed subversion of expectation. One of the better ones I've encountered in a literary work.
I was strongly influenced as a teenager by The Kazar Dictionary, which made me realize the reader's ultimate responsibility for the story they read. The implications blew my mind as a youth, and led me to really appreciate what King did at the end of the Tower series. I never saw it coming, but when it did I agreed with King: It couldn't really have ended any other way.
A word to the wise: Read the Dictionary in hard copy.
For sure. If the Belgariad gets your foot in the door to fantasy adventure stories, great! But only read the others if your primary interest is re-reading the Belgariad in different skins.
Wudang
BOFH
If that's the Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic it's currently free on Kindle Unlimited and I just downloaded it. Sounds very interesting. Thanks.
Brainster
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- May 26, 2006
- Messages
- 21,958
The problem is that the language is not completely accessible (unless updated for modern audiences). In addition a lot of the cultural references are from sources that would be unfamiliar to today's kids. Hell, a lot of them ar unfamiliar to me.
I should add here that I was one of those kids who hated Shakespeare in high school. I would never have gotten into his works without the game show Jeopardy! There always seemed to be a category or two where I was just hopeless. I looked at the ones that came up often, and decided I was never going to be able to stomach ballet or opera. So Shakespeare it was.
And I was surprised to find that once you get over the language barrier, he's actually quite readable. You still have to get used to some of the archaic words, and sort of ignore long passages of the speeches... and that is the problem with Shakespeare live for kids. You give kids a reason to tune you out for ten seconds, and good luck getting their attention back.
luchog
Neo-Post-Retro-Revivalist
What I found very helpful was getting a good annotated edition of his plays (I like the Yale Library editions). Very helpful in understanding both the now-archaic language and the cultural context. Once I did that, I found myself greatly enjoying many of the plays (IMO several are still dull or outright awful), and developing a moderate fluency with the period dialect (which I'm rather out of practice on now).
What about it?
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
You're welcome. But be aware that it's organized as a series of encyclopedia entries in alphabetical order. The stories you get out it are entirely up to you, to decide which entries you choose to read, and which cross references you choose to follow.
I have found that ebooks are great for linear storytelling - chapters one to ten in order - but terrible for paging back and forth in textbooks and reference books.
I worry that reading it in Kindle format will neutralize much of the pleasure of reading this particular book.
SezMe
post-pre-born
No book or any series of books is going to allow the reader to "acquire in-depth knowledge of Quantum Mechanics, and be ready to do research and calculations." That's a ludicrous criterion by which to judge a book. Also, those lectures were aimed at Freshmen and Sophomores at CalTech so weren't designed to meet the criterion you set for them.
Try again, being realistic this time.
If you study "Quantum Mechanics" by Messiah, you'll get an excellent, in-depth knowledge of the subject (and, also, you can use this book as your first book on the subject, which is another advantage). Feynman is so talky and so journalistic (in spite of some insights) that is not even good as a first serious step at the university, in my opinion. A better choice for freshmen and sophomores is probably Griffiths (in my opinion).
If you are a university student who spent his/her last savings to buy this 700 pages book, you may not be very happy to read, at the end of it: "I am sorry to say, gentlemen, that to participate in this adventure it is absolutely imperative that you learn quantum mechanics as soon as possible".
Mojo
Mostly harmless
Only about half his books involved a doomed last stand.
Most people have a good side, and a not-so-good side, Feynman was no exception.
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-f...eighton/277062/#isbn=0465025013&idiq=15470756
$25.*
If that's your last savings, I think you have bigger problems than whether or not Feynman's textbook allows you to "acquire in-depth knowledge of Quantum Mechanics, and be ready to do research and calculations."
I think you are certainly right that there are better textbooks out there, but the way you frame this is a little over the top.
*I bought my three volume set for something like US$10, but that was in India.
There are other problems with Feynman (who also had distinguished qualities) than whether his Quantum Mechanics book is a good choice for Freshmen or Sophomores (by the way, his QM book was co-written with Leighton and Sands; had this not been the case, it perhaps would have been worse). For example, you can read this Wheeler-Feynman theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheeler–Feynman_absorber_theory and tell us if you feel more intelligent after than before (I doubt it). Feynman - called "The Great Explainer"- was never able to understand that there is a problem with theories which describe particles as just points - with no spatial extension at all. This is still a major problem in today's physics.
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
Michel H, this is intended to be a lighthearted thread for sharing books not to read. You've said your piece, please let others say theirs. If you want a more in depth discussion of Feynman, please start a separate thread for it. Thanks in advance.