Guest disparaissant Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 i just read daughter of the forest by juliet marillier, which was fucking excellent for cheesy romantic fantasy pap. currently switching between the history of sexuality vol 1 by foucault and santa olivia by jacqueline carey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremymacgregor87 Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 currently reading:Regarding the Pain of Others - Susan Sontag Political Ideologies - Andrew Heywood Crash - J G Ballard Super Cannes - J G Ballard Propoganda: The Formation of Men's Minds - Jacques Ellul fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Dylan Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 You can't be reading 5 books at the same time. At most, 2 should be sufficient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremymacgregor87 Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 You can't be reading 5 books at the same time. At most, 2 should be sufficient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stock Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Finished Dick's "A Scanner Darkly", became one of my favorites from him, sharp-written as usual with a beautiful ending. I still haven't found better than Ubik in his bibiography but that one came pretty close, very personal and well built. I then started to read The Stand by Stephen King, in its full version. But I gave up after 300 pages (out of something like 1200 pages). It's really easy to read just like any other King novel, but really long, too easily understandable and, finally, boring. A big disappointment since the book's almost mystical status amongst fans. Earlier in the month I went trough Lisey's Story which was way better. And finally I started reading Alice in Wonderland in its original version - thought I should give it a chance... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Iain C Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic. This is a really exciting non-linear novel. It tells the story of a lost people of central Europe - the Khazars - in the form of three dictionaries, which are actually more like encyclopaedias. Each one represents Christian, Jewish or Islamic sources and research on the Khazars, and through cross-referencing and synthesis you can construct the history of the people and how their empire fell. The central issue is their conversion from their native religion to one of the three Abrahamic faiths in the 8th century. Nobody seems certain which faith they converted to, or why, but soon afterwards their empire fell and was almost erased from history. There's also a larger framing story to be uncovered regarding the original Khazar Dictionary - a 17th-century work, now lost itself, that this book is an attempt to reconstruct. It's a brilliant, poetic novel - echoes of Italo Calvino, Borges, Nabokov's Pale Fire, etc. In fact, it's the kind of book Borges would have actually written a short story about... except it's here and you can read it. Highly recommended to anybody who likes "this kind of thing." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
logakght Posted December 20, 2012 Share Posted December 20, 2012 hey guys do you know any good book about Classical Music (history)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auxien Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 that Dictionary of the Khazars sounds interesting. it's added to my list to look into. does anyone here frequent any good forum on new text? a watmm for obscure non-fiction and weird fictions is what i'm dreaming of.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markedone Posted December 22, 2012 Share Posted December 22, 2012 Anyway, now reading Kafka on the Shore by Murakami. He's tended to be a safe pair of hands for me, and this one sounds interesting. Im also reading (unfortunately, a computer screen pdf of) this book right now. As with other Murakami i've read, there are many more 'i have things i need to do but want to keep reading another chapter' moments than other books. Quite engrossing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny O Flannagin Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 (edited) Finished Dick's "A Scanner Darkly", became one of my favorites from him, sharp-written as usual with a beautiful ending. I still haven't found better than Ubik in his bibiography but that one came pretty close, very personal and well built. I then started to read The Stand by Stephen King, in its full version. But I gave up after 300 pages (out of something like 1200 pages). It's really easy to read just like any other King novel, but really long, too easily understandable and, finally, boring. A big disappointment since the book's almost mystical status amongst fans. Earlier in the month I went trough Lisey's Story which was way better. And finally I started reading Alice in Wonderland in its original version - thought I should give it a chance... The Stand is one of my favorite books. I love the flow, i love the environment and situation, i love the characters. I kinda feels like 3 books of a series combined into one but the length is nothing to complain about, fastest page turner i've read Also, I wouldn't call call the ending of A Scanner Darkly beautiful. I thought it was sort of sad and hopeless if i remember correctly Edited December 26, 2012 by Danny O Flannagin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stock Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 Finished Dick's "A Scanner Darkly", became one of my favorites from him, sharp-written as usual with a beautiful ending. I still haven't found better than Ubik in his bibiography but that one came pretty close, very personal and well built. I then started to read The Stand by Stephen King, in its full version. But I gave up after 300 pages (out of something like 1200 pages). It's really easy to read just like any other King novel, but really long, too easily understandable and, finally, boring. A big disappointment since the book's almost mystical status amongst fans. Earlier in the month I went trough Lisey's Story which was way better. And finally I started reading Alice in Wonderland in its original version - thought I should give it a chance... The Stand is one of my favorite books. I love the flow, i love the environment and situation, i love the characters. I kinda feels like 3 books of a series combined into one but the length is nothing to complain about, fastest page turner i've read Also, I wouldn't call call the ending of A Scanner Darkly beautiful. I thought it was sort of sad and hopeless if i remember correctly It is sad and hopeless, just like most of Dick's endings in fact. But in the middle of despair sometimes emerge beautiful things (that was the feeling I got from reading the book). That moment when Arctor achieves his long, almost life-time programmed task by just gathering the flower is really breath-taking imo As for The Stand...Maybe I should give it another go. The length never bothered me but it hasn't "clicked" with me yet (whereas It or The Dark Tower for example blew my mind since the first pages). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mat Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 (edited) I got 3 Dave Eggers books for Xmas and I'm a 1/4 through 'A Hologram for the King' atm. Good so far, easy read. I like Eggers. Also listening to the Stephen Colbert book 'America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't' & a book by David Eagleman called "Sum: Tales from the Afterlives', Nick Cave narrates a bit of that one. Edited December 27, 2012 by mat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mat Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 As for The Stand...Maybe I should give it another go. The length never bothered me but it hasn't "clicked" with me yet (whereas It or The Dark Tower for example blew my mind since the first pages). The first bit of 'The Dark Tower' is soooo good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chenGOD Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 light-hearted easy going read. perfect for my mental state right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremymacgregor87 Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 Finished Crash and the Sontag one. Reading Don Delillo's Point Omega at the mo ; it's my first of his and I'm loving the style of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Dylan Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 hey guys do you know any good book about Classical Music (history)? The lives of great composers by Schonberg Norton Anthology of Western Music by Burkholder The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
logakght Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 hey guys do you know any good book about Classical Music (history)? The lives of great composers by Schonberg Norton Anthology of Western Music by Burkholder The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross thanks! have you read any of them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mat Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 I got 3 Dave Eggers books for Xmas and I'm a 1/4 through 'A Hologram for the King' atm. Finished 'A Hologram for the King'. It was a very simple read, Hemingway-esque in it's simplicity but not in it's greatness or content. Underwhelming ending for me, but as I reflected on it over the course of a few hours I appreciated it. On to 'Zeitoun' by Dave Eggers. So far, better than 'Hologram...'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Dylan Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 hey guys do you know any good book about Classical Music (history)? The lives of great composers by Schonberg Norton Anthology of Western Music by Burkholder The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross thanks! have you read any of them? Yeah man, The Rest is Noise is a masterpiece, but it's essays about the 20th century classical music. You'll end up understanding that everybody has copied everybody ha, and how important the transition from romantic to modernism was. Schonberg is an awesome introduction to every composers imaginable, but it's very opinionated and he hates Mahler lol. The other is a textbook, it's massive in two volumes with almost 1000 pages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J3FF3R00 Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest A/D Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Neil Young: Casually Dressed Scarecrow Man Just started D.T. Max's biography of David Foster Wallace. So far it is excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lumpenprol Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 reading Cloud Atlas (have not seen the movie). Bit of a weird book but very fluidly written and readable. It's sort of like any popular page-turner by Grisham or King, except it has pretensions of signifying something greater. However the pretensions don't seem to weigh it down, they're just sort of...there. It's certainly very enjoyable. Sometimes the cracks show through a bit, such as when American characters speak using English idioms (writer is English, apparently), or with ham-fisted exposition ("the will to power is _________"). Felt the first two sections were nearly flawless, then it stumbles with the American 1960's section a bit, sags further with present-day retirement-home segment, then rises a bit with the near future clone story (though I think this could have been even better in the right hands), then sags again a bit in the post-apocalyptic section. Not sure what to make of it yet, really. Funny thing about it is despite the weighty subject matter it's very tongue in cheek, often pulpy, and arguably derivative, but in a harmless sort of way (and occasionally calls out its own references, such as when it references "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" in the old-folks-home segment. Is a writer still derivative when he calls out the sources he seems to be borrowing from?). Irrespective of any other layers of meaning, it's at least a big pleasure to read. Almost feels written by a talented and very effusive 16 yr old prodigy (though I guess it's too angst-free for that). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimpyLoo Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Currently reading: Kill Everyone (poker strategy) Gary Chaffee's Time-Functioning Patterns and Sticking Patterns (drum technique) Murikami's Norwegian Wood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Iain C Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 A Short History of Byzantium by John Julius Norwich, because Byzantium was fucking great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zkom Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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