#70818
05/22/2002 4:35 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
It's that time again! (right, wow?)
What are y'all reading?
I found one at the library I hadn't read yet by one of my favorite authors, Gail Godwin. A Southern Family. Told from different points of view, it's a reminder that you can escape your (Southern) roots but you can never escape them. I'm enthralled.
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#70819
05/23/2002 5:22 AM
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 477
addict
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addict
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 477 |
or Winter Reading, Up Under! Hmmm... nothing better than curling up under the doona with a good book! Ok, almost nothing. 
What are y'all reading?
I'm 3/4 of the way through Enduring Love by Ian McEwan. It's a great story and full of amazing words and language (many of which I've considered raising here, but haven't had the time).
A quote on the back of it (which I tend to agree with) says: "with a plot so engrossing that it seems reckless to pick the book up in the evening if you plan to get any sleep that night". At the moment I'm hating it when my bus journey to work comes to an end too.
A couple of the words that I've read and been fascinated by: plosive, fabulation and evince.
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#70820
05/23/2002 12:01 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
I'm finally catching up on Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire. Just finished Without Reservations, a travelogue that makes me want to move to Paris. My next non-fiction is likely to be NoLogo - it was just presented to me last night without the giver's knowledge that I've been told by several different people that I would like it!
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#70821
05/23/2002 1:05 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
I've just finished re-reading Douglas Adams' strange book, The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul Not so obviously funny as some of his other books, but quite deep, in a twistedly logical sort of way. An interesting read, but I still prefer Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective AgencyCurrent reading is all bits and pieces - dipping into books on Victorian street crimes, prostitution, prize fighting and drug use (and abuse, although it wasn't looked on in quite the same way in those days.) Another couple of weeks and I should have enough time to read properly again - no idea what I'll go for, though - re-reading an old favourite, reading a C19 book that I've not read before, or going for something modern - we'll see: if this thread goes on for long enough I'll come back to you with the news! 
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#70822
05/23/2002 1:25 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
As usual I have several stacks of books around the house and the office with bookmarks in them.
One I just started is called April 1865, in which the author asserts that month is one of the most important in the history of the US. Too early to tell if he has a good point, but a lot did happen during that month, a bunch of it very pivotal.
I recently ran into an SF author named Asprin who has written a bunch of really funny stuff, loaded with puns (IMAGINE THAT!!!) I have three or four of them out of the library in various stages of completion.
Even though I know the ending I'm rereading Snow Falling on Cedars because it's such great writing.
On my desk at work I've got Will Durant's volume on the Renaissance. Slow going since I'd rather spend my lunch hour with you guys, but still very interesting.
I've also got Bruce Catton's civil war trilogy and Sandburg's Lincoln going.
TEd
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#70823
05/23/2002 6:55 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
First-- why summer reading? i find the long winter evenings to be a most congenial time to read.. might not have been 100 years ago, but with electric lighting, winter is fine reading time.
i am currently reading Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, and i have The Songcather about... i swallowed it whole last weekend, its not quite a mystery (but it has mystery elemants,) its not quite a history (but there is plenty of American, and even some Scots history in it)-- its sort of a southern story--except for when its in Morristown NJ! It has music, and geology, and family, and history.. Sharon Mc Crumb (or is Crump? crunch? Sharon Mc Cru...) i have to go back and reread it.. there is much to much to take in a single reading.
i have Salt on order-- and need to read it before the end of June for a bookclub.. and wow, its a think book!
but there will be rainy days..
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#70824
05/23/2002 8:05 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Hev, my apologies for the provincialism! I can't believe I did that... Helen, I dunno. My reading sort of reflects the changes in season. I will tend to read more academic non-fiction (like your Guns, Germs and Steel ) in the winter, I guess, and more "light" stuff (mysteries, "chick" novels, humor writing) in the summer.
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#70825
05/23/2002 9:09 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
This is my summer reading list, most by necessity (grrrrrrr!):
L. S. Vygotsky (1978). Mind in Society (very excited about this--it's a reprinting; he died in the 1930s)
Michelle Churma (1991). A Guide to Integrating Technology Standards into the Curriculum (uh-oh...)
M. D. Roblyer, Jack Edwards (2000) Integrating Educational Technology into Teachng (uh-oh again...)
Kay Burke (1997) Designing Professional Portfolios for Change (practical)
Judith Thurman (1999) Secrets of the Flesh (biography of Colette that I'm reading in bits and pieces, but it is wonderful wonderful--highly recommend from what I've read so far...)
When all the professional reading is done, I'll return to Boswell's Life of Johnson that I haven't read in over thirty years, but look forward to eagerly devouring again later in the summer.
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#70826
05/23/2002 11:55 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
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#70827
05/24/2002 12:14 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
I much prefer Faulkner's take on Hamlet's dying, jmh. It is a little known fact that Faulkner was near-obsessed about the ramifications of Hamlet's death upon Yoknapatawpha County and environs. Take a look at his other lesser-known novel and you'll see what I mean...
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#70828
05/24/2002 10:12 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
In reply to:
I much prefer Faulkner's take on Hamlet's dying, jmh. It is a little known fact that Faulkner was near-obsessed about the ramifications of Hamlet's death upon Yoknapatawpha County and environs. Take a look at his other lesser-known novel and you'll see what I mean...
Which Faulkner novel is that? I reckon it must be The Hamlet [ducks and runs for cover]. Seriously though, to which book are you referring?
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#70829
05/24/2002 11:40 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
This is just a little light humor between Jo, me, and cross thread reference exchangers regarding some fun we had last night (depending upon your time zone) on the "Damp Squib" thread. What I theorized about Faulkner is completely untrue. I repeat: a big lie. Faulkner never wrote (that I'm aware of) a novel entitled As Hamlet Lay Dying. The thread is worth reading if you're interested in learning about:
squibs
squids
dampness
explosives
Shakespeare
Faulkner
the military
the nature of human discourse
Book regards,
Wordy
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#70830
05/24/2002 2:23 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
Which Faulkner novel is that? I reckon it must be The Hamlet [ducks and runs for cover]. Seriously though, to which book are you referring?I am currently three-quarters of the way though William Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust, so this is, indeed, a curious thread for me. Alex, two Faulkner tomes are worked into this interplay: The Sound and the Fury (he did, indeed, take the title from Shakespeare's Hamlet quote; this novel is considered by many to be his masterpiece and is probably his most famous work). As I Lay Dying (one of his earlier works)
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#70831
05/24/2002 2:44 PM
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
I finally started War and Peace. I probably won't be able to finish it till week of July 4. Also reading a few technical things, but I don't reckon that's what you're talking about.
k
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#70832
05/24/2002 8:34 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
Ah, I must have fallen into a sarchasm, or at least missed the facetiousness of the posts! Oh well...
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#70833
05/25/2002 1:32 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872 |
What are y'all reading?
Glad you asked. I'm mad at my tennis group, some of my caving friends are mad at me, and I am boycotting my favorite beer joint- so what I do is read. The people at the library smile in anticipation of big overdue fines as I check out bag after bag of all kind of books. Listed below are the ones I think would be of interest to awaders, listed in the order of what I imagine you folks would be interested in most.
SEX: A natural History - Joann Ellison Rogers
"Whoa! Hang onto your seatbelts, kids, Joan Ellison Rogers is gonna take you for a helluva ride." - review by Laurie Garrett. Whoa! I bet that's right. I skim read parts of this book and Whoa!, I'm saving it for dessert. Whoa!
MAD ABOUT PHYSICS: Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Curiosities. -Christopher P. Jargodzki and Franklin Potter
Great! If the library didn't offer renewals I would buy this book. Five stars.***** Three hundred-ninty-three thought-provoking questions boxed by a hundred quotations from Lord Kelvin X-rays will prove to be a hoax. to Richard Feynman If all of mathematics disappeared, physics would be set back exactly one week.
Dolphins - Michael Bright
Companion book for BBC programs on dolphins as seen on the Discovery Channel. If dolphins could somehow walk amongst us we would declare half of them Saints and hang the others with a rope around their non-existent necks until dead for high crimes and atrocities.
NEGOTIATING WITH THE DEAD: A Writer on Writing -
Margaret Atwood
Well thought and well written. Who is this chick? She acts and thinks like Wordwind.
DISTURBING THE SOLAR SYSTEM: Impacts, Close Encounters, and Coming Attractions - Alan E. Rubin
Dr. Rubin synthesizes a great deal of modern research in geophysics and planetary science. - review by E.C. Krupp. Well presented too.
ART : 21 - Art in the Twenty-first Century - organized and introduced by Suzan Sollins
Twenty one modern artists are featured in 350 illustrations in this companion volume to the PBS series of the same name
with commentaries by five notables of contemporary art.
Mmmmmm? Some, I think, are interesting and some are not. But this is the sad fate of art. Or is it?
ICE: The Ultimate Human Catastrophe - Sir Fred Hoyle
A brilliant book. Unfortunately it was not the revised 1991 edition that I wanted to reread. The one where Sir Fred and his indian assistant Chander...? speculated on a method to save earth by storing a reserve of heat in the oceans against the Ice Age that will soon come. And when a Ice age comes, it comes quickly. It would be prudent for us all to hurry and read the revised edition before the event.
KILLER WHALES - Mark Carwardine
Another BBC book. Full of good stuff too. I will extract the interesting facts and post them on Miscelany.
THE ICE CURTAIN a thriller - Robin White
"A true find, a book that makes an exotic locale come to throbbing, pulsating life while telling a story that blasts across the landscape like the Trans-Siberian express. -Stephen Hunter".
E.E.CUMMINGS AND THE CRITICS - edited, with an introduction by S.V. Baum
Very dated. In the main they say that ee didn't edit his trivial from his great. They are correct.
MILESTONES OF SCIENCE - National Geographic. Curt Suplee.
Pictorial walk through the discoveries of the answers to fundamental aspects of the physical universe.
SKINNY LEGS AND ALL - Tom Robbins
In keeping with my intent to read the all of Tom Robbins, the good as well as the bad.
STILL LIFE WITH WOODPECKER - Tom Robbins
I told you.
A MATHEMATICAL MYSTERY TOUR: Discovering the Truth and Beauty of the Cosmos - A. K. Dewdney
Dewdney searches the world of mathematical constructions so as to answer the question - What is the cosmos?
THE MEASURE OF THE UNIVERSE - Isaac Asimov
Always a good skip read to keep a sense of scale.
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#70834
05/25/2002 3:34 AM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
I just finished Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon, which would make a terrific summer read.
I am currently reading:
Douglas Adams' The Salmon of Doubt, Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time
Jorge Luis Borges "Collected Fictions"
Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik
Chasing the Sun, Dictionary Makers and the Dictionaries They Made by Jonathon Green
James Gleick's Chaos, Making a New Science
Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson
Let Us Talk of Many Things by William F. Buckley Jr.
Lewis & Clark, Voyage of Discovery by Stephen E. Ambrose
also on my stack:
Longitude by Dava Sobel
interpreter of maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif
Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence
oh, and I also just finished reading Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh -- a fascinating little book on "The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem".
(whew)
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#70835
05/25/2002 4:58 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence
Interesting, wot?
HAd the advantage of reading it in 1953 when I lived near a dear school chum who had grown up in Egypt and spoke, read and wrote French, Arabic and English with equal fluency.
She was also a history buff and knew a lot about El Aurens.
Good stuff.
... everyone's getting way too serious! Excepting the folk at the top of the world who are winter hibernating.
It's that time again! (right, wow?)
Right you are AnnaS
I am talking Beach Books!
Sex in the sun!
Trash in the camper/trailer!
Fun inspiration for f.....er...ah....fooling around!
C'mon now...fess up ... let's hear those nominations!
I promise I'll respect you in the morning.
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#70836
05/25/2002 5:06 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
i don't watch her show, and the program has ended now, but when Oprah had her "bookclub" program, it was a great source of good 'reads'-- i only found one book to be a bomb, the rest, if not world class fiction, were good.
Ann Quinlan's Black and Blue(i think it was made into a TV movie already, but i didn't see it) is sitting with things i am packing for a trip next month..
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#70837
05/25/2002 5:53 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
Well, I'm almost through Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust. After that I'll get back to Jeff Shaara's Gods and Generals, a historical tome on the Civil War (soon to be a movie this fall) which I started September 10th and didn't have the heart to pick up again. Then I'll move on to The Fatal Shore, the Robert Hughes' history of Australia that mav was so kind to send me. There's about 25 read-list contenders sitting on my shelf waiting to be plucked at the whim of the moment after that. And I'm always picking at poetry collections, history (most notably H.G. Wells' two-volume The Outline of History...I guess I've re-read it dozens of times, I just open any page and start, I never get enough of it), and humor.
Oh, and I plan to finish Philip Wylie's Generation of Vipers for the second time, one of the most controversial and stirring socio/philosophic rampages (and indictments of American [US] society) ever written. When it was first published in the 40's Communists called it Fascist, and Fascists called it Communist, and Wylie claimed to be neither, just speaking his mind. He makes a lot of good points, and he also says some things that piss me off...but a riveting read!
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#70838
05/25/2002 7:08 PM
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320 |
WO'N, you tempt me to go back to Intruder in the Dust, the only Faulkner I've ever been able to read without feeling the need for a study guide to figure out what's going on. I wonder if others have had the same experience. Intruder is a gem. I plan to get into Thomas Flanagan's The Year of the French. Having read and greatly enjoyed The Tenants of Time and The End of the Hunt a while back, I somehow skipped this one, which comes first in the trilogy. Other titles I hope to get to include Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd, Atonement by Ian McEwen, and John Spong's Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism.
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#70839
05/25/2002 7:41 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Light in August is very readable without a study guide. Compelling story about Joe Christmas--and I believe it was the first time I ever heard an author using the word apotheosis-- and it was used poetically.
Another note on Faulkner and summer reading: I studied Joyce under Alexander Theroux, an author whose own writings are complex, to say the least. (He's Paul Theroux's brother, by the way.) Anyway, Alex Theroux told us that the previous summer he had set as his summer project to read all of Faulkner--and he did! The only books I ever read of his were Darconville's Cat and Three Wogs. Wonder what's become of him? His brother has been quite successful as a novelist and travel writer. I expect many here have probably read Paul Theroux.
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#70840
05/25/2002 8:11 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
I tried reading Darconville's Cat once; I was nonpussed.
(l)
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#70841
05/25/2002 8:27 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
A study guide would be a great help for plowing through Darconville's Cat. It sold fewer than 20,000 copies.
Not surprised that you were nonpussed, tsuwm. I, however, was pussed with what I could understand--when I was in the shute with him.
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#70842
05/26/2002 2:43 AM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
A few things:
1) 101 Damnations Andrew Harman
2) Asimov's (Science Fiction magazine)
3) Neurosis and Human Growth - Karen Horney
4) Les oiseaux du Québec (book on Québec birds)
5) Bird feeders - Book on how to make a slew of them (ya, I know, you'd think that after tearing off my finger I'd stay away from my workshop but I love that stuff - frustrates the h*** out of my hubby & son unfortunately)
ON DECK:
Ye Gods! - Tom Holt
_____________________________
I'm in the mood for something really funny - suggestions anyone?
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#70843
05/26/2002 10:00 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Dear BelM, If you haven't read Kinsley Amis's Lucky Jim, do. That's one of the funniest novels I've ever read. Laughed out loud while reading it. Here's a quote I googled from the novel: "'You'll find that marriage is a good short cut to the truth. No, not quite that. A way of doubling back to the truth. Another thing you'll find is that the years of illusion aren't those of adolescense, as the grown-ups try to tell us; they're the ones immediately after it, say the middle twenties, the false maturity if you like, when you first get thoroughly embroiled in things and lose your head. Your age, by the way, Jim. That's when you first realize that sex is important to other people besides yourself. A discovery like that can't help knocking you off balance for a time.'" (from Lucky Jim, 1954) http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/amis.htmThat particular quote wouldn't have made me laugh out loud, but you can see a bit of Amis's wit in it. WW
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#70844
05/28/2002 8:15 PM
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Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 69
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 69 |
You wrote:
"NEGOTIATING WITH THE DEAD: A Writer on Writing -
Margaret Atwood
Well thought and well written. Who is this chick? She acts and thinks like Wordwind."
This is the author of a disturbing and important book on the necessity of sexual equality & separation between church and state called "The Handmaid's Tale." I highly recommend it.
"STILL LIFE WITH WOODPECKER - Tom Robbins
I told you."
If you liked this one, try "Another Roadside Attraction."
Me - my wife got a hold of some advance reader copies of "War of Honor" (author forgotten) that is my big novel for the summer. Otherwise, I'm reading an anthology of fantasy/scifi short stories. I'll also be reading Peter F. Hamilton's "The Reality Dysfunction/Neutronium Alchemist/Naked God" series. In the meantime, I'll start working on some classics. I want to read some Nabocoff and Hemingway (see if I like him any better as an adult than as a teen).
Cheers,
Bryan
You are only wretched and unworthy if you choose to be.
Cheers,
Bryan
You are only wretched and unworthy if you choose to be.
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#70845
05/28/2002 11:58 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872 |
You are only wretched and unworthy if you choose to be.As well, others are only wretched and unworthy as you consider them to be. But Bryan, Thanks. I will read "The Handmaid's Tale" and "Another Roadside Attraction". And you read Hemingway's "Across the River and Into the Trees" you'll like it better as what you are now, as opposed to what you were then. milo
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#70846
05/29/2002 12:00 AM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
"The Handmaid's Tale" Don't shoot me, I know this is a summer reading list thread but The Handmaid's Tale was a very good movie.
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#70847
05/31/2002 8:35 PM
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Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 69
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 69 |
As usual, it is better to read it too - you understand it better. But yes, the movie was good too (I've always liked Elizabeth McGovern's work.)
Cheers,
Bryan
You are only wretched and unworthy if you choose to be.
Cheers,
Bryan
You are only wretched and unworthy if you choose to be.
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