Giuseppe Zangara 0 Report post Posted December 16, 2008 Just Finished: Crime and Punishment Currently Reading: Sanctuary, by William Faulkner On Deck: Already Dead, by Denis Johnson Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
snuffbox 0 Report post Posted December 16, 2008 I haven't read that Mailer book. I probably should. I did read a nice little biography of Steve Earle, Hardcore Troubador, recently. Not sure how he's still alive/touring. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Copper Feel 0 Report post Posted December 16, 2008 Just Finished: Crime and Punishment What did you think of this? It's the one book that I keep getting too distracted by other fiction to read. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Brett Favre 0 Report post Posted December 16, 2008 Matigari and Xala. One is basically about communism, with a jab at Christians, and the other is about a guy who is impotent (Xala has a kickass ending). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Giuseppe Zangara 0 Report post Posted December 17, 2008 Just Finished: Crime and Punishment What did you think of this? It's the one book that I keep getting too distracted by other fiction to read. It's pretty tight, if tough going at first. Not because it's "difficult"; all the characters are kind of despicable at the start. I warmed up to it eventually, and even found the ending kind of moving. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Giuseppe Zangara 0 Report post Posted December 24, 2008 On Deck: Already Dead, by Denis Johnson Not digging this so much, but it hasn't been weak enough to put down. A little too heavy on the mysticism for my liking, and far too many scenes of philosophical wankery. It has a lot of funny parts, though, and Johnson comes up with some really beautiful writing. Which is enough to keep me going. Unless the books starts knocking it out of the park in the second half, this will definitely go down as my least favorite of the books of his I've read. 1. Jesus' Son 2. Tree of Smoke 3. Angels ====== 4. Already Dead Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Youth N Asia 0 Report post Posted December 24, 2008 Reading Bret Hart's book right now. It's pretty good, I was afraid of hearing all of his stories through shoot interviews and whatnot, but there's good stuff there. Also read Snuff by Chuck Pal...uh, the author of Choke and Fight Club. Solid, very fast read, but not his best work Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
snuffbox 0 Report post Posted January 4, 2009 Robert Caro will be on CSPAN's Q&A tonight at 8e/7c. He wrote Power Broker about Robert Moses and is now working on the 4th volume of his epic biography of Lyndon Johnson. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Czecherbear Report post Posted January 4, 2009 Ooh! I should get that book. I've always wanted to read more about Robert Moses. Breezed through Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Cautiously recommended for those who enjoy interesting ideas amidst shoddy research and crap. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dandy 0 Report post Posted January 4, 2009 I have not kept up with this thread, so I apologize if this has been discussed. Is anyone else a fan of Agatha Christie's works? I have always had an affinity for mystery stories or detectives in general, and Christie has always been my favorite writer in that genre, including Sir Arthar Conan Doyle. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Copper Feel 0 Report post Posted January 4, 2009 Never read Christie, but Conan Doyle is marvellous. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
snuffbox 0 Report post Posted January 4, 2009 Ooh! I should get that book. I've always wanted to read more about Robert Moses. It's definitly the best way to learn about him. The book also takes a good look at power, its human ramifications, and its staus in America (also a theme inside the LBJ books). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
snuffbox 0 Report post Posted January 5, 2009 Anybody else watch it? Caro's always a good interview. Historians are an awfully quirky lot. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gary Floyd 0 Report post Posted January 5, 2009 Still on "Nixonland", though I'm starting to read "High Cotton" by Joe Lansdale. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Turbo Lion 0 Report post Posted January 5, 2009 My wife is a huge Agatha Christie fan. She's trying to get me to read them. I recently finished the Old Kingdom Trilogy by Garth Nix and Missing in Action by Peter David before that. I'm about to finish Watchmen and I'll probably read The Giver on the plane flight from Paris to Atlanta this Wednesday. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Young 0 Report post Posted January 13, 2009 I got David Morrell's The Spy Who Came for Christmas for, well, Christmas. I read it in about 4 days, in 50 page sessions. Really good book, and highly recommended. I'm about to start on Generation Kill. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cheech Tremendous 0 Report post Posted January 13, 2009 Also read Snuff by Chuck Pal...uh, the author of Choke and Fight Club. Solid, very fast read, but not his best work I'm just finishing up Choke now and it's the first Palahniuk that I've read. I loved it. I know that some people say that it's one of his least interesting works, but I was hooked. Any suggestions on what I should go for next? I was thinking either Survivor or Invisible Monsters. I also finished up The Average American Male. It's a light read. Mild recommendation if you're into stuff like Assholes Finish First, but I'd stay away if you have any aversion to reading a book obviously designed for the Maxim-reading crowd. I've got a little bit left on Artie Lange's Too Fat to Fish. Funny anecdotes, but nothing you haven't heard him tell a million different times on the Howard Stern Show. My next project is Team of Rivals. I've got a little bit done and I want to get into it, but I hate lugging it around. It's awkward to hold and carry. I'll probably have to devote a weekend in the future to tackling this bad boy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Youth N Asia 0 Report post Posted January 14, 2009 yeah, Choke was pretty good. I just picked up Rant by him and I'm starting that one tomorrow Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Big Ol' Smitty 0 Report post Posted January 15, 2009 My upcoming reading: Sun Tzu, The Art of War Carl Von Clausewitz, On War T.E. Lawrence, Revolt in the Desert Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History 1660-1783 (Also available here) E.H. Carr, The Twenty Years Crisis, 1919-1939 John Kelsay, Arguing the Just War in Islam Thucydides, The Landmark Thucydides Vo Nguyen Giap, People’s War, People’s Army Marc Trachtenberg, History and Strategy Peter Paret and Gordon Craig, Makers of Modern Strategy Andrew Bacevich, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism Hans Delbruck, Medieval Warfare Stephen Biddle, Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004 Wayne Hughes, Fleet Tactics and Coastal Combat, 2nd edition (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1999). Carl H. Builder, The Masks of War (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989). Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars (New York: Basic, 2000). Kenneth Pollack, Arabs at War (Lincoln; University of Nebraska Press, 2002) Reiter, Dan and Allan C. Stam. 2002. Democracies at War. Princeton University Press. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Big Ol' Smitty 0 Report post Posted January 15, 2009 Yeah, I'm thinking of starting an uprising. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0 Report post Posted January 15, 2009 My compiled reading list for this semester: Maria Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent Mary Shelley, Frankenstein Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone Sir Richard Burton, Sir Richard Burton's Travels in Arabia and Africa Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Thomas Mofolo, Chaka Modern Irish Drama Gertrude Bell, Arab Warlords E.M. Hull, The Sheik E.M. Forster, A Passage to India Waguih Ghali, Beer in the Snooker Club Ama Ata Aidoo, No Sweetness Here Khushwant Singh, Train to Pakistan Amitav Ghosh, The Calcutta Chromosome Colm Toibin, Lady Gregory's Toothbrush Zakes Mda, Heart of Redness Yasmine Zahran, A Beggar at Damascus Gate Jane Austen, Catherine and Other Writings Jane Austen, Lady Susan/The Watsons/Sandition Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen, Mansfield Park Jane Austen, Emma Jane Austen, Persuasion The Marx-Engels Reader Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Giuseppe Zangara 0 Report post Posted January 15, 2009 That's a lot of books I haven't read! Though I've longed toyed with reading A Passage to India. Currently reading Peter Matthiessen's Shadow Country. Once I finish that, I'll either start Saul Bellow's Humboldt's Gift or Nabokov's Ada or Ardor. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0 Report post Posted January 15, 2009 Though I've longed toyed with reading A Passage to India. You should do that. It rocks. Nabokov's Ada or Ardor. I read this two summers ago and I think a good 75% of it went right over my head. The writing is somewhat obscurantist (even by VN's standards) and (IIRC) the time-line is super-confusing and the genealogy of the Veen family is absurdly convoluted. The only thing that kept me from giving up on the book completely was the supple beauty of the prose. Maybe I'm just retarded, though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Copper Feel 0 Report post Posted January 15, 2009 My upcoming reading: Sun Tzu, The Art of War It'd be hard to say that The Art of War isn't worth reading considering how small its word count must be, but you won't find anything that isn't useless and obvious in it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Giuseppe Zangara 0 Report post Posted January 15, 2009 I once had a prof who absolutely loved Ada, his favorite Nabokov by far and one of his favorite books ever. I've taken note of the decidedly mixed response it's gotten elsewhere. We'll see how it goes! I should probably throw that Forster somewhere in the mix. I need a shorterish book; the novel I'm currently reading is 900 pages long. The Nabokov is 600 pages and the Bellow is 500 pages. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
godthedog 0 Report post Posted January 15, 2009 just started on VN's own 'pale fire' a couple nights ago. those 4 cantos are awesomely beautiful. not really a poem per se, it meshed a lot better when i thought of them as prose which happened to rhyme. i'll have to see how well it holds up through the endnotes. there's something about the way nabokov tries to write academics that seems just weird and false to me. i had the same problem with 'pnin', and it kept me from wanting to finish the book. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Giuseppe Zangara 0 Report post Posted January 15, 2009 I like Nabokov, but am unable to love him. He sometimes writes very beautifully and is occasionally very funny (there are some screamingly hilarious moments in Pale Fire, which, hey, I guess there's another writer who's made me laugh), but there's something mannered about his prose that I find off-putting. He's also a word-drunk. So, if I were so set on reading something by him, perhaps I should've picked something other than the 600-page epic that a number of his admirers consider to be one of his lesser works. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Giuseppe Zangara 0 Report post Posted January 15, 2009 Oh, when drunk, I sometimes try to recite from memory as much of the Pale Fire poem as I can. I never get past the first four lines. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jingus 0 Report post Posted January 16, 2009 My upcoming reading: Sun Tzu, The Art of War It'd be hard to say that The Art of War isn't worth reading considering how small its word count must be, but you won't find anything that isn't useless and obvious in it. Eh, it depends somewhat on which translation you get. Some are far superior to others. Editions with a bunch of footnotes and supplemental info tend to be the better ones, usually, though not always. Regardless of all that the book is always pretty short and does indeed include several Captain Obvious moments, but it's got some interesting stuff in there too. But if you ever wanna throw some time away on a REALLY overhyped "classic" treatise on medieval warfare, look no farther than The Book of Five Rings. You could make a drinking game out of it: take a shot every time the book tells you to meditate deeply on the meaning of something in order to understand it, rather than just explaining to you what the fuck it means. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Edwin MacPhisto 0 Report post Posted January 16, 2009 My upcoming reading: Sun Tzu, The Art of War Carl Von Clausewitz, On War T.E. Lawrence, Revolt in the Desert Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History 1660-1783 (Also available here) E.H. Carr, The Twenty Years Crisis, 1919-1939 John Kelsay, Arguing the Just War in Islam Thucydides, The Landmark Thucydides Vo Nguyen Giap, People’s War, People’s Army Marc Trachtenberg, History and Strategy Peter Paret and Gordon Craig, Makers of Modern Strategy Andrew Bacevich, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism Hans Delbruck, Medieval Warfare John Grogan, Marley and Me Stephen Biddle, Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004 Wayne Hughes, Fleet Tactics and Coastal Combat, 2nd edition (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1999). Carl H. Builder, The Masks of War (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989). Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars (New York: Basic, 2000). Kenneth Pollack, Arabs at War (Lincoln; University of Nebraska Press, 2002) Reiter, Dan and Allan C. Stam. 2002. Democracies at War. Princeton University Press. EFA Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
