Whatcha Reading? Thread

[Belle]

I thought it was about time for a sister thread to the music one, partly because I'm looking for recommendations. :)

I'm currently reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060007192/" target="_blank">Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568582080/" target="_blank">Angry Young Spaceman</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375724672/" target="_blank">True History of the Kelly Gang</a>, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316557633/" target="_blank">Garden State</a>.

I'm enjoying all of them, so far.

[Alpha Mac]

Tom Clancy's Clear and Present Danger.

[Zarathustra]

Im enjoying... <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670889954/qid=1023879940/sr=2-4/ref=sr_2_3_4/026-8729930-6412420" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670889954/qid=1023879940/sr=2-4/ref=sr_2_3_4/026-8729930-6412420</a> (Hang on! that looks way too long?) at the moment.

He's as cynical and sniping as I feel but so much better at expressing it.

A little drier is Thucydides' 'History of the Peloponnesian War', could be a great film! I was hoping for a stream of sword and sandle epics after Gladiator, but I'm still waiting.

[Brad]

I am currently reading <a href="http://forums.appleinsider.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=reply&f=6&t=001357" target="_blank">this</a>. :)

When I'm done, I'll probably try reading <a href="http://forums.appleinsider.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=6&t=001357" target="_blank">this</a>.

[groverat]

Reading One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez right now.

The next in line after that is Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace.

After that is probably A Bend In The River by V.S. Naipaul

[spaceman_spiff]

The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles, translated by Paul Roche

We the Living, Ayn Rand's first novel

[BRussell]

Plato's Republic, in Greek.
Sartre's L'Etre et le Neant, in French.
Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in German.

Aww, who am I kidding. I'm reading People Magazine. In English.

[Timo]

[quote]Originally posted by BRussell:

Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in German.
<hr></blockquote>

Bah. Tractatus is so yesterday. Try Philosophical Investigations. :p

[Jambo]

I'm reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060938455/qid=1023900984/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-9679351-8513733" target="_blank">Fast Food Nation</a> by Eric Schlosser. If anyone's looking to loose weight, buy this book. :D

J :cool:

[Powerdoc]

[quote]Originally posted by groverat:
<strong>Reading One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez right now.

l</strong><hr></blockquote>

I have read it , wonderfull book from a nobel prize winner. Some stories in this book are frightening especially the storie of the baby and the ants. When you reach that passage, you will understand what i mean.

[Powerdoc]

[quote]Originally posted by BRussell:
<strong>
Sartre's L'Etre et le Neant, in French.

</strong><hr></blockquote>

If you understand the whole book, there will be a beer for you :D

[jaske]

1) "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting" by Milan Kundera

2) "Applied Statistics and the SAS Programming Language"

[Jonathan]

Read The Bourne Identity (a vintage 70's copy I found in the basement, natch) outside in the sun on Monday.

Found The Bourne Supremacy (yet again vintage) as well, started it last night, will finish tonight.

I'll find something a bit more literary next. With the movie coming out, i wanted to be able to be one of the snobby fellows that decries the film's poor adaptation of the novel.

:D

[The Installer]

Carl Hiassen's "Lucky You".

A good read after a hard day's posting :D

Damn, soon I will have read all his books . . . :(

- T.I.

[FalkoL]

Douglas Adams: The Salmon of Doubt.

Marvel's "World of Spider-Man". (To discover new details in the movie.)

Robert Silverberg: Legends.

[LoCash]

Re-reading Being & Nothingness, by Jean-Paul Sartre. Last read it in high school..

[jesperas]

Jeanette Winterson, The World and Other Places
Chip Kidd, The Cheese Monkeys

[jeffyboy]

Starfleet X: <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />

I've discovered a little known fantasy series written by some guy with three initials for a first name, The Lord of the Rings. If you can find a copy anywhere, snatch it up, it's not bad!

<img src="graemlins/embarrassed.gif" border="0" alt="[Embarrassed]" />

I'm soooo late to the party on this, and usually hate anything trendy! I was almost too ashamed to pick up a copy at B. Dalton.

I half-ass read The Hobbit for a class in high school but didn't think much of it, but once I saw the movie I was HOOKED. I can't wait to find out what happens in the Two Towers!

Jeff

[tonton]

1. Beloved by Toni Morrison (20 pages left)
2. Island by Aldous Huxley

Just reread And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave (of Bad Seeds fame). Incredible first person perspective of a psychotic hillbilly.

[Mount_my_floppy]

A Rhapsody console giving me a KP

[Jambo]

I've decided to start opening the copy of Computer Weekly that arrives on my desk every week. I have ~40 under my desk and from what I have read so far the other 39 will remain sealed.

J :cool:

[tmp]

[quote]Originally posted by The Installer:
<strong>Carl Hiassen's "Lucky You".
</strong><hr></blockquote>

Carl Hiassen is one of my all-time favorite writers. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0449219410/qid=1024072001/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-8555560-2196737" target="_blank">"Skin Tight"</a> is one I reread about once a year.

Right now I am re-reading E. F. Benson's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0690011059/qid=1024072239/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-8555560-2196737" target="_blank">"Make Way for Lucia"</a>. If you are into British comedy, nothing beats it. I also recommend <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140107649/qid=1024072737/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/104-8555560-2196737" target="_blank">"Blue Heaven"</a> by Joe Keenan. It's one of the few books that I have read that made me laugh out loud.

[ 06-14-2002: Message edited by: tmp ]</p>

[The Installer]

[quote]Originally posted by tmp:
<strong>Carl Hiassen is one of my all-time favorite writers. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0449219410/qid=1024072001/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-8555560-2196737" target="_blank">"Skin Tight"</a> is one I reread about once a year.</strong><hr></blockquote>That one I have personally recommended to our resident Plastic Surgeon :D &lt;--- his work BTW

- T.I.

[Powerdoc]

[quote]Originally posted by The Installer:
<strong>That one I have personally recommended to our resident Plastic Surgeon :D &lt;--- his work BTW

- T.I.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Unfortunately i did not receive my book yet.
Happy that you appreciat my work TI :D

[The Installer]

[quote]Originally posted by powerdoc:
<strong>

Unfortunately i did not receive my book yet.
Happy that you appreciat my work TI :D </strong><hr></blockquote>I think I might need a bit of tightening up :)

- T.I.

[Ruhx]

rereading Raymond E Feist: Magician's apprentice.

Sun Tzu: The Art of War

Novell's guide to Netware 5.0/5.1

[pfflam]

[quote] Bah. Tractatus is so yesterday. Try Philosophical Investigations. <hr></blockquote>

I'll secong that !!

And who gets Being and Nothingness in High School?!?!?
. . .. and why reread it? isn't once enough? . . . and why bother? just read Sartre's two page refutation of his own work . . . which says, basically. . ."um... gee.. I forgot the 'social'"
Or better yet, read Heidegger's Letter On Humanism Heidegger's setting Sartre straight....


I'm reading Dionysus Reborn: Play and the Aesthetic Dimension In Modern Philosophical and Scientific Discourse by Mihai Spariosu
as well as some other texts on the concept of Play: Huizinga, Norman O Brown.

just finished bed-time reading: Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan something or other... I don't have it here in front of me and it was OVERRATED but still pretty good

[pfflam]

... i mean... " . . .nihilating nothingness...."

for pierre's sake, where does one go to nihilate their nothingness?!??!

[Shawn]

we're all so smart... aren't we? :D <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />

[pfflam]

well... at least some of us are trying to be.

:p

[MozillaMan]

I'm reading Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn, for the third time now. ;)

The book simply rocks, and it shook my world. Go Quinn!!

[The Installer]

I am also reading MozillaMan's sig. :D

- T.I.

[pfflam]

Mozilla man, don't get me wrong, But Ishmael sucks!!!

It is the most self delluded kind of false ideological nature worship that you can find. If it has any redeeming value it can be boiled down to this: "don't think like the herd"

All of its crappy distinctions between 'takers' and whatever the false antinnomy was, (I pleasantly forgot) are gross simplifications of the human predicament.

If you want to see what I mean: look at the absolutely atrocious film that was made from the book (Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding). By seeing the kind of delusional beliefs that this film had about man in a state of nature, . . . or even gorillas... you can see that the book too is grounded in these ideas.
That the book also sees a sentimental greeting card version of a state of nature, complete with golden light and sweeping panoramas is revealed through the movie clearly.

Its ideas are wrong: the picture of blissfull grass eating oneness with nature, man happiest as a gorilla is a misunderstanding of nature that only serves the author's unfortunate political ideas (& gives liberals a bad name), and lends any credence given to environmental thought reasons for doubt: That book is so grounded in a sentimentalized cartoon image of human nature that it cheapens real concern for our relationship to nature. And it completely overlooks the fact that gorillas are not the kindly gentle wise peacefull giants that he imagines, but are known to be very violent at times, territorial, patriarchal, and, even known to have cannibals among themselves . . . .

I would recomend that if you want to read something that is truly critical of the ways that we think, socially and philosophically, without the distortions of sentimentality, then you should read Nietzsche.... for example Thus Spake Zarathustra or The Gay Science

Sorry to be critical... but its kind of my job

[Zarathustra]

'then you should read Nietzsche.... for example Thus Spake Zarathustra or The Gay Science'

While you're at it don't forget The AntiChrist'

[pfflam]

of course, even that is good... except where he calls Jesus an "idiot" . . . (from the Greek, meaning isolated one, that is) that's pretty undignified of ole Freidrich :)

[Amorph]

Let's see...

Still getting through Adorno's Aesthetic Theory, one page at a time :) ; Manil Suri's The Death of Vishnu, and the camel book is open on the desk in front of me...

[Zarathustra]

'that's pretty undignified of ole Freidrich '

Considering the vitriol with which 'ole Freidrich ' attacks Christianity I'm taking 'undignified ' to mean that you're a fan (?)

Pleased to meet you. :)

[gorgonzola]

Mm, snooty. :D

From Dawn to Decadence, and Lolita.

I read A Confederacy of Dunces a few weeks ago and it was pretty good ... nice, light reading, and very funny in parts.

Anyone have the balls to try out Wolfram's book? :p

[Mac+]

Sorry to be critical... but its kind of my job

pfflam What is it that you do?

[TOOL]

I'm currently reading "Everything's Eventual" by Stephen King

Then it's "See No Evil" by Robert Baer (no, it's not a horror book..it's about the CIA)

I read quite a bit but none of the books listed above have crossed my path. Course I read to be entertained.

[pfflam]

Mac+, I am a professor and an artist.... I teach art production and criticism/critical theory courses.

Hey Amorph are you a student or a professor at the University of Iowa?

[markjo]

Just finished Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters. Not sure what's next.

[Sundae]

Reading Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

Interesting read. There is a part that the young men escaping from Nazi is creating a comic book with his cousin when comic book is just starting to get popular.

[Gringo Viejo]

I am currently reading "The Grapes of Wrath".

[BRussell]

[quote]Originally posted by pfflam:
<strong>Mac+, I am a professor and an artist.... I teach art production and criticism/critical theory courses.

Hey Amorph are you a student or a professor at the University of Iowa?</strong><hr></blockquote>What is criticism/critical theory?

[spaceman_spiff]

[quote]Originally posted by gorgonzola:
<strong>
I read A Confederacy of Dunces a few weeks ago and it was pretty good ... nice, light reading, and very funny in parts. </strong><hr></blockquote>

That's being made into a movie. Who's the guy who did Traffic? I think he's the one who's doing it.

Not yet finished with We the Living but getting there. Next up: Orwell's Homage to Catalonia.

[GardenOfEarthlyDelights]

Just finished Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams. Trying to read Applescript in a Nutshell, but it just doesn't have the same pace as an Adams book.

I'll keep reading this on the bus to work, unless I can find a good English novel in a book store in town (Regensburg). Otherwise, it's back to Der Kleiner Prinz, which I've been trying to get through for the last 3 years.

[pfflam]

[quote] What is criticism/critical theory? <hr></blockquote>
Criticism would be art criticism, however, it veers off into the realms of 'critical theory' when-
1. It is critical of its own methodology.
2. When the object of criticism (including its own methodology) is seen as symptomatic of larger cultural, historical, and/or metaphysical and philosophical issues.

For instance, I taught a class on Fascism and Death in Film and Video. (That's why I'm always a stickler about the use of the term 'Fascist' hereabouts) We looked at films and looked at how they treated the phenomena of Death (Woody Allen's, Stardust Memories, Night of The Iguana, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life others) and discussed what they said . . . we read texts on death, including Becker's Denial Of Death. Then we looked at ideas of Death in art, notions of kitsch as it relates to death and how these attitudes can be read in, and as, larger cultural attitudes towards death This led to reading Friedlander's book Reflections on Nazism: An Essay on Kitsch and Death and we started to look at the phenomena of Fascism and its relation to attitudes about death, this also entailed seeing Fascism as an aesthetic phenomena. (we looked at the films Mephisto, Architecture of Doom, and the Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Reifenstaahl(sp?)and others) we then read Walter Benjamin and Andrew Hewitt . . . both of whom look at Fascism as a larger cultural phenomena that is a responce to the rise of mechanical reproduction and other historical factors . . . we then looked at contemporary artists who are thinking about the insights that we dealt with, Andy Warhol, Kristen Lucas (on death) and others , , ,(it was a great class and despite what it looks like on the surface it all fit quite nicely)

I hope that helps clarify...'critical theory'

.

[ 06-23-2002: Message edited by: pfflam ]</p>

[Dust Puppy]

"Sum of All Fears" by Tom Clancy.