Whatcha' Reading? Redux
To revive an old thread, what are you reading now, and how is it? And what have you read recently that you would like to comment on?
Right now: Platform by Michel Houellebecq
It's been out for a while, so some of you might have read it already. I'm halfway through. I was blown away by Atomised, and in the mood for something explicit and nihilist after having read a pretty boring autobiography, so I was eager to read this one.
So far there's lots of explicit sex, as would be expected, and even some basic Business 101 theory, which at least thus far is a distraction from Houellebecq's usual incessant pessimism. I'm sure something significant will happen soon, because Houellebecq's combined protagonist/antagonist always finds a way to fail miserably, philosophizing about it throughout the inevitable downward spiral.
Best book recently read: Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh.
Awesome. Miles better than Trainspotting. The interweaving of the three timelines and then the plot twist at the end, combined with the overall message which is the strongest statement of its kind I've ever read, serves up a tremendous achievement in literature. I can't wait to read more of his work, and I hope he can write more works that are not so concentrated on drug culture as the central plot device, because he can clearly accomplish much more than simply following the Trainspotting formula.
By the way, on the topic of Trainspotting, the book is infinitely better than the film. And infinitely different. I saw the film AFTER having read the book, and was disappointed that the whole thing was turned into what was essentially light humor. The book is not at all light.
Right now: Platform by Michel Houellebecq
It's been out for a while, so some of you might have read it already. I'm halfway through. I was blown away by Atomised, and in the mood for something explicit and nihilist after having read a pretty boring autobiography, so I was eager to read this one.
So far there's lots of explicit sex, as would be expected, and even some basic Business 101 theory, which at least thus far is a distraction from Houellebecq's usual incessant pessimism. I'm sure something significant will happen soon, because Houellebecq's combined protagonist/antagonist always finds a way to fail miserably, philosophizing about it throughout the inevitable downward spiral.
Best book recently read: Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh.
Awesome. Miles better than Trainspotting. The interweaving of the three timelines and then the plot twist at the end, combined with the overall message which is the strongest statement of its kind I've ever read, serves up a tremendous achievement in literature. I can't wait to read more of his work, and I hope he can write more works that are not so concentrated on drug culture as the central plot device, because he can clearly accomplish much more than simply following the Trainspotting formula.
By the way, on the topic of Trainspotting, the book is infinitely better than the film. And infinitely different. I saw the film AFTER having read the book, and was disappointed that the whole thing was turned into what was essentially light humor. The book is not at all light.
Comments
Originally posted by tonton
How's it? That's on my immediate "to read" list. Number9Dream was awesome, except that the "goatwriter" crap should have been eliminated.
The first section of it is a little slow, but it's starting to pick up in the second. I like it so far.
Last I read from Ridley, "Red Queen", was excellent and I think this is going to be about the same. Stuff you want to read if you want to know what's going on in humans, their decisionmaking, etc. I find them easy to comprehend, but deep in content. I have no scientific background.
Also got Barry Sears' "The Zone", a diet/nutrition book. Lately I have been looking into nutrition and I understand this corresponds closely to what I have already found. I hope to find a little more background info to my nutrition knowledge. Also the book was cheap.
Originally posted by tonton
Best book recently read: Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh.
I also thought this was a powerful book and probably his best, I couldn't even be bothered with later stuff like Ectasy His "The Acid House" has some good short stories though if you can track down "The Children of Albion Rovers" anthology it has an interesting foray into Sci-fi with his usual drugs, gangs and dead-end underclass lives twist. Here's an excerpt.
Just finished:
* The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
* The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell
* Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell
* Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind : Why Intelligence Increases When You Think Less by Guy Claxton
Currently Reading
* Coming up for Air, George Orwell (
* The 7 Habits of Highly Succesful People
I had Lanzarote by Houellebecq but I decided that I'd maybe give it a go in French instead.
You may notice a lot of Orwell in that list, My New Year resolution last year was to read all his work and a good biography, but after a good start, and being thoroughly depressed by some of his stuff, I got caught up in other things. I'm now back on track though and thinking about authors to catch up with next year.
If anyone's not read his stuff I highly recommend it. I stumbled across his essay Politics and the English Language online, was blown away by it and realised I'd managed to get through life without ever reading one of his books, something I felt needed correcting.
Originally posted by ShawnJ
Well... the professor for my Modern British Fiction class posted his reading list for next semester. It's 1700 pages of novels.
You know we don't actually really any of that stuff when we assign it to you guys, right? We just sit there and ask open-ended questions: "Why do you think X?" "Where in the text are you getting that?" "Why is this important to our understanding of X, Y, and X?"
Edit: Shawn, if it makes you feel any better, my first semester in grad school I took a Dickens course. We read 4000 pages.
It just came in from Planet Amazon. I've got some Portuguese poetry and 'Beyond Geography: The Western Mind Against the Wilderness' by Frederick Turner in the same batch, which looks up my street, so I've got some heavyweight brainfodder too. Yum.
Don't like Michel Houllbeq much, although the sex is racy I grant you.
Originally posted by ShawnJ
Well... the professor for my Modern British Fiction class posted his reading list for next semester. It's 1700 pages of novels.
Maybe you should read this first:
Tony Buzan's Speed Reading Book
Nick
Fuck. Flash Environment SUCKS.
Macromedia. WHY??????????????????????????????
if i exclude work related stuff ... and everything geek and computer / server related .. reading Bushido now. Interesting.
i notice most books have become boring recently .. read a few a few weeks back while in hospital and couldnt get online. Fastnet, Force 10 was one of them, Interesting .. about fast race boats accident around Fastnet .. then something of Michael Moore (not bad either, at least as hospital entertainment) .. got a few fairytale books on my night table that I'll red thru next .. piled between the ipod+isight boxes and the powerbook
Originally posted by ShawnJ
Well... the professor for my Modern British Fiction class posted his reading list for next semester. It's 1700 pages of novels.
Just how much time can it take to get through 1700 pages of fiction? You even get study credit for that stuff. I read "Lord of the Rings" when I was 10, that was around 1000 pages and took me less than three days. Today I think I could read that much in a day even in english, if I could dedicate the day for that alone. Even if the content is 3x as heavy and difficult, 1700 pages shouldn't take more than a week.
I'm doubtful about the speed reading stuff. I have read about it and tried it for a bit, but find that it's too much bother. One thing that helps for working on books is analytical reading, the like of which is outlined in Mortimer Adler's "How to Read a Book".
right now i'm trying to find more time to read the riverworld saga by philip jose farmer.
Originally posted by Gon
I'm doubtful about the speed reading stuff. I have read about it and tried it for a bit, but find that it's too much bother. One thing that helps for working on books is analytical reading, the like of which is outlined in Mortimer Adler's "How to Read a Book".
That books seems to have a similar method to the one I linked to, maybe just a subtly different viewpoint.
Many of the speed-reading 'gurus' try to make it seem magical, but it's pretty basic stuff. It only takes up about a third of the relatively thin book I linked to, with another third for example texts to test your speed on, and a further third on semi-related topics like tips to build vocabulary and Buzan's MindMap Organic Study Technique for longer term absorption, integration and recall of material.
It's sad but true that there's a few skills out there (how to read, how to memorize, how to take notes, how to write essays, how to sit exams etc. *properly*) that would let anyone of average intelligence breeze through most of academia but are for no readily explainable reason, regarded as external to the average educational experience. (If I was being cynical I'd suggest organised education is more about separating the 'smart' from the 'dumb' than raising the level of everyone's learning).
It's particularly sad when people write themselves off as dyslexic or just 'not readers' when with a small amount of training they could easily surpass the reading speed and comprehension of their classmates.
The book I'm starting is The Economics and Politics of Race by Thomas Sowell. I am really looking forward to this.