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Grex > Books > #3: What Was the Last Book You Read? | |
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| 25 new of 298 responses total. |
oddie
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response 218 of 298:
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Oct 21 04:05 UTC 1999 |
Was it the SF-like component of the ending that you didn't like? It seems
from reading the customer comments on Amazon that a lot of people (probably
those who are into mystery novels but not science fiction) think the ending
was a sort of copout. Personally, I think the final mysterious, inconclusive
paragraphs are wonderful. The ending of _The Once and Future King_ (which
I read for school) is a bit like that too. (I loved TOAFK as well).
Another book has come to mind, _Red Shift_ by Alan Garner. Now *this* is
one of the strangest books I have ever read. It is a bit more difficult to
get through than the average "young adult" novel; sometimes I lost track of
who was speaking in the dialogue passages, as there are no cues from the
narrator. There are three interwoven plots: one concerning two teenagers
engaged in a strange sort of romance in the twentieth century, one set
during one of the Roman occupations of Britain and involving a boy in
a Roman legion who has epileptic-like visions, and one set in England's
civil war. The ending complicates the puzzle of how the plots fit together
rather than clearing it up. I hope to read the book again later and try to
understand it better.
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mcnally
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response 219 of 298:
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Oct 21 04:12 UTC 1999 |
I thought it was a copout but not because of the bizarre/fantastic
element.. It just didn't seem to fit with the rest of the story --
all the hints that something dark and sinister was going on would
have worked just fine with any number of strange endings, just not
the one that Hoeg chose..
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jazz
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response 220 of 298:
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Oct 21 04:44 UTC 1999 |
I actually enjoyed the ambiguity of the close, and the realism of the
core of the sinister "conspiracy" being something relatively mundane. But
that's just me.
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lilmo
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response 221 of 298:
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Oct 21 20:18 UTC 1999 |
Re resp:218 - Which of England's many civil wars? King John vs the barons,
the war of the roses, the one that brought Cromwell to power, the one that
restored the monarchy ... ?
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oddie
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response 222 of 298:
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Oct 25 04:02 UTC 1999 |
The parliament vs. King war, the one that brought Cromwell to power. I was
going to say that, but I thought that "the English civil war" always
refered , ack, referred, to the same one. I stand corrected :)
I thought the monarchy was restored in a bloodless "revolution"; am I
confusing it with something else?
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lilmo
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response 223 of 298:
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Oct 26 18:21 UTC 1999 |
That's entirely possible. However, I am not quite enuf of a history buff to
know the names to everything, I just know what happened. :-)
After Cromwell, Charles ( whose (grand?)father was executed ) became king,
if I recall correctly. The Glorious Revolution resolved a succession problem,
I believe. Some king's heirs were Catholics? I don't remember exactly, and
you could be right again. :-)
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mcnally
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response 224 of 298:
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Nov 30 01:02 UTC 1999 |
Because of the holiday I had a fair amount of time to read this weekend
and because of all of the work *before* the holiday I chose for
entertainment more than anything else..
Tim Powers -- "On Stranger Tides".. John Chandagnac, a puppeteer and
amateur scholar is sailing to the new world to claim his grandfather's
estate when his ship is captured by pirates. Sooner than you can say
"shanghaied", he's pressed into service aboard by the rather odd pirates
and soon he's "Jack Shandy", unwilling participant in a power struggle
between voodoo practicing pirates, a one-armed Oxford don seeking to
restore his wife's spirit -- to his daughter's body, and other typically
strange Powers characters. Entertaining, but not as good as his other
books. Powers writes entertaining books filled with strange characters
who are involved in bizarre plots. Instead of "On Stranger Tides" I
would recommend:
"Last Call": which has a strangely similar plot, but takes place
in modern times, with sorcerous card sharks taking the place of
the voodoo-practicing pirates, as they vie to unseat the magical
Fisher King of Las Vegas and become king themselves.. -or-
"the Anubis Gate": a time-travelling poet encounters plotting
Egyptian sorcerers, a body-swapping werewolf, and a killer clown
who performs awful medical experiments in the sewers of 18th-century
London..
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Sara Paretsky -- "Hard Time".. Latest in the V.I. Warshawsky series.
Tough and independent Chicago private-eye Warshawsky manages to tick off
the wrong people and is soon caught up in a complicated plot that everyone
else begs her not to unravel. How is this different from every other
V.I. Warshawsky novel, you ask? Clearly it's not, but it's a pretty good
formula if you like mystery novels. Nothing new here, but after all of
the other books in the series fans probably know what to expect.
Recommended for fans of the series -- people who haven't read the other
books will be confused by all the peripheral characters who've been
acquired in the other books and remain part of the continuity. Probably
best to start with an earlier installment..
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Dick Francis -- "Second Wind" Francis could do with a bit of a "second
wind" (or third, or twelfth, or whatever it takes..) himself. Having by
now almost completely mined out his trademark gimmick (every mystery
involves horseracing in some way, although in this latest the connection
is slapped on pretty haphazardly..) Francis is showing the dark side of
the formula problem. While fans of the rest of Paretsky's books will
probably enjoy the new V.I. Warshawsky novel, it's difficult to imagine
*anyone* particularly enjoying Francis' latest offering. The plot makes
little or no sense, the characters' actions are all annoyingly irrational,
and even the villains have little idea what they're doing. It's clearly
not up to the standards of Francis' usually successful (if completely
predictable) suspense formula.
Strong recommendation against. His fans will probably buy it anyway,
but I can at least say "I told you so." Seriously, though, this one
stinks. You'd be far better off re-reading any of his previous works.
Don't say I didn't warn you..
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otaking
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response 225 of 298:
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Nov 30 16:05 UTC 1999 |
I just finished reading "Doomsday Book" by Connie Willis. I highly recommend
this book. It follows the tale of Kivrin, a 21st century college student who
is sent back in time to 14th century Skendale, a village outside of Oxford,
to study the Middle Ages. Trouble begins when people in the 21st century
succumb to a mysterious illness, hampering any attempt to retrieve her from
the past.
I don't know how to adequately describe this novel in the short amount of time
available to me, except to say that it's the best novel I've read this year.
I can't recommend it enough to fans of SF or medieval history.
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gelinas
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response 226 of 298:
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Apr 7 04:23 UTC 2000 |
The 'last' book I read was _The Neutronium Alchemist Part 1: Consolidation_,
which is the third paperback in a six-book "trilogy" (apparently, it was
originally published in three hardcover volumes). I'm working on the
next part, "Conflict" now. Fun stuff, but there are a lot of characters,
a lot of plot lines; about what you would expect given that each paperbook
runs over 500 pages.
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gorwell
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response 227 of 298:
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May 7 00:52 UTC 2000 |
I finish and re-reading The radiant future, the invisible writings, The age
of longing, the first is buy alexander zinoviev, second is arthur koestler.
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otaking
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response 228 of 298:
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May 7 06:14 UTC 2000 |
I finished reading Feng Shui for Apartment Living recently. Good book.
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md
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response 229 of 298:
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May 22 12:32 UTC 2000 |
I want to finish my George Eliot marathon this summer
but I keep getting interrupted. At Borders yesterday
I picked up two irresistible interruptions: _Nabokov's
Butterflies_ and Borges' _Complete Fictions_.
The title of the Borges book sounds a little bit affected.
Why "fictions"? There are no novels or novellas, so why
not call them "short stories" like everyone else? Well,
first of all, "ficciones" is what Borges himself called
them. Secondly, many of them are unclassifiable -- not
stories, exactly, but not essays or reviews, either.
Some of them read like essays and reviews, but the authors
and works they deal with are all invented by Borges.
Anyway, here, between two covers, is everything Borges
wrote of that nature. Many old favorites of mine, and
many more I'd never heard of, all in brand-new translations.
The translator takes a big risk in renaming one of Borges
most famous "fictions" from the familiar "Funes the Memorious"
to "Funes, His Memory," explaining that "memorious" is
not a good translation of "memorioso" ("elephant-memoried"
would be more like it, he says).
_Nabokov's Butterflies_ tries to collect everything Nabokov
ever wrote of the subject into one volume. It has the entire
"Butterflies" chapter from _Speak, Memory_, the butterfly
parts from all of his novels and stories, excerpts from
interviews and letters, all of Nabokov's scientific papers,
selected diary entries, and various other stuff from the
Nabokov Archives including plans of projected works. It is
almost 800 pages long and is filled with illustrations --
photographs of Nabokov in collecting mode at all ages,
photographs, Nabokov's own drawings, ec., etc. This is one
of thise books that can fairly be described as "sumptuous."
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gerund
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response 230 of 298:
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Dec 4 03:36 UTC 2000 |
Stephen King, _On_Writing_.
Having read most of it I'd have to say it's thoughtful and entertaining,
providing insights of a man who's been writing for many many years. It provides
more than that, however, in giving Mr. King's perspective on his life as well
as that fateful day in 1999 that almost ended his life. You'll get a sense of
the man that I think might be hard to gleen if you've only read his fiction.
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remmers
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response 231 of 298:
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Dec 4 14:41 UTC 2000 |
John Grisham, _The Runaway Journey_. Got it to pass the time on
a recent airplane flight. Never read Grisham before. Probably
won't again.
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remmers
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response 232 of 298:
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Dec 4 14:42 UTC 2000 |
Oops, make that _The Runaway Jury_.
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mcnally
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response 233 of 298:
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Dec 4 21:54 UTC 2000 |
So you read "The Runaway Jury" on your runway journey?
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remmers
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response 234 of 298:
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Dec 5 02:37 UTC 2000 |
Exactly!
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m1a1crew
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response 235 of 298:
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Dec 7 13:47 UTC 2000 |
Eniac by Scott McCartney. Have become very interested in Computer History
lately, this is a good intro book to lay some framework on the subject. I
thought it was an objective look at who stood where in the development of the
first working computer and the spread of computer science. The author
sets the record straight as too VonNeumann's role in the birth of computers,
he contributed greatly to the birth of computer science while it was Eckert
and Mauchly who bore the first working computer. Although I was very
disappointed that there was no mention of Turing and Colossus. Many people
dispute this as the first true working computer and Turing as the real father.
Also many places where details would have been appreciated, the author vaguely
described the events and moved on. Overall still a good read.
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mcnally
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response 236 of 298:
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Dec 7 22:04 UTC 2000 |
If you're in Ann Arbor, have you stopped by the EECS building to view the
piece of ENIAC that's on display near the front of the atrium?
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md
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response 237 of 298:
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Jan 14 14:05 UTC 2001 |
Mayflies, by Richard Wilbur. An extremely slim volume of poems by our
greatest living poet. Maybe his last, as he turns eighty this year and
his output seems to have slowed down sadly.
Spaking of poetry, I was reading a volume of Robert Frost's letters the
other day, and noted that he said "Cadmus and Harmonia" was his
favorite long poem by Matthew Arnold. The title meant nothing to me,
which was alrming because I know, or thought I knew, all of Arnold's
poetry.
The Oxford Authors selection of Arnold's poetry and prose (published
fifteen years or so ago) didn't have "Cadmus and Harmonia" in either
the ToC or index, but it doesn't purport to be complete. I have two
collections of Arnold's poetry that call themselves "complete," both
from the late 19th century shortly after Arnold's death, one by Oxford
and one by Macmillan. The Macmillan volume didn't have anything
called "Cadmus and Harmonia," but the Oxford edition did: both the ToC
and the title index showed "Cadmus and Harmonia" as starting on page
112. But on turning to that page, I found myself in the middle
of "Empedocles on Etna," near the end of the first act.
I must've rechecked the ToC and index of the Oxford volume three or
four times, in growing disbelief. I started to feel like a character
in a Borges story. Finally, as a last resort, I pulled down Stedman's
Victorian Anthology and the 1879 Golden Treasury selection of Arnold's
poems. The Stedman had nothing; but there, in the little Golden
Treasury selection, was my poem. I recognized it immediately as the
passage from the first act of "Empedocles on Etna."
All I can think is that Palgrave excerpted the passage from the verse
drama, which was much too long to include in full in the Golden
Treasury edition, and published it as a standalone poem in the
collection, with or without Arnold's permission, and that that is where
Robert Frost saw it. It probably became a Victorian sentimental
favorite, and so earned the oblique reference in the Oxford edition.
100 years ago, that reference wouldn't've puzzled anyone.
The poem is about a man and a women who saw their children all killed,
and who were turned into snakes by the gods, in an act of mercy, and
sent to a beautiful hillside overlooking the ocean, where they lived
ever after in blissful reptilian ignorance. Frost's reference to it
was in a letter written around the time his daughter Marjorie died of
puerperal fever after giving birth to her only child. The tragedy as
much as killed Frost's wife, and sent Frost into a deep depression.
Just a few years later and they could have saved Marjorie with
antibiotics.
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md
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response 238 of 298:
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Jan 14 17:01 UTC 2001 |
Okay, the Oxford Authors edition has a note to the "Empedocles on Etna"
passage remarking that it was published separately by Arnold as "Cadmus
and Harmonia" as early as 1852.
Also, Frost didn't say it was his "favorite long poem by Matthew
Arnold," but his favorite poem, period, "long before I knew what it
would mean to us." I've got to stop quoting stuff from memory. Worked
ten years ago, doesn't work now.
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oddie
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response 239 of 298:
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Jan 15 05:02 UTC 2001 |
"started to feel like a character in a Borges story."
What a great description. :-)
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md
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response 240 of 298:
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Jan 15 14:18 UTC 2001 |
Thanks. I was thinking of "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius," where the
narrator finds a long article on Uqbar in a bootleg edition of an
encyclopedia, but then can't find it in the original edition and,
what's much worse, can't find any reference to Uqbar anywhere else.
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md
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response 241 of 298:
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Jan 15 14:38 UTC 2001 |
Btw -- continuing the Borders bashing from another conference -- I was
at the big Borders in Farmington Hills a few days ago while I still had
Matthew Arnold on the brain, so I decided to see what they were
carrying by Arnold. Answer: absofuckinglutely nothing. Not one volume
of poems, no prose, no biography, no criticism. Nada. I don't even
want to know who else they don't carry anymore. It went from Maya
Angelou to John Ashberry, as I recall.
(A blind item in the old Spy magazine told about a "respected American
poet" who, when was asked by a student at an Ivy League reading what he
thought about some poem by Maya Angelou, replied that he had never read
anything by Maya Angelou. When the student expressed shock, he
said, "But nobody actually reads Maya Angelou. She's one of those
poets whose sole function is to be taught in schools.")
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oddie
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response 242 of 298:
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Jan 16 04:26 UTC 2001 |
re240 - yes, I know the story. Last year in English we got to write one
"research paper" on any topic we liked, and I did Borges.
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