Use this item to discuss whatever you might be reading. Tell us what you liked and didn't like!297 responses total.
Picked up a copy of "Paper Lion" the other day. This is the story of George Plimpton time as a rookie at the 1964(?) Detroit Lions training camp. Lots of fun, though I' m sure the language would be a lot bluer than it was here.
I'm reading "The Wallet of Kau Ling". Anyone else ever try that?
I'm still working on NAME OF THE ROSE, which is good if you don't mind being made to feel like an intellectual midget. "Hi, I'm Umberto Eco and I know +everything+. Here, let me show you."
Still reading "V." by Thomas Pynchon.. I keep hitting a brick wall. This happened to me once before, earlier in the book, and it took me a while to get around it. Once I got past, though, it was smooth sailing for about 100 pages.. If that's the case here, I should make it clear to the finish this time. Also, I've borrowed my roommate's "Complete Works of Oscar Wilde" so I can read some of his stuff that I hadn't read before.
Just finished "Pillar's of the Earth" by Ken Follet. I thought it was excellent.
Started _Many Sleepless Nights_, a book about organ transplants, their effect on people, and how society views the whole subject. I think it will be a very intersting book.
Just finished _The Difference Engine_ by Willam Gibson and Bruce Sterling, it wasn't worth it, although I did love the idea and what they did at the end of the book. Gibson, get back to _Neuromancer_ quality! Just started _Wildcards_ good, but looks comic-bookish and suffers from the 1001 sequels syndrome.
NAME OF THE ROSE was excellent (MUCH better than the movie), though I preferred FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM.
I just finished _Tehanu_. I hadn't realized Le Guin had written another Earthsea book. Read the first three when I was seven or eight (and again later). I dug those out and read them again earlier this week. The last resembles the earlier only somewhat. A decent book, if a bit hung up in theme and message rather than story. Now I'm going to read _The Cuckoo's Egg_ by Cliff Stohl. Should be interesting :)
re #9: The Cuckoo's Egg is much better than I had feared before reading it (and is, in fact, pretty good) but it has really attracted more attention than is good for it..
I've decided to try "Ulysses" by James Joyce. I figure after getting through "Atlas Shrugged", this should be a piece of cake!
<keats makes that funny boat-engine noise through the lips denoting extreme amusement> er, i think you're in for a surprise, hawkeye. let me give you a hint. joyce once commented that he spent ten years writing _ulysses_, so he thought the reader could spend at least that much time reading it. he wasn't kidding.
Maybe he should warm up with "Gravity's Rainbow". So, does anyone here actually claim to have read "Finnegan's Wake"? I hope not..
i haven't bothered yet, but i've been through joyce's other stuff. i'm sure i'll get to it in the next year or two...i specialize in other areas, so i can't really make it a priority. i'm told it's more obscure than _ulysses_, but otherwise, much like it. except perhaps among hardcore joyceans, i think the consensus with the literati is that _ulysses_ is better. (obscurity is a plus when you're a specialist...)
(have you even looked at Finnegan's Wake? I've read parts of Ulysses and while I won't claim that I understand it fully at least it's readable. In Finnegan's Wake most of the sentences don't make any sense (at least not in English. If you have a massive Joycean -> English concordance, perhaps they're decipherable.) It's always been my understanding that Ulysses is supposed to be better, too. I haven't even read all of Dubliners, though.)
The last major thing I finished reading was also *The Name of the Rose.* Whew! I have to admit that I did skip several pages at a time when it got down to discussions of philosophy. But very good. Yes, better than the movie, though now I think I'm going to rent the movie again to compare it more closely with the book. I wonder how much of it was Adso of Melk's writing and how much was Eco's. Right now I'm at my in-between-books stage where I read anthologies or re- read other things until another big project catches my eye.
STeve, let me know how _Many Sleepless Nights_ comes out. It's an interesting subject to me since I've known several people who have had kidney transplants and a couple of people who have had pancreas transplants. It is also interesting how differnet segments of society view transplants. My husband used to lecture to high schoolers about signing up to donate organs after death and there are some people (adults too) who believe that if you have it on the back of your license that you'll donate organs, that the E.M.T.s will not try as hard to revive you or save you from death. Movies like Body Parts don't help matters either. There are people who will believe that plot.
(thats incredible. Yes, I'll let you know how it comes out).
A couple nights ago, for a quick-and-dirty read, I sat down and read "The Killer Inside Me" by Jim Thompson. It was pretty pulpy, but entertaining. I can see why he has a small cult following.
(Um, all of it was Eco's writing, I believe.) _Tehanu_ was terrible. LeGuin has gone from the original Tao philosophy that powered the other Earthsea books to pseudofeminist maternalism. (You know--the sexes should be equal, even though men are evil and warlike, while women are soft and nurturing....)
Re: Finnegan's Wake. Two hints: 1) If you open the book at the front you're looking at the middle of the novel, and 2) It makes sense if heard, but not read.
Hey mike! I keep getting stuck on Gravity's Rainbow. Which is odd because I really DO like the writing in it. Hmm. I am reading "The Dharma Bums" by Jack Kerouac. I have been enjoying reading other things besides his "On the Road", though I will admit that his writing style is pretty consistent so far. It is a nice depiction of a period of time and a mindset though. I also finished not too long ago "The Quiet Pools" by Mike Kube-McDowell . He is a friend of mine who happens to be up for a HUGO award for best novel this year for that book. And the nice thing is I really enjoyed it a lot. I reccomend it. Good read and raises some interesting questions. I want to get some more Milan Kundera or Josef Sckvorecky (?) to read
Let's see, whenever I'm not wasting away my life on line, I've been reading TOO HOT TO HANDLE, Frank Close's account of the Cold Fusion story, and THE FAR AWAY MAN, aYellowthread Street mystery by William Marshall. The Close book is entertaining but badly edited; there is a lot of repetition! The most interesting tidbit in the book is an account of the *last* time someone discovered cold fusion, back in the 1920s... at the time it was sought as a source for cheap helium for airships, and Ernest Rutherford was a leader among the debunkers. I have loved all the previous books in the Marshall series (this is about #8), but this one is somewhat weak. Marshall's formula disperses his detectives among three problems, one of which is very grim and the other two are pretty funny. The funny ones wrap up about 2/3rds of the way through the book, freeing up those detectives to provide added firepower in what usually becomes a very violent climax. (I don't suppose anyone here would have read Marshall's new book, THE NEW YORK DETECTIVE, set in 1880?)
I recently read _Xenocide_, which is the third book in Orson Scott Card's series that began with _Ender's Game_. It's not as good as the other two, I think, but it was a good read, anyway. That man can WRITE! Griz
Re 24. I'm looking forward to that one. I very much like Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead.
re 25. If you're nice to me, I'll let you borrow mine...
Is it out in paper back?
Just came out a few weeks ago in hardcover...be a year or so, I'm sure.
Yes, I spent the *gasp* $21.95 to get it in hardcover, read it, and then gave it to my sister as her bridesmaid's gift. I told her I had already read it and she said she would have worried about me if I hadn't. :) Griz
One of my favorite sf authors is Octavia Butler. If you haven't read any of her books do yourself a favor! I love everything I;ve read of hers so far but I reccomend starting with her Xenogenisis series. Dawn, Imago, and... forget the other.
Up to about page 60 in Ulysses. Only another 600 to go... I'm hoping the dirty parts start soon... I have only been defeated once by a book. I tried to read "The Bible" once waaaay back in grade school. Couldn't do it. Since then I've always finished everything I've started - no matter how bad. My only concern is if I'm actually going to read it all without reading something else in the middle of it.
I'm still reading Midnight, by Dean Koontz. I also have another Koontz book waiting by. Whispers.
I've been working on the Martha Grimes mystery "The Old Silent" for a while now. I seem to go for weeks not picking it up, and then I read 50 pages or so, and then start wasting time with magazines again. I don't know why, since I've read at least five other Grimes mysteries each in fairly short order.
Cockoo's Egg was okay. Kinda went in tired circle for the last half, though.
If you like Octavia Butler, pick up _Wild Seed_. Not part of a series, but a fairly good book.
This response has been erased.
A friend of Janice's loaned us a book-on-tape of "Seeing Voices," read by the author, Oliver Sacks. Sacks did not look or sound ANYTHING like I expected. (His appearance, I mean, based on accompanying photo.) Anyway, the book is wonderful, and I recommend it. Everything that Sacks has written is extremely fascinating. He's a neurologist who writes about people with various deficits: in "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat," he described people with various kinds of neurological disorders and what they tell us about us. "Seeing Voices" is about the deaf, and though it consists of a combination of history and neurology, is extremely moving.
I just turned my wife on to Orson Scott Card with "The Folk of the Fringe". Anyone else read that?
Yep. Good book. Griz
I just finished _Those Who Hunt the Night_, by Hambly. Don't bother. (Instead, read George R. R. Martin's _Fevre Dream_.) I have Student Trial Advocacy Program tryouts next Thursday, so I'm currently reading lots of books on cross-examination.
The biggest problem with _Those who Hunt the Night_ was the fact that when the name of the killer was revealed, the reader said: "Huh?" His name had been mentioned only once before in the book, and of course no one had any idea who he was. Griz
No, that's not the _biggest_ problem, though you're right....Hambly's "Victorian" "history" is terrible, the characters' speech (with the exceptions of Grippen and Bully Joe) is patheticallly anachronistic, and I'm sorry, but even in 1907 people were still quite sexist.
I'm reading _Item_#8_. Just finished it, in fact. I couldn't put it down. I'm thinking about loaning it out, but I don't know if it'll be returned to me afterwords.
What, pray tell, is _Item #8_?
You're kidding, right STeve?
Oh farkle. I thought it meant a *book*. Rule #13,749.1: Never confer on a computer when brain dead.
Anyone read that new Tom Clancy book yet?
Actually Wild Seed is sort of part of a series. Octavia Butler wrote other books with the same character in them. Only one I can think of. I'll try to hunt up the name. I find Butler s argh. Butler's treatment of Aliens thoughtful. In the Xenogenesis series the aliens don't exactly torment the humans and the same is true of her excellent short story Blood Games. It just takes thought to read her. You definately don't get easy Good Guys Bad Guys in her writing.
Really? I only saw the one book, and it's not part of a "series" (at least it's not a sequel to anything).
_Item_#8_ is by Isaac Asimov. It later, loosely became the movie _Short_Circuit_ with Ally Sheedy.
This response has been erased.
I just read the last Amber novel (so far) by Roger Zelazny, _Knight of Shadows_. I re-read the first three over the last few days, and went out and bought this one tonight (beating the buzzer at Borders by about a minute). Anyway, another good book. It reads a little funny, though. I'm glad to have some of the damned loose ends tied up, finally, but these cliffhangers are really starting to bug me. I remember now why I waited so long to buy this one. Major cliffhangers are quite depressing if the resolution is not forthcoming for a couple of years. Fast pacing, decent storytelling, a little heavy on the complexity at times, but very enjoyable...then wham! another end-of-book. This was a little more resolving than the rest, but I hate just cutting off like that. Now I'll have to read them all again when the next one comes out, dammit.
I just finished reading _Laughable Loves_ by Milan Kundera. It's a collection of short stories on men-women relationships. Some of the stories were good, but others were kind of depressing. The book I am reading now is _Workplace 2000_. This book has some interesting insights on how work is changing, and what people should expect over th next ten years. I'd recommend it to just about everyone (especially when you can check it out of the library for nothing).
_Great_Cat_Tales_ about a dozen and a half short stories about cats. Runyon, Twain, Wodehouse, Kipling, (Those kind of guys.)
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe Good, but more loosely written than I would have liked. Dubliners, James Joyce I found interesting in the descriptions of the characters, pretty depressing, however. Red Storm Rising- just started. Portable Darkness, selected Crowley writings- don't know what to think yet. Native Son, Just started.
I just went book-crazy at Afterwords (hey - nice hardcovers for $4?) Currently reading Orson Scott Card's Wyrms. Has some definite similarity to portions of Xenocide.
Just finished Sara Paretsky's first novel, "Indemnity Only." Really quite good, and especially impressive in the light of her novicehood at the time (I can tell I'm up way past my bedtime when I start using words like novicehood). I just started the most recent Sue Grafton novel, "'H' is for Homicide."
Not bad, that one. Not brilliant, but not bad.
(H, that is)
I just re-read Margaret Atwood's _Cat's Eye_. Although I love her writing in general, this has got to be one of her best. Definitely something to check out if you haven't read it before. Griz
If you haven't read THE PRICE OF SALT, do so.
Gave up on "Ulysses". Maybe I'll be in the mood another time. Picked up a book of short stories by Joe Lansdale called "By Bizarre Hands". J.L. is one of the "splatterpunk" authors. The collection is not very good, though.
Try something by Ray Garton, like METHODS OF MADNESS or CRUCIFAX AUTUMN. Garton is an excellent writer, especially in the 'splatterpunk' genre.
I am Finally finishing Catch 22. I reread "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison recently. I really think it is one of the finest books written. Fantastic writing, strong important story, .... wow. Read Handmaid's Tale not too long ago and felt somewhat exhausted after reading it. Made me think though. I am just about to start reading Tom Robbins. I have had one too many people tell me he is a must read. So I am starting with Another Roadside Attraction/.
I found Catch 22 to be an amazingly funny and sometimes confusing book.
Right now I'm reading a collection of Tolstoy short stories with the amazingly original title of "Leo Tolstoy: Short Stories Volume Two" I love Tolstoy's short stories, especially the itty-bitty anarcho-communist fables.
This response has been erased.
Ah yes, "The Womens' Room." I found it intensely depressing, and I'm not sureit offers any grounds for optimism. <polygon sighs> I don't agree that times have changed all that much since the book was written.
re #64, I agree with yoon "Invisible Man", a lot of Ellison's images still stick in my mind when that book is mentioned. Have you read any of Richard Wright's books? They're similar in natureut also biographical, which makes the reader thankful that they didn't have to experience Wright's childhood.
I am about half-way through _Rivethead_ by Ben Hamper. It is an autobiography, and tells the story of growing up in Flint as the son of an alcoholic, assembly-line worker and then working in the plants after shuffling through highThis is a very interesting, if depressing look at factory life.
I'm just about to start +Whose Side Are You On? Trying To Be For Labor When It's Flat On Its Back+ by Geoghegan. Since it looks like I may be heading for labor law, I'd like to find out what I'm getting into.
How can you be "heading for" it, when you don't know what it's about?
"may be" is the operative phrase.
Just this evening I've begun reading _The Catcher in the Rye_
Reading _The great and Secret Show_, by Clive Barker (no relation to Bob...) Been interesting so far, if a bit slower than most of his books.
I liked it less than _The Damnation Game_, but more than _Weaveworld_. Personally I think Barker does much better with horror than with fantasy, but that's just me. re:72, knowing "what it's about" and "what I'm getting into" are two different things. However, I highly recommend the Geoghegan book.
I'm recommending "Last Chance to See," by Douglas Adams, et. al. Adams is best known for his humorous SF novels, notably the "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy." This book is non-fiction. It is a journal about travels to the corners of the earth to locate some of the rarest endangered species on the planet. In many cases, the "host" countries (Indonesia, New Zealand, Zaire, etc.) have tried to protect and conserve their endangered species via eco- tourism. Adams's wicked wit and clear eyes describes the dangers to these habitats that such changes bring. Better than poaching, perhaps; yet not as most conservators would prefer. A wonderful book. A *must* read. Fabulous. Entertaining. Riveting. Funny and sad at the same time. (Disclaimer: This reviewer is in no way connected with the author or publisher. All models over 18. Some settling of contents may occur during shipping. Simulated Picture. If condition persists, contact your physician. Slightly higher in California.)
(your actual mileage may vary)
(void where prohibited by law)
(residents of third-world nations, please add 173% sales tax.)
This response has been erased.
I am afraid that I tend to agree with polygon. Things haven't changed
enough since "Women's Room". (But that is when I am feeling down.
When I am feeling less depressed I say Well things HAVE gotten
better.) I guess it is a long struggle.
I loved Catcher in the Rye. SOmehow I had managed to miss
that in all my various lit classes and tdh loaned it to me.
Since I love most of the Salinger I have read (especially "9 Stories")
it wasn't really a surprise to like it.
Glad to hear you think I've picked a good Robbins to start with
popcorn. I'll be sure to enter my reaction if I ever make time
to read again. sigh.
Hmm, I read the Women's Room when it first came out in paperback (however long ago that was) and became very depressed. I guess I'd have to read it again to see if I think the world has changed much or at all. Not sure if I want to inflict that depression on myself again, though.
This response has been erased.
When I am reading a book, whether wise or silly, it seems to me to be alive and talking to me.
"Read me! READ ME!!!" "Aaaaigh!"
I just finished _The RivitHead_ by Ben Hamper. According to two people
I know who worked in auto factories, he has it down just right. Fairly
depressing, but funny too.
Next: _The Reckoning_ a book on the auto companies.
I was just in a bookstore and checked out the books on tape - The shortest complete book was 15 hours. Damn. That (ahem) That's about 3 times as long as it would take to actually read the book. I think I'll get one the next time I do a long road trip, though.
get the one with pictures. it's shorter.
And nobody seems to be carrying _Final Exit_.
Give 'em time. I just wonder, do they read really slowly, or something? Or do they read dramatically? I've heard some authors who do there own books are quite lively...
No, they read at a normal comfortable (to listen to) rate. The more dramatic readers are of course more interesting to listen to, but even if the reader has a boring, monotone voice, if the plot is good, you'll stay hooked just like with a regular book. Jack Nicholson has read some children's stories from Kippling lately but these are a disappointment if you're expecting the "Shining" type of voice. One thing to note about taped books, it's next to impossible to skim or skip ahead to the exciting parts which is one of the reasons the reading by tape process takes so long.
As a gift, I got a certificate from "Books on Tape". There are plenty of books that come under 10 hours. We rented an Ellery Queen mystery that was 8 hours long.
Those are the annotated ones, though, usually.
All the ones from "Books on Tape" are full length versions. Granted, there are plenty of 18 hours sets, but those are for the really long books like "The Stand".
Really? When I browsed in the store, about one in ten was unabridged. The rest were chop jobs. Maybe those 1's in 10's were the "Books on Tape" ones.
This response has been erased.
re #94: Don't you mean abridged? Annotated ones would be even longer -- and pretty distracting and difficult to listen to.
Yeah, I caught that, and said abridged in #96. :) Slip of the tongue.
I just started "The Devouring Fungus: Tales of the Computer Age", which I picked up for $1.98 at AfterWords this evening. So far it seems to be pretty entertaining. The first part of the book is a history of computers and the second part seems to be filled with stories and anecdotes about computers. I don't know that I'd want to pay the $10.95 original price for it (trade paperback) but for $2 it seems well worth it.
Hmmn...I was there tonight and missed that. Where was it?
In the computer/technology section. I finished it last night (it's only about 200 pages) and enjoyed it a reasonable amount. Not as good as "Hackers" by Stephen Levy, but still interesting.
This response has been erased.
Shouldn't it be _A Grex of Gargoyles_? That sounds better.
I'm reading the second collection of top ten lists from "Late Night with David Letterman." It's a good way to take entertaining breaks from the pain and misery of graduate study ;).
This response has been erased.
i'm crawling a few minutes and pages each night before going to sleep through carole nelson douglas's _good night, mr. holmes_ (the title is responsibly misquoted from "a scandal in bohemia," of course). for those of you who don't know, it's the story of irene adler, "the woman," i.e., the only one holmes ever noticed--because she happened to outwit him. i'm only a bit over a hundred pages in, so my commentary is tenative. but i'm finding the construction of the narrator/detective relationship to be very derivative, too obviously so, of douglas' own (mis)understanding of the watson/holmes relationship. as well, irene doesn't seem like quite the same character she was in "scandal." there is too much trying to parallel her intellectually with holmes rather than developing her chameleonlike actress's abilities and her innate understanding into people and even situations--ironically, perhaps, she is a very masculine character indeed for the period, especially coming from a woman author. having said all that, i nonetheless feel they are not only tenative, but minor quibbles. i'm enjoying the book immensely and do recommend it.
I'm well into my second reading of G.I. Gilman's "Moonwise", and am just as impressed with it as I was the first time through. It is one of my very favorite books. It is beautiful. And difficult. But unlike "Ulysses", the difficulty is an integral part of the beauty and of the story, not just an intellectual challenge. It is more poem than prose, so don't expect rapid plot development. Nor clear, straightforward descriptions of characters' personalities. Just beautiful, complex ones, that have to be divined from the pattern of metaphor and action. Is it worth the effort? Only if you are jaded with contemporary fantasy, or are looking for that same magical transport that childhood fairy tales or JRR Tolkien, unfamiliar, gave.
Finished _Crooked Tree_ and now on _Podkayne of Mars_ by Heinlein. Worth reading again as an adult after 20 something years last.
Am now reading Carrie Fisher's "Surrender the Pink." Very funny, very good. As good as her "Postcards from the Edge," which was a lousy movie, as they altered the plot and storyline. She's a far better writer than actress, even if she made buns on the ears famous.
I just picked up Pynchon's "Vineland" from the Borders remaindered table for the incredibly low price of only $3.98. I didn't get a ginsu knife set with it but it is the hardcover edition and looks decently bound. I've been waiting to pick it up but to get the hardcover for less than a mass market paperback was irresistable.
This response has been erased.
Sure. Perhaps "quaint" is a good word for it. I haven't remembered this book as well as I have others. Poddy is a bit believeable, but Clark I find too much, for a kid of his age. Does the book portray Podkayne in a way that we would consider patronizing today? Probably. Does the book portray her in an advanced position at the time it was published? Probably. So what might have been forward thinking 30+ years ago is quaint today. The ending was pretty bad, I think. Podkayne should have died at the end, and did, originally. _Grumbles from the Grave_ talks about this some.
This response has been erased.
I just finished (after Glenda) _The Mummy_ by Anne Rice. Woww!
This response has been erased.
"Thomas the Rhymer", by Ellen Kushner, is a good read. It's a retelling of the old legend, in unbowdlerized form. It's well written, the characters are more complex than the usual fantasy/sf cutouts, and ... well, it's a classic tale. Besides, how many fantasy novels do you know with a plug by Maddy Prior of Steeleye Span, on the back cover?
Currently reading _The Quite Pools_ by Micheal Kube-McDowell. Gets better each page, I think. More later.
I know him! I know him! <griz beams widely, then kicks herself for dropping names>
Yup, and a pretty nice person, too. The fun part was that Glenda and I were at a party once when Mike was picking out names for the Starships in the book. Memphis was my favorite--glad to see it got in.
RE #117. Do we have another Steeleye Span fan on board?
Me. Haven't heard them much, but I've loved what I've heard.
Take it to music! :-)
#121. Absolutely.
This response has been erased.
Faludi, _Backlash_. Go get it. Really neat, not "man-bashing", and she backs up everything with cites and sources.
This response has been erased.
This response has been erased.
Whew! Us conspirators are safe for a while...
In fact, she states right up front that there is NO Evil Conspiracy plotting to undermine women...and also points out that many of the leading anti-feminists are women who have full-time jobs in male- dominated professions, put their kids in day care, etc.
I just finished reading _Slouching Towards Bethlehem_, a collection of essays written in the 60s by Joan Didion. For some reason, I had the impression whe was a novelist in the Danielle Steele/Jackie Collins vein, but she is a great essayist. I bet her novels are pretty good, too.
This response has been erased.
Hmm.. I almost wandered in their earlier. I was picking something up at the Krogers there and was mysteriously seized with an impulse to go book shopping (for something by Stanislaw Lem, I think..)
Just finished _Donald Duk_ by Frank Chin. It is a funny story about a kid growing up in SF's Chinatown who would rather be Fred Astaire than a Chinatown kid. The story is basically about how the kid discovers his Chinese-ness. Funny story. It's available from the AA Public Library (or it will be after I return the book).
This response has been erased.
last night when I went to bed, and before I went to sleep this morning. I read _The Rowen_ by Ann Mcaffery. It was enjoyable.
I recently read "A Confederacy of Dunces," by John Kennedy Toole, which I heartily recommend. It is one of the funniest novels I've ever read, and at the same time manages to be an excellent book. It is loaded with hilarious characters and situations, all stemming from the mis- guided (and somewhat tragic) antics of the book's hero, Ignatius J. Reiley. It is an interesting story about the author. In desperation at his failure for not being able to publish his book, he committed suicide. Several years later, through much persistance, his mother got the book published. Again, I greatly recommend it, you will not be disappointed.
(even more ironically, Toole was awarded a pulitzer prize posthumously for "A Confederacy of Dunces"..)
I recently saw in a book store in New York another book written by him, "The Neon Bible," apparently when he was sixteen years old. Makes you wonder what kind of a genius was lost.
oh chatterton! how very sad thy fate! dear child of sorrow! son of misery! how soon the film of death obscur'd that eye, whence genius wildly flash'd, and high debate! how soon that voice, majestic and elate, melted in dying murmurs! o how nigh was night to thy fair morning! thou didst die a half-blown flower, which cold blasts amate. but this is past. thou art among the stars of highest heaven; to the rolling spheres thou sweetly singest--nought thy hymning mars above the ingrate world and human fears. on earth the good man base detraction bars from thy fair name, and waters it with tears!
I'm currently working on a Martha Grimes mystery, "The Old Contemptibles." I've read about six of her Superintendent Richard Jury mysteries, and they are all terrific. Only one complaint: Sometimes the plot becomes rather mysterious itself, in an englishy sort of way. Grimes writes mysteries in the british style (set in England), even though she is an American who lives in Baltimore, MD.
I'm reading _Damon Runyon: A Life_ by Jimmy Breslin. It's an interesting book, but the writing is tough to read. Breslin jumps from one incident to another in a very odd fashion.
God help me, I just re-started reading "Gravity's Rainbow" (yes, re-started reading, not started re-reading..) Maybe this time I'll make it a couple of hundred pages farther.. I'm at a loss to explain why I've run out of steam on past attempts, since it's quite enjoyable reading, but it's definitely substantially harder than his other books (for those who haven't read any Pynchon, I recommend "The Crying of Lot 49" as a starting point.. Excellent, hilarious, and bizarre book that's definitely worth checking out..) The last thing I read was "Hocus Pocus", by Kurt Vonnegut, which was quite enjoyable.. Before that it was "Appointment in Samarra" by John O'Hara, which was also worth reading, though perhaps a bit depressing since at the time I was feeling overly-dramatic and drawing parallels between my life and that of the main character..
Chris absolutely *hated* _Gravity's Rainbow_. Said it had no worth whatsoever.
Well, I've never made it far enough into the novel to tell, though I've made it to some priceless parts.. It seems pretty cool to me, just long and deliberately unfocused. Pynchon's style can take some getting used to, especially his tendency to overload the reader's capacity to keep track of what's going on. Rereading the books (or at least parts that were difficult to follw) after your brain has had a chance to cool down helps a lot. Out of curiosity, had he (and enjoyed) any other Pynchon first, or did he go into "Gravity's Rainbow" cold? I've enjoyed the other Pynchon novels I've read quite a bit, but I can't see enjoying "Gravity's Rainbow" very much if I just had to read it for a class and wasn't warmed up for it first..
I hadn't read any Pynchon when I started Gravity's Rainbow, for fun. I wasn't impressed, and didn't bother to finish it. 'Course, I don't really like John Cage, either....
Really, give "The Crying of Lot 49" a try.. It's no where near as impenetrable as "Gravity's Rainbow" and only about 180 pages (if that..) rather than GR's >750pp..
Re #145: He had to read it for a class, a long time ago. He was quite a prude at the time, still, so that might have had something to do with it ...
John Varley has *finally* published again! His new novel is _Steel Beach_, and is the first thing he's done in years. It is, as usual, thought-provoking, funny, imaginative and interesting. For instance, butterflies with space suits...real, ordinary Monarch butterflies, given space suits, so that they can fly on the Moon. I suspect that it is one of his more personal, autobiographical works, which is part of what makes the book both very good and somewhat disappointing. Unfortunately, a few parts of the novel are unbearably trite (which was a surprise). But the novel is worth reading, for the many, many good parts. I even feel that it was worth buying, hardcover.
Well, I finished "The Old Contemptibles," and as usual, I am slightly mystified. Grimes never explains quite thoroughly *why* the person that did it *did it*. I mean, the motivation was just not quite clear. Oh well, it was still a good read.
Orson Scott Card: Maps in a Mirror. I'm in the middle of this marvelous
anthology of Card's short fiction, and can highly recommend it!
The Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison. I'm told this is
hard to find, but again I thoroughly recommend it. Ellison's stories about the
new gods of our life are chilling. You'll recognize some: Pretty Maggie
Money-eyes, The Deathbird, etc.
De Gaulle, the Rebel, by Jean laCouture. An interesting biography of
Charles De Gaulle. It also gives some interesting perspectives on WWII,
Roosevelt and Churchill. Beware its biass! It's volume I, II is De Gaulle the
Ruler, which I've not read yet.
Polyphemus by Michael Shea. Some good short fiction, some less so, but it
contains The Coroner, which ranks up there as one of the best pieces of horror
fiction ever written.
Chris
_Guerilla Financing_ by Levinson and Blechman. Who knows? I may just be able to start my own business after all.
This response has been erased.
"Unix Programmer's Manual : Supplemental Documents" (I'm reading an exciting short story: "Screen Programming with Curses")
(Yes, the author of that one does tend to wax enthusiastic, doesn't he!)
Jeez you guys, and I thought I needed to get out more often! <g>
I've just started rereading what many
call "The Trilogy" i.e "The Lord of the Rings."
I intended to reread it earlier this fall, but
I was at the mercy of the NLS which didn't
have any copies for months, and then
I got three whole sets, plus 1 extra 'The Return of the King"
chris
I am now officially at the halfway mark in my current book,"the novel" by James A. (I like to write) Michener.
I am eagerly reading the AmigaWorld Offical AmigaDOS 2 Companion. It's surprisingly well written and accessible to the only semi-computer literate, like myself.
I hear that the AmigaDos 3.0 manuals are even better.
I'm reading "Bluebeard," by Kurt Vonnegut, upon the recommendation of a friend. Any Vonnegut fans out there? What do you recommend?
I really enjoyed his _Galapagos_. I read it on a hot beach with hardly anyone else around. This made it a Panoramic read, of sorts. I just finished _A Thousand Acres_, by Jane Smiley. I'd taken my time with this one, reading it in measured bites. It was that intense. One of the best books I've read in a long, long time.
"Generation X" very funny, cutting look at 90's life.
re 160: you might find "Hocus Pocus" interesting.
Yes, I liked "Hocus Pocus" (the fact that I picked up the harcover for $4 or so at Afterwords didn't hurt..)
I just had the oddd experience of reading the Electric Kool-aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe. What made it more interesting was that I recently read Carouac's On The Road. The two had some things in common, though I think Wolfe got more of the flavor of the scene. Very interesting, a little hard going, but all in all, worth the effort.
I didn't make it farther than the third chapter of Electric-Acid Kool-Aid Test. I just couldn't make sense of it.
I just read an interesting book. Here is an adaptation of the
review I wrote for my magazine, Test & Measurement World, an
electronics trade journal. I think may of you will find it
interesting and useful. I got it at the library downtown, so you
don't even have to buy it.
Read This Book!
One of the most interesting books I've read lately is _Follow the
Yellow Brick Road: Learning to Give, Take, and Use Instructions_
by Richard Saul Wurman. Despite the title, it's more than just a
"how-to" book on giving and taking instructions. It's about human
nature as much as it is about instructions.
Why should you care about giving and (especially) taking
instructions? Think about it. Giving, taking, and carrying out
instructions occupies most of your work day.
When your boss gives you a project, he is giving you
instructions. You must then take those instructions and translate
them into a schematic for a test circuit, a computer program, or
maybe an operating manual. What are these? They are simply other
forms of instructions. Your success depends on how well you carry
out instructions from above and how well you give instructions to
those under you.
How well you carry out these tasks depends on how well you
understood the instructions given to you and how well folks
understand your instructions. This is where human nature fits in.
There are many barriers to understanding instructions, and most
of them have something to do with human nature. The words we use,
our body language, our ethnic heritage, and many other factors
affect our ability to give and take instructions.
Wurman then goes on to show us how to do it right. In the chapter
"Instruction Construction 101," he gives us the seven elements of
a good instruction:
- Mission (Why are you doing this?),
- Destination (Where will you be or what will
you have when you're done?)
- Procedure (How do you do it?)
- Time (How long will it take to do it?)
- Anticipation (What happens along the way?)
- Failure (What to do is something goes wrong?)
How you implement these elements depends on the type of
instructions you're trying to give. Writing a computer manual is
going to be very different than telling a passing motorist how to
get to the mall.
This is one of those books that works on many different levels
simultaneously. It not only tells you how to give and take
instructions better, but why you should give instructions in
certain ways, and why instruction-giving and instruction-taking
is so important. That is what makes this such an interesting and
useful book.
@I{Follow the Yellow Brick Road: Learning to Give, Take, and Use
Instructions} by Richard Saul Wurman. Bantam Books, 666 Fifth
Avenue, New York, NY 10103. ISBN 0-553-07425-3. 1992. 388 pages.
Price: $25.
Sounds like a good one, Dan--thanks for the review.
The thing about EKAT is that you can't really understand it until you have finished it. There isn't much intermediate coherence. This is deliberately done, Wolfe is trying to turn Ken Kesey from an acid-head into some sort of mythic folk hero. It's interesting to watch him try and maybe succeed.
MAM-ista by Len Deighton: I give this book a hmmm. I very much liked his double trilogy "game set and match" and "hook line and sinker", though the second set of names sacrificed sense for cuteness. I've read a fair amount of his other stuff, and nothing else has measured up for me. I'm told that SSGB is that good.
Move On by Linda Ellerby. This one's a winner. She can write! It's a sequel to "And So It Goes" which I haven't read. In it she talks about her experiences with "five networks, four husbands, two children and ..." I can't remember the last part of the summary. She also writes about alcoholism, (hers and her father's) writing, her childhood, how her friend was eaten by a television and much more. The writing is at times witty, ascerbic, moving and terribly sad, but it's always hers. I recommend this one to anyone.
Hey! Did everyone stop reading for the winter? The latest novel for me is _The Joy Luck Club_ by Amy Tan. I got it at the AA Library Sale for 50 cents. It's a very good book. It describes the lives of Chinese immigrants and their "Americanized" offspring. I could really relate to this book. Change the Chinese names to Slovak names and you have the generation that migrated to America from Eastern Europ around the turn of the century.
My wife forced John Grisham's "The Pelican Brief" on me saying she put it down after 40 pages because the writing style offended her. Not one to back away from a challenge like that, I read it. Certainly no great literary shakes, but it was enough that I finished it. Reads like a screenplay with numerous 5 page chapters. Very little suspense and none of the characters were more than caricatures.
I just bought "Elvis is Dead, and I don't feel so good myself" and "Chili Dawgs always bark at night" by Lewis Grizzard, perhaps the best southern author in recent memory.
re #173: Grisham sure is popular. In the latest Publisher's Weekly, _The Client_ is #1 for hardback fiction, _The Pelican Brief_ is #1 in paperback fiction, and _The Firm_ is #2 in paperback fiction. Every where you go people seem to be reading those books.
re :173, :175, he's sort of like Stephen King -- exaggerated characters, high-action plots, big overshadowing of Good and Evil in the background. I've read a couple of his books, and wished I hadn't. There's better (and less sexist) mind-candy out there.
I've sort of stalled on the stuff I'm currently reading -- I bit off
much more than I can chew.. The books sitting next to my bed (it'd be
a stretch at this point in time to say that I'm actually reading them)
include Umberto Eco's "Foucalt's Pendulum", an excerpt from Thomas Aquinas'
"Summa Theologica" ("Treatise On Law", basically Aquinas' ramblings on
the role of law in society..), and Adobe's "Postscript Language Reference
Manual". Probably what will happen is I'll read some sort of fluff novel
to build up momentum and then try and plow further into "Foucalt's Pendulum".
_Information Anxiety_ by Saul Wurman. An excellent book on how to deal with information, both the information we are deluged with each day and the information we generate for others.
_Foucalt's Pendulum_ was an excellent book, as was _The Name of the Rose_ both of course by Eco. _FP_ was difficult at first because of my unfarmiliarity with some of the concepts, and Eco's zealous use of overly complex words and constructions. But it eases up a bit; after I struggled through the first 100 pages, I couldn't put it down until it was all over. Then I went into my standard post-novel book withdrawl. Most recently read: _Snow Crash_ by Neal Stephanson. Highlt recommended for Japanimation, Cyberspace, Futurist buffs.
Did you know that William F. Buckley Jr wrote novels? Well he has
written nine or ten. I've just read one, and surprisingly good, if you
like boy's adventure novels (my name for "action novels"). This
particular specimen is called _Tucker's _Last _Stand, and concerns a CIA
agent and a major in Special Forces stationed in Vietnam in 1964 during
the critical up to and after the mysterious "attack" at the Gulf of
Tonkin. Buckley can tell a good story, though his prose gets a bit
labored at times, and his writing about sex scenes is just funny; it
reminds me of a better-educated Lustbader. (Yes I admit it, I've read the
Ninja books. <blush>) All in all, I'd give it a solid B-.
_People _in _Trouble, by Sara Schulman: A-. This book tells the
story of Peter, a straight man, Kate, his bisexual wife and Molly her
lesbian lover. Now add the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic in New York City
some time in the mid eighties I'd guess. It's a fascinating look, and the
character of Kate is a neat character. It also features a cast of
wonderful characters from the New York gay community including Cardinal
(that's miss to you) Spellman, and many others, some of whom die during
the telling. The focus of the book is Kate who tries to juggle her
various lives, and who must confront AIDS as a disease that kills people
she cares about. (God I sound like the back of the book. <sigh>)
The only problem I had with the book was that the character of Peter
was almost the icon of the "liberal" homophobe. I know these people
exist, but in a work of fiction it would perhaps have been more
interesting if Peter had been less uniformly an ass hole.
Hmm, I seem to remember reading a Buckley book about 12 years ago, sort of a political thriller about a U.S. president who goes blind, and the attempts by his inner circle to conceal that fact... Come to think of it, I think that book was actually written by William Safire. Oh well, I can't quite be sure, since it was a library book. I seem to recall enjoying it, however. I just finished "'I' is for Innocent," by Sue Grafton. I'm a big Grafton fan, but I had been very disappointed in the "H" volume. "I" was a return to expected form, and the last couple of chapters were especially exciting. Now I'm about to start in on "'J' is for Judgement," her new bestseller, though I wonder if I should read some non-Grafton book in between...
You didn't like H? Why not? It was certainly different from the rest of the series. Having said that, I am looking forward to when I comes out on tape so I can read it. I hear that _J _is _for _Judgment is the next one.
I didn't like "H" because I couldn't stand Kinsey being trapped by that crazed guy for almost the entire book, and I really really hated that crazed guy (sorry I can't recall his name) whose anger was way out of proportion to whatever was offending him. I guess Kinsey being trapped by someone I couldn't stand made me feel as if *I* were trapped.
It was harder to read than some of the other Grafton books.
I'm 60 pages into "J" (I'm a slow reader) and so far I really like it a lot.
The Baseball Encyclopedia. 2,000+ pages of history and statistics. It's the kind of book you can't stop browsing once you start.
Also Judith Farr's new biography of Emily Dickinson. It's the third biography I have whose title starts with "The Passion of..." The other two are "...Ayn Rand" and "...Michel Foucault." I hate these fads. All three are interesting books, though. Ms. Dickinson's reputation surely won't be hurt by Farr's revelation that she had homoerotic tendencies.
just got _Selling The Dream_ How to Promote you product, compnay, or Ideas - and make a difference - using everday evangelism. by Guy Kawasaki Author of _The Macintosh Way_
The most excellent series I've read is the "Myth" series by Robert Aspirin. Good light hearted entertainment
re 188: I've read that book. It's great! Try sending him a fax when you get to that section. He sent me a very nice response.
I just finished "Girl, Interrupted," by Susanna Kaysen. It's a wonderfully well written, though sometimes scary, memoir of the nearly two years the author spent in a mental hospital, beginning when she was 18.
This response has been erased.
No one ever accused McCaffrey of producing literature. Honestly, she took an interesting Novella, "Weyr Search", which had won a Hugo, and turned it into a rather bad full-length novel. The rest is, as they say, marketing history. I have like some of her other work, but her Pern novels I found trite, telegraphic, and rather poor.
Re 192. Have you read the part about the nude wedding?
So, has anyone read anything in the last six or seven weeks? I just read _Susie Bright's Sexual Reality: A Virtual Sex World Reader_. I checked this one out of the library! This is a short book, and is a collection of some of her articles and short essays. Most of it was amusing, some of it thought-provoking. One chapter of the book is an interview with Camille Paglia. I really know nothing about Ms. Paglia before reading this interview. Her views sounded interesting so I got her latest book, _Sex, Art and Popular Culture_ out of the library. This book is also a collection of articles and essays. Paglia has more of an academic (read less lively and interesting) style than Bright, but this book is equally thought-provoking. Some of her views are kind of off-the-wall, but at least she's not another PC drone. Finally, after seeing innumerable articles by Wendell Berry, I decided to check out a collection of his essays. Internetters should find his books challenging because one of his main themes is that we should somehow find ways to stimulate local economies and curtail the activities of national and multi-national corporations. I can see the truth in what he has to say, but I really can't see us moving back to that system.
I've read lots of things, though few were real raves. "Harlan Ellison's Watching" was a wonderful collection of his film "reviews". "Jurrasic Park" the book was good, though I didn't think it was "better" than the film.
"The Country of the Pointed Firs" by Sarah Orne Jewett. I'm trying to read it in the hammock out in the back yard as much as possible.
"Wise Blood," by Flannery O'Connor is absolutely one of the most disturbing, pessimistic books I've ever read, but also one of the most brilliant. Any other fans out there?
I've read one book by Flannery O'Connnor, but I don't remember its title or whether I enjoyed it!
I read _The Crying of Lot 49_ by Thomas Pynchon a while ago. I really enjoyed this book. It even has something for the electronics jocks among us. Pynchon is able to weave into this story discourses on printed circuit boards and Fourier transforms.
Read "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand not too long ago. Didn't like ti as much as "Atlas Shrugged" as I thought the "romance" aspect of the book was a bit strained.
I just read "ME: Stories of my Life" by Katherine Hepburn. It's her autobiography, and while it doesn't really contain much that a Hepburn scholar could take at face value, the style and language are wonderful. I am a Hepburn fan.
The new Library of America two-volume anthology of 19th century American poetry, edited by John Hollander. Wonderful beyond wonderful. If you don't go out and buy these books immediately, you'll be sorry.
Can I wait until I'm over my cold?
No, you'd better go now ;)
I just (a day ago) finished reading Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose", which had been waiting on my bookshelf for years before I got around to it. People seeing me reading it said: "What, you hadn't read it yet?" The ending, though expected from the beginning, made a sad parallel to the more recent fate of the National & University Library in Sarajevo, with its millions of books and tens of thousands of manuscripts, including Medieval ones.
"Feminist Fatale: Voices from the Twenty-Something Generation Discuss the Future of the Women's Movement." by Paula Kamen. I'm still in the middle of this book, but it is a very interesting look at Feminism, and the anti-Feminist backlash from the point of view of people (both men and women) of my age. Kamen, a graduate of, I think, the University of Illinois Journalism school set out to find out what the twenty-somethings think about the Women's Movement, and why there are so few young voices in it. This book is the result.
_Things That Make Us Smart_ by Donald Norman. This book describes how people use artifacts to help us in our intellectual ventures. He starts out with things like pencil and paper, and will undoubtedly (I haven't gotten that far yet) talk about computers. Norman also discusses how to improve these artifacts so they serve us better.
_Four Argruments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander. I was inspired to check this book out of the library by the adver- tisiing itme in agora.
There is a discussion going on in Writing on whether to start a separate BOOKS conference. Since this is the existing books item, in arts, I'd like to ask about that here. This item would, of course, be a natural to be linked to a books conference, but a new conference would go beyond what confers have read, or are reading. The current thread over in writing is about bookbinding, and the item started with a discursive musing on antiquarian books and how books tie together disparate lives, even in most unlikely ways.
I would support a Books conf, and I would even volunteer as a co-fw.
Since a books conference would likely overlap with territory currently covered by both the arts and writing conferences, I think it's appropriate to sound out the feelings of the fw's of both conferences as part of the discussion. So I'm glad you raised the concept in the arts conference.
And speaking as the Scifi fw, I expect we'd have some overlap there as well. Yeah, I know, most people don't consider it "real" literature...
John, this conf (arts) only has one or two active items, and it is linked to agora. I never liked the idea of linking the most active item to agora, but the general feeling is agora is a better place for the Movie item. Having just one item in the conf for books is like selling one grade of gasoline; it will never reach mass appeal. I for one, would like to see a books conf, if only for the variety of topic that would be covered.
I'm not arguing for or against the concept, just stating how I think the proposal should be handled. (And I think it's being handled fine so far.)
Why not just create new items in Arts about books? When I helped create the new Arts cf. back in 1991, it wasn't intended that this would be the *only* place to discuss books, but to be used as a stepping stone. However, if I wanted to enter an item about a Sci-Fi book, I'd probably do it in Sci-Fi and *not* in "Books". I've always seen "Arts" as a very general "catch-all" cf. So, as an Arts co-fw, I'd have no objection to an item about how books are processed.
I think a book {_cf sounds fascinating.
The question of a Books cf petered out in Writing, and seems to have petered out here too. So I'm not going to push it. However I do think that newusers interested in books aren't likely to find this Item, hidden in arts/entertainment. On the other hand, there hasn't been a ground swell here or in writing from bibliophiles. Well, I could ask in agora, and see what happens.
Standard place to propose new conferences is Coop, but you seem to have discovered that.
Item #8 in arts is now linked as item #5 in books.
Hmm... This item doesn't seem to have been going anywhere, so I thought
I'd try and liven it up.
I've started up my old habit of reading several things at once.
Currently I'm reading:
1. _Death From Child Abuse... and no one heard_ by Eve Krupinski and
Dana Weikel.
A rather depressing account of the last week of the life
of five year old Ursula Sunshine Assaid, who died after 55
hours of abuse at the hands of her mother's boyfriend while
her mother did nothing to intervene.
Although the story is based on facts it is DEFINITELY
a fictionalization of what actually happened. Still, as
a book with information to present on child abuse, it is
a good source.
2. _Child Abuse_ by Ruth S. and C. Henry Kempe
One of the books of a series of books entitled The Developing
Child. This book explores many aspects of child abuse.
It also presents detailed profiles and gives the classic signs
of an abusive parent and the abused child. Another book
with much information on the subject.
3. _Endless Life: Selected Poems_ by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
This is a collection of poems from eight previous
books of poetry by Ferlinghetti.
I'm not sure what sent me in Ferlinghetti's direction, but
he is quickly becoming one of my favourite poets.
Finally, I'm also reading two books which I've read before:
4. _Love Songs_ by Sara Teasdale
Sara Teasdale has long been a favourite of mine, and the
time came to reread some of her most lasting poetry.
5. _The Journals of Sylvia Plath_ by Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath has long been my favourite poet. I read this
book several years back, and was so moved by it that
I vowed to return to it one day. That day has come.
So... what books are you reading currently?
I've read 6 horror books in the last 3-4 weeks. Give me a day or so and I'll post some quick reviews.
I'm currently reading the book that I'm quoting from in the mysterious quote item in agora, so I won't tell you what it is.
I'm reading _History of Cave Science_, but I was going to tell about it in Non-Fiction after I was done, so I won't tell about it here.
Now that the author has been guessed in the mysterious quote item, I can tell you that the book I'm reading is _Confessions of a Crap Artist - Jack Isidore (of Seville, Calif.)_, by Philip K. Dick.
The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony The Adding Machine (William Burroughs) Skinny Legs and All (Robbins) The Unexpected Universe (Eiseley)
I am reading _Like Water for Chocolate_ by Laura Esquivel. Good book, reads quickly. I finished _Having Our Say_ by Sarah and Elizabeth Delany. Both authors are over 100 years old, and if you have even a vague interest in history, try this. It's wonderful.
While the Cat's Away, by Kinky Friedman. I recommend any of his books.
Chaos--Gulick The Holograpic Universe--his name escapes me The City Who Fought--Anne McCaffrey and S.M>. Stirling (see item on the last book you read) The Wyndham Legacy--Catherine Coulter rather a mixed bag!!
Well, I'm currently reading-
_Storm Warning_ by Mercedes Lackey- about 1/2 through- and I really
Like it!!
_Chrome Circle_ also by Mercedes Lackey- only a few pages into- so
I am with-holding judgement.
_Great Expectations_ by Charles Dickins- dun't know why I'm reading
this one, but I kind of like it.... sorta.
Anne...I read "Great Expectations" jusst because...and I did like it. I was clueless that Mercedes had anything new out. Thanks.
I have a feeling that most people read _Great Expectations_ because it's assigned for a class, but it quite rewarding, perhaps more so, to read it "just because".
arwen- about Mercedes- it's my pleasure.
Remmers...I always felt left out because none of my teachers ever assigned Dickens. Of course, I was reading Pliny and Caesar in Latin and taking apart Shakespeare "Romeo and Juliet" and "Hamlet" line by line at the request of one of my much loved English teachers. Miss Whittinton....now there was an English teacher.
In junior high, we were assigned to read _A Tale of Two Cities_, a book that I ended up liking a lot; however, I'll never forgive the SOB who wrote "Gaspard killed the Marquis" in the front of my school-provided copy...
And *I* will never forgive the SOB who wrote that in this item...
Me either!!! I haven't read it yet. whimper.
Good! I got *some* revenge!
Then I guess y'all would be mad if I told you that in Ten Little Indians, by Agatha Christie, the judge pretends that he was killed so he can come back and kill everyone else?
"Dark of the Eye" by Douglas Clegg: Kind of "Firestarter" story about a
girl who has the power to either heal or kill by her touch. It was much
better than "Firestarter", though. I picked this up based on
recommendations for *other* books by Clegg and I'll probably pick them out
because I liked this a lot. There seemed to be one really *big* failed
continuity point, but I survived it.
"The Black Mariah" by Jay Bonansinga. "Soon to be a major motion
picture directed by George Romero". Well, maybe. Story is about two
trucking partners who stumble on the wrong thing at the wrong time and pick
up a curse which will make them burn up from the inside if they stop moving.
Sounds like "Speed" with a supernatural twist, don't it? Anyway, it was a
fast read and much more exciting than I thought it would be. Recommended.
Read "X,Y" by Michael Blumlein from Dell's "Abyss" horror
line. It was disappointing. It started promisingly enough, but the ending
was a let-down. The basic plot is a female topless dancer locks eyes with a
customer, passes out and the next day wakes up thinking she's a man in a
woman's body. The rest of the book deals with his/her relationship with
his/her boyfriend and gets rather kinky towards the end. But the whole
question of why/how this happened never gets really resolved and ends up
been unsatisfying. Not recommended.
Read the best book of my last purchases (so far)
yesterday: "Dead in the Water" by Nancy Holder. Another "Abyss" horror
novel. This one is about 7 people who take a boat to Hawaii, it sinks, they
get stranded in a lifeboat and rescued by another ship. *Then* things get
really weird. I read a lot of horror novels and this one impressed me more
than most in the recent years. You could still get this one on the shelves
now. Highly recommended. Easily the best ending of a horror novel in a
long time.
Read DEADWEIGHT by Robert Deveraux. Another "Abyss"
book. Interesting premise -- an abused wife killed her husband, but it
turns out she has the power to make things grow. She regularly visits the
grave of her dead husband and plants flowers over it. However, because of
all these visits, she ends up reanimating her dead husband. This book is
one of the most incredibly violent books I've read in some time. While I'm
not adverse to violence, it was more sadistic than I'm comfortable with.
There's a *lot* of it. But there's also a lot of very interesting imagry as
well. I wouldn't recommend it for people with weak stomachs (there's a
really gross variation of the "I'll rip off your head and shit down your
neck" joke), but if you think you can handle it, you might like it.
"Curfew" by Phil Rickman. Pretty good. A decent "Gothic" ghost story/horror
novel about a bunch of "New Agers" moving into an old town in England that
happens to be the center of some really nasty ley-lines and other phenomena.
I liked it. No one outstanding image like many of the other novels had,
but it built up the creeps slowly and the payoff was worth it. Recommended.
Looking back, if I were to rate these 6 novels from best to worst as:
"Dead in the Water"
"Curfew"
"The Black Mariah"
"Dark of the Eye"
"Deadweight"
"X,Y"
Non-fiction is my current drift: amidst G. A. Mazis, "The Trickster, Magician, and Greiving Man," men's spirituality for the anti-Bly.
We have an item 22 here in the books cf, on Non-Fiction - would you like to tell us more about Mazis' book there? I didn't see the connection between Non-Fiction and spirituality ;-).
it's not a fiction book: not a story. Non-fiction in that it describes a way of looking at the world.
I think Rane was joking. I HOPE Rane was joking. You were joking, weren't you, Rane?
Sorta. On one hand, a great many ways of looking at the world invoke fiction. On the other, the world is non-fiction (I think). However what was said (which was little) about the Mazis book did sound like some of the former. So, I asked for more.
<moving it over to the non-fiction item>
_S._, by John Updike. I missed this novel when it first came out back in 1988. It's an epistolary novel consisting of letters and cassette tapes produced mostly by a Boston matron named Sarah Worth. (She signs her letters "S." sometimes, hence the strange title.) In search of enlightenment, she leaves her husband and joins an Ashram which Updike based loosely on the Rajneesh (sp?) rip-off in Oregon a few years back. Meanwhile, life goes on: her mother, her daughter, her husband, her brother, her best friend, her dentist, her yoga instructor - all these people continue to live and change and evolve, in extremely funny ways. Every page of this book drips with irony, and there are some wonderful surprises in store for the reader which I will not reveal in case anyone ever reads this book.
oh, that actually sounds like fun. I don't read much mainstream fiction.
I just finished reading "Wide Sargasso Sea" it's kind of a prequel to Jane Eyre... It's by Jean Rhys if anyone is interested.
The Library of America edition of Robert Frost arrived. It has all of his published poetry, many uncollected poems, and a selection of letters, essays, speeches and interviews. I already have almost everything in this book, and then some. (I carry a great deal of it permanently around in my head, as a matter of fact.) What's worth the price of the book all by itself, to me, is the very last piece: a transcription of a talk Frost gave at Spaulding Auditorium in the then-new Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College in late 1962, a few months before his death. I was there and remember the talk well. We'd been told beforehand that if we brought editions of his poems with us he'd sign them. I lined up with the other students after Frost's talk. I gave him my book to sign, told him how much I loved his poetry, and shook his hand. In writing my own poetry, I find it very hard not to speak in Frost's voice. I once wrote a little poem about not burning leaves in autumn: The oak tree's loss should be the oak tree's gain. Consider the logistics: after rain You can pick half the yard up on one stroke To carry dripping to the hole, but smoke Is hard to handle, even when it's wet. Lift smoke some day and see how far you get. Note the plain language, the colloquial scansion, the one- syllable words (three of the six lines are nothing but). The general tone is that of Frost's "Spades pick up leaves no better than spoons, And bags full of leaves are as light as balloons." The last line is a deliberate echo of the last line of Frost's poem "Maple" (qv, by all means). New LoA editions in the past have sometimes prompted reassessments of the authors, but I don't see this happening with Frost. He has his audience. It isn't likely to grow much.
What is 'qv'?
(quod vide = "which see" -- means, "go look it up.")
Thanks!
Through a "bonus book" offering by a book club, I've acquired a facsimile copy of the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. Strange feeling, reading this.
I recently finished reading the following books... The Complete Book of Herbs by Lesley Bremness The Healing Garden by Sue Minter Aromatherapy - The Complete Guide to Plant and Flower Essences for Health and Beauty by Daniele Ryman I am currently reading The Healing Herbs by Michael Castleman and The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Essential Oils by Julia Lawless. Has anyone read any of the Witch World novels? What did you think?
Have you read the Reader's Digest book _Magic and Medicine in Plants_? It is quite sketchy (like the Reader's Digest itself), but has a modicum of interesting or leading information. A good feature is that *toxic* plants are prominantly noted.
In the Synthesis conference there's an item about herbs (I think it's still there) in which I entered a mini-review of the Reader's Digest book.
Give me the # and I'll like it to books.
Item #16 in Synthesis. It's already linked to something.
Hmmm...."book" occurs 24 times in 84 responses in that item. Not very booky. Maybe someone wants to start a "Herb *Book*" item here?
Just finished "Motown", great book, absolutly one of the ten best I have read in all my years of reading. I will be Estleman's No 1 fan for some yrs to come.!
As a matter of fact, that book (reader's digest one) was mentioned by the Herbs for Health magazine as being a good one to get. I would love to see the mini-review. Thanks. Are you going to link it Rane?
I entered a new item here, Freida. See below.
Thanks md, I'm going there now!
_The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories_ by Cynthia Ozick. Syracuse University Press is publishing a nice uniform edition of Ozick's books, in paperback format, under their "Library of Modern Jewish Literature" imprint. Ozick is certainly a Jewish writer, but not so thoroughly Jewish in her themes as to warrant inclusion in a "Library of Modern Jewish Literature." My opinion, anyway. But I'm glad to see this beautiful new edition, be it by whomsoever it may. I've always loved Ozick's work. I clipped her "Eliot at 101" piece out of the New Yorker several years ago and filed it in a book of Eliot's letters, where I reread it every once in a while. Very uncharacteristic of me, but Ozick has that effect on me. Anyway, I intend to collect the Syracuse editions. The stories in _The Pagan Rabbi_ date from the '60s and early '70s, and if I ever read any of them I've long since forgotten. No excerpt can give the full effect of her writing, with its long ruminative asides, stream-of-consciousness, weird plot twists, acid social satire, and deep humanity, all of it functional, there for a purpose. Here's an excerpt from the story "Envy; or, Yiddish in America" in this collection which might at least give you an idea of the wickedness of her observations, and also the fact that even at her most "Jewish" she is still wonderfully readable: "The new Temples scared Edelshtein. He was afraid to use the word _shul_ in these places -- inside, vast mock-bronze Tablets, mobiles of outstretched hands rotating on a motor, gigantic dangling Tetragrammatons in transparent plastic like chandeliers, platforms, altars, daises, pulpits, aisles, pews, polished oak bins for prayerbooks printed in English with made-up new prayers in them. Everything smelled of wet plaster. Everything was new. The refreshment tables were long and luminous -- he saw glazed cakes, snowheaps of egg salad, herring, salmon, tuna, whitefish, gefilte fish, pools of sour cream, silver electric coffee urns, bowls of lemon-slices, pyramids of bread, waferlike teacups from the Black Forest, Indian brass trays of hard cheeses, golden bottles set up in rows like ninepins, great sculptured butter-birds, Hansel-and- Gretel houses of cream cheese and fruitcake, bars, butlers, fat napery, carpeting deep as honey. He learned their term for their architecture: 'soaring.' In one place -- a flat wall of beige brick in Westchester -- he read scripture riveted on in letters fashioned from 14-karat gold molds: 'And thou shalt see My back; but My face shall not be seen.'" Highest recommendation, for Jews and goyim alike.
I really feel uncomfortable in new syagogues...I cannot worship in them at aall. I recently read "Nine Princes in Amber" and was quite impressed. I have never read any Zelazney before and was pleasantly surprised.
I'd reccomend Jack of Shadows or the Madwand set by Zelazny next (after you finish the rest of the first Amber series, I'd not reccomend the 2nd Amber series though)
Why not? Is the second series bad?
The first 3 books are pretty good, but #'s 4 and 5 are not good at all.
Hi guys . I'm new here . Ever heard of R.K.Narayan , an acclaimed Indian Author ?
I'm hoping this is the right general item for books. I'm just starting to poke around in the book conference...
Sorry, Mark...this item has a *very* specific topic. ;->
Bech at Bay, by John Updike. I love Updike's Henry Bech stories better than almost any of his other fiction. Here is where Updike gets to unleash the Tom Wolfe side of his nature -- the cheerfully nasty social critic who hits a bullseye with every shot, only with Updike there's a lurking affection for his targets that Wolfe seems to lack (but I haven't read Wolfe's new novel yet, or even Updike's review of it in the new New Yorker, so I should suspend judgment). This book is a gem. Highly recommended.
The Sacred Depths of Nature, by Ursula Goodenough. The author is described on the jacket as Professor of Biology at Washington University, author of a best-selling textbook on genetics, and one of America's leading cell biologists. One of the jacket blurbs compares her to Loren Eisley and Lewis Thomas. I "met" her through the Scientific Pantheism list, which I read whenever I have the time. The book offers scientific explanations and examinations of various phenomena. Goodenough repeatedly affirms her non-belief in a supernatural deity of any kind, and yet she is a deeply religious woman in her own way -- hence the book's title. You will sometimes get the feeling that she's not entirely sincere -- that this is a well-meaning effort by a scientist to reconcile two warring camps, science and religion. But then she'll make some passing comment to the effect that she goes to church and sings the hymns with everyone else, and you realize that she is absolutely sincere. Neither atheist nor theist nor even agnostic, but a person who recognizes the religious impulses in her to praise and give thanks as arising from her physical nature, from the very cells of her body. She isn't afraid of those impulses, she embraces them and honors them. Here's a quote, from a section headed "Gratitude": "Imagine that you and some other humans are in a spaceship, roaming around in the universe, looking for a home. You land on a planet that proves to be ideal in every way. It has deep forests and fleshy fruits and surging oceans and gentle rains and cavorting creatures and dappled sunlight and rich soil. Everything is perfect for human habitation, and everything is astonishingly beautiful. "This is how the religious naturalist thinks of our human advent on Earth. We arrived but a moment ago, and found it to be perfect for us in every way. And then we came to understand that it is perfect because we arose from it and are a part of it. "Hosanna! Not in the highest, but right here, right now, this. "When such gratitude flows from our beings, it matters little whether we offer it to God or to Mystery or Coyote or Cosmic Evolution or Mother Earth."
Sound like she feels compelled to attribute her awe, wonder, amazement, or whatever is the emotion she is responding to, to something else, rather than realizing it arises within herself.
"Neither atheist" I say "neither atheist nor theist nor even agnostic, but a person who recognizes the religious impulses in her to praise and give thanks as arising from her physical nature, from the very cells of her body. She isn't afraid of those impulses, she embraces them and honors them."
I agree that she apparently experiences a strong romantic emotion. Nothing wrong with that - it leads to art, in many forms.
Externalising one's emotions is metaphor. It comes naturally to us.
So naturally, in fact, that we mistake the metaphors within our own minds made
out of reconstructed images, sounds, and feelings, for things outside our own
skull.
The point being, don't be silly. If someone has something theistic
to say, great. If someone has something atheistic to say, also great.
That's very profound, John.
Actually, Goodenough's purpose is "to outline the foundations for a planetary ethic that would make no claim to supplant existing traditions but would seek to coexist with them, informing our global concerns while we continue to orient our daily lives in our cultural and religious contexts." Reverence for nature, for reality, which we can all respond to, is her starting point. Without a common ethical language, she says, we can never address such planetary concerns as "climate, ethnic cleansing, fossil fuels, habitat preservation, human rights, hunger, infectious disease, nuclear weapons, oceans, ozone layer, pollution, population" She says, "Humans need stories -- grand, compelling stories -- that help to orient us in our lives and in the cosmos. The Epic of Evolution is such a story, beautifully suited to anchor our search for planetary consensus, telling us of our nature, our place, our context." Her churchgoing is bound to put her beyond the pale for closed-minded "humanists," just as her atheism and her reverence for "the Epic of Evolution" will make her anathema with the fundamentalist Christians at the other extreme. Still, I'd love to see her tolerance and her love for Nature spread, and I believe it, or something very like it, will. Oxford University Press, 1998. Highly recommended.
I don't know any "closed minded humanists" - in fact, it is a contradiction in terms. But given how steeped humanity is in mysticism, hers might help "bridge the gap". I'll probably read it to see how such romanticists really seek a similar goal as the humanists.
re #281: it's at times like these that I wonder whether Rane isn't secretly a fanatical theist agent provacateur...
Lol. I, for one, would be very disappointed to see his cover blown.
I have not read anything by this author but from what has been quoted about her here I'm somewhat surprised Micheal finds her a satisfying read. She sounds like she's into fluffy "feel-good while we all hold hands in the woods" type of theology. Maybe L.L. Bean will sell her book? But then I don't think of compromise for the sake of agreement as any great virtue. I have far more respect for finely crafted individual values than group think. I see no need for us to all come together. I'd rather we simply worked on tolerating, even appreciating each other as individuals.
No theology. She is an *atheist*, as I said. (Ahem.) Also, she does strike me as a Very Nice Person, but there's nothing "fluffy" about her, except, evidently, the impression I'm giving of her here.
[But she does use the word "resonate" a lot, Mary. You might like her.] ;-)
I understood just fine that she is an atheist, Michael. There are fluffy-thinking atheists out there in the woods too, rejoicing right along with the Baptists. ;-)
(Mary tries to remember if she's ever used the word resonate on-line. In cello lessons, maybe, but online?) ;-)
I'm a radio amateur, so I'm into resonators.
rotfl
Everybody Resonate! :-)
(is Ursula Goodenough her real name, or a pseudonym?)
It's her real name, as far as I know. It's probably pronounced "goodno" or something.
Dr. Goodenough's employer's website has some information about her: http://biosgi.wustl.edu/faculty/ursula.html Here's the Oxford University Press page about her book, and a review of her book in a recent Scientific American: http://www.oup-usa.org/docs/0195126130.html http://www.sciam.com/1999/0599issue/0599reviews1.html Here's a review by Goodenough in The AMerican Scientist of Steven Jay Gould's new book: http://www.amsci.org/amsci/bookshelf/Leads99/Goodenough.html
Am I fluffy-thinking? Would I be able to tell, if I was?
I'm currently about half way through Dickens' _Bleak House_, one of those books that everybody said I had to read, so I finally did. I'm finding myself much more agreeable to reading Good Literature now that I'm out of school and don't have it forced down my throat... sigh... I'm enjoying the book immensely -- it's been years since I've read any Dickens and I love his writing style and his delightful characters -- but I find it goes slowly. I'm on page five hundred and something out of nearly nine hundred, and have been reading other things along with it which makes it go even more slowly. (Most recently my supplementary reading has been comics, to inoculate me, I suppose, against Good Literature, but I've finished most of the comics lying around and will now probably pick up an interesting non-fiction book of some kind...) Anyway... nifty book, and is helping me to get over my school-induced prejudice against nineteenth century literature.
I go through phases every once in a while when I force myself to read things I think I "ought" to read. As it is, I often at least try to find an old classsic, or a biography, before I leave the library with my stack of "fun" books. I often end up enjoying them, which is a good thing, I think. :-)