thefirstbardo
There ain't no such thing as leftover crack
Posts: 7,968
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Post by thefirstbardo on Apr 26, 2010 15:14:52 GMT -5
Currently reading Dragon Factory, by Jonathan Maberry and it's prequel, Patient Zero. They're both pretty good thrillers with a sci-fi/genetic engineering twist. A good dose of science, too. Still working through God and His Demons by Michael Parenti. Picked up a used copy of Failed States by Noam Chomsky for a couple bucks at a great used bookstore by me. In my reading queue: Divine Misfortune by A. Lee Martinez Horns by Joe Hill The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi WWW: Wake and WWW: Watch by Robert J. Sawyer China Mieville has a new book out in June called Kraken. i'm trying to get my hands on an advance copy. I've got a copy of Failed States on the cabinet next to my bed.. I'm going to start reading through it tomorrow. Writing a paper on Nuclear Policy right now, thought I'd get some critique. If you're reading Chomsky, I suggest also picking up some of Michael Parenti's work if you're not familiar with him already. He's my favorite dissident voice, though I have plenty of love for Chomsky, Parenti is a bit more accessible without being any less informative.
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thefirstbardo
There ain't no such thing as leftover crack
Posts: 7,968
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Post by thefirstbardo on Apr 26, 2010 15:17:58 GMT -5
I've read plenty of Faulkner and Hemingway and Glasgow. I've read Fitzgerald and Steinbeck and Rushdie and Wolf. But I've not read most of that in the past 7 or 8 years so I wouldn't list it as a book I've read recently. If someone were to say, "Hey I'm reading Barren Ground." or "I'm reading The Sound and the Fury" then I could comment on those. Some of the books that have been mentioned in these threads in the past I think would stand the test of time and could be read in a university or secondary school class. You need to read more Germans. I've got a serious infatuation with German literature right now. I dated a girl for a bit who was big into Russian lit, I still have a copy of The Master and Margarita gathering dust on my shelf. I haven't been able to make it too far into it. The only German work I really read is Nietzsche, and that doesn't exactly classify as lit, though Thus Spoke Zarathustra might. I own and have read nearly every publication of his. I started early on him, ninth grade or so.
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Post by dunc on Apr 26, 2010 19:01:54 GMT -5
I read Master and Margarita about a month ago... I loved it. Once you get past the long Jesus bit at the start it gets going.
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thefirstbardo
There ain't no such thing as leftover crack
Posts: 7,968
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Post by thefirstbardo on Apr 27, 2010 6:21:11 GMT -5
I read Master and Margarita about a month ago... I loved it. Once you get past the long Jesus bit at the start it gets going. Okay, cool. I'll give it another shot then.
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moy
I know they're people, kate!
Posts: 21,265
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Post by moy on Apr 27, 2010 8:12:25 GMT -5
does anyone else actually read proper old school literature? I feel like I'm on my own! sometimes.
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Post by Mink - The Original on Apr 27, 2010 9:55:57 GMT -5
I've made it about 90 pages into The Road it's so depressing I'm not sure if I want to pick it up and get further into it.
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thefirstbardo
There ain't no such thing as leftover crack
Posts: 7,968
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Post by thefirstbardo on Apr 27, 2010 9:59:36 GMT -5
I've made it about 90 pages into The Road it's so depressing I'm not sure if I want to pick it up and get further into it. I read that in two sittings (except the last ten pages or so, which took me almost two weeks to finish because it was so emotionally draining). I love The Road, it's one of my all-time favorites, but it isn't for everyone. And it doesn't get any less depressing, so if you're not in the mood for an unrelenting existential nightmare, then I'd give it a rest for a bit and come back to it.
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Post by Mink - The Original on Apr 27, 2010 10:09:21 GMT -5
I was planning on reading for about 10 minutes and got sucked into the 90+ pages. If I hadn't had things I needed to do I'm sure I'd have read more, but yeah...draining is a good way to describe it.
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Post by FullFrontalBuddha on Apr 27, 2010 10:29:50 GMT -5
The movie was pretty good, but since I haven't read the book yet, I'm not sure how it compares.
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thefirstbardo
There ain't no such thing as leftover crack
Posts: 7,968
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Post by thefirstbardo on Apr 27, 2010 10:55:01 GMT -5
The movie was pretty good, but since I haven't read the book yet, I'm not sure how it compares. The movie was slightly different in some parts, but essentially it was a faithful retelling of the novel. I consider it a pretty good companion piece to the book, actually. I think the novel will be a classic years from now. The way that we view the works of Kafka and Camus now if how I think people will look at The Road fifty years in the future.
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