OT: What Have You Read / What Are You Reading
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:00 PM PST
403 comments
It's been a while since we've had a reading thread. And at the end of the year, I always compile a list of the books I've read since January, so this seems like a good time - I can post my list. I don't get through as much as I once did, because I have a 2 1/2 year old and just had another baby as well. Still, I try to get through at least three books a month. Here's my list for 2008:
1) Randy Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street (nonfiction)
2) Flannery O'Connor, The Complete Stories (short story collection)
3) Charles Stross, Singularity Sky (science fiction)
4) James Baldwin, Going to Meet the Man (short story collection)
5) Edwidge Danticat, Brother I'm Dying (memoir)
6) Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars (science fiction)
7) Michael Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost (novel)
8) Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners (essay collection)
9) Arthur C. Clarke, The Fountains of Paradise (science fiction)
10) Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five (novel)
11) R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez, The Death of WCW (nonfiction)
11) Orhan Pamuk, Snow (novel)
13) Samuel R. Delany, Flight from Nevèrÿon (fantasy of sorts)
14) Krista Tippett, Speaking of Faith (nonfiction - comparative religion with a bit of memoir)
15) Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope (nonfiction)
16) Karl Pilkington, Ricky Gervais, and Stephen Merchant, The World of Karl Pilkington (humor)
17) Ursula K. LeGuin, Gifts (fantasy)
18) Toni Morrison, Sula (novel)
19) David Sedaris, When You Are Engulfed in Flames (essay collection/humor)
20) Greg Bear, Eternity (science fiction)
21) Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, Three Cups of Tea (nonfiction)
22) Amit Chaudhuri, Freedom Song (collection of three short novels)
23) Guy Gavriel Kay, Tigana (fantasy)
24) Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (novel)
25) Karen Armstrong, Islam (nonfiction)
26) China Mieville, Perdido Street Station (fantasy)
27) Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (novel)
28) Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (novel)
29) Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn (fantasy)
30) Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States (history)
31) Garrison Keillor, Love Me (novel)
32) John Le Carre, The Mission Song (novel)
33) Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book (fantasy)
34) Jhumpa Lahiri, Unaccustomed Earth (short story collection)
35) Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking (memoir)
I also reread several Neil Gaiman graphic novels at the beginning of the year.
My first book for 2009 was Otherland: City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams, a Big Fat science fiction epic - at 770 pages, it's just the first of four books in a series. Yesterday, I started Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. It's really good through the first fifty pages or so.
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I’ll have to think of all the books I read in 2008, but lately I’ve been trying to finish Stephen King’s Dark Tower Series. I just finished book #5 (Wolves of the Calla) over the holidays and I’ll be starting book #6 (Song of Susannah) any day now, I’m waiting for it in the mail. I know King isn’t regarded as high literature, but I really, really like the Dark Tower series.
Other than that, I just started a biography of Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson entitled Ben Franklin: An American Life. I also got the new Andrew Jackson book, American Lion, for Christmas and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m also pecking my way through a collection of short stories by PKD.
Other books I got for Christmas that I’m going to read in the near future.
- Baseball Hacks: Tips & Tools for Analyzing and Winning with Statistics
- A basic Statistics refresher book
- Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Mix in a couple of philosophy books and that looks like what I’ll be reading for the next couple of months.
by xanthan on Jan 9, 2009 1:14 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
speaking of King
I read Cujo finally. What a great book! I also heard he was very stoned and/or drunk through most of the writing process.
STEVE HOLM! refuses to be the odd man out.
by UnleashTheGore on Jan 9, 2009 2:28 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
aww yeah
I finished the series a few months ago. Probably my favorite ending of any series I’ve read (although I know a lot of people will disagree for very good reasons). What’s your opinion of Wolves? I honestly think the quality of writing dropped off from Book 5 on, but there’s some understandable reasons for that. More could be said on that topic, but the last two or three books get so wackily meta that it’ll, like, blow your mind, man, so I don’t want to say anything else. But yeah, that series is just a lot of fun, and King’s ability should not be ignored. Guy ain’t Shakespeare, but he knows how to tell a story.
In a general response to the topic, I’m currently reading The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy. Love that guy (literally and I also like his books).
by sakbaum on Jan 12, 2009 10:21 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Also: I was about halfway through Infinite Jest when Wallace killed himself. It made reading the subsequent sections on depression/suicide pretty interesting.
by sakbaum on Jan 12, 2009 10:25 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I liked Wolves a good bit. I thought it dragged on a little and I’m not a fan of all the New York stuff (I know Book #6 is 90% New York) but I enjoyed it. I think I can see where the series is heading (in regards to meta-stuff) but I’m still anxious to finish it. I’m about 100 pages into ‘Song of Susannah’ right now.
by xanthan on Jan 12, 2009 10:45 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
SoS is probably my least favorite of the series. It’s a total gap-filler, but a necessary one, I suppose.
by sakbaum on Jan 12, 2009 10:48 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, that’s the feeling I’ve got going into the book. It probably doesn’t help me that Susannah’s character is probably my least favorite of the ’slingers.
by xanthan on Jan 12, 2009 10:49 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
King...
…what a sellout.
“I’ll just take this novel and maximize its earning potential by breaking it up into several separate novellas , heh heh”
I’m still pissed at reading/wallowing in Christine and then biking across Phoenix to see that joke of an adaptation.
Who has the fun?
Is it always the man with the gun?
- The Stranglers
by victor frankenstein on Jan 14, 2009 2:23 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
There was nothing novella about any of the Dark Tower series. It would take two people to carry were it published as a single book.
by Lars The Wanderer on Jan 14, 2009 4:53 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
With that said, the ending was not what I would have liked. Then again, it isn’t my story…at least in this world.
The man in black fled across the desert and Lars followed…
by Lars The Wanderer on Jan 14, 2009 4:56 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Lars, favorite book of yours in the DT series? I LOVED the Gunslinger and was a little sad when things started to shy away from the feel of the 1st book.
I’m a little half-way done with Book #6 now and I’ve liked it so far. Things are getting very meta-y.
by xanthan on Jan 15, 2009 6:01 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I read that Ben Franklin bio
a couple of years ago. Very interesting. Ben Franklin was one of the most amazing men that ever lived.
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 12, 2009 1:22 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
My new thing is to have a rotation of one fiction, one history/biography/current events/political science, and one science/math. Right now my rotation is:
Your Inner Fish
Team of Rivals
Gravity’s Rainbow
I just finished a rotation of:
The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
Ghost Wars
If on a Winter’s Night…
by Grant on Jan 9, 2009 1:22 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
I keep meaning to read Gravity’s Rainbow, but I fear it might make my brain explode.
by xanthan on Jan 9, 2009 1:23 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I once borrowed it from an old roommate and it just sat on my shelf for a year. I think most people have had a similar experience.
by xanthan on Jan 9, 2009 1:26 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’m always into the style, but it takes close reading. Close reading + 134,303 pages = easy to pick up a less daunting book. But the first 100 pages fascinate me enough that I keep trying..
by Grant on Jan 9, 2009 1:32 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
The key is to make up actual melodies to all the songs and sing them out loud!
I’ve actually read it (all the way thru!) three times, and much like Ulysses I found on the third try that I really did start to get it. Plus, I think the Reader’s Guide helps alot, though it’s difficult trying to figure out how best to use it without making the process cumbersome and unenjoyable.
Get the hell out the way Bengie, Pablito's hit the show!
by Roger on Jan 9, 2009 1:59 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’m going to attempt that at some point. Having made it through Ulysses twice (it really is easier the second time around), I’m hopeful.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’ve also read Tristram Shandy, which I would recommend to anyone doesn’t mind getting a headache.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:27 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
“there is a God that lives inside that book, and that God’s name is Muddle.”
Get the hell out the way Bengie, Pablito's hit the show!
by Roger on Jan 9, 2009 2:00 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Agreed
I have tried once so far, and gave up after about 100 pages. I had read Crying of lot 49 and then moved on to the rainbow, not as accessible a read for sure.
I read Ulysses too, and it helped immensely having a guide and a class to discuss it with. Otherwise, I don’t know how much I would’ve gotten out of it. Actually, I still don’t know how much I got out of it. Like the challenge though
by Mrbasepaul on Jan 9, 2009 6:09 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
And, what did you think of Team of Rivals? Book report, plz!
by xanthan on Jan 9, 2009 1:24 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Oh, whoops, I flipped your current rotation with your past rotation.
by xanthan on Jan 9, 2009 1:32 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Is that still Doris back when she wrote her own books, or after she started having her TA’s do it for her, I forget…
(good book either way, though)
Get the hell out the way Bengie, Pablito's hit the show!
by Roger on Jan 9, 2009 2:02 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I tend to go with a rotation of one literary fiction book, one nonfiction book, and one science fiction/fantasy book, myself.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I try to focus and read one book at a time, but I always end up reading 2-3 books at a time.
by xanthan on Jan 9, 2009 1:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I used to do that in my younger days, but I found that I ended up not finishing half the books I started, so I switched.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:26 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
That’s exactly why walking into a Barnes and Noble is such a treacherous experience for me and my wallet
Wall-E for Best Picture 2008
by Useful_Idiot on Jan 9, 2009 5:22 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
2 books at a time works well for me.
If I read only one I inevitably forget it at home, then I don’t have anything to read on my commute or at lunch. Reading 2 books at once is really easy if one is fiction and the other one non-fiction.
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 9, 2009 6:14 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
This will have to be What I Am Going to Read because I normally read during my commute, but FFVI is currently taking up that time. On the backburner, I have If I Never Get Back, Raptor Red, and Foley Is Good.
- If I Never Get Back is my requisite baseball book. I’ve been wanting to read it for a while and finally got it a couple months ago. It’s been sitting on my desk ever since though.
- Raptor Red is a novel by superstar paleontologist Robert Bakker, told from the perspective of a raptor. So you know it’s gotta be awesome.
- I’ve read Foley Is Good before, but Mick Foley’s books are always a fun read. I need to pick up Chris Jericho’s book next.
by Natto on Jan 9, 2009 1:23 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
If I Never Get Back
Incredibly fun baseball book. Pat Jordan’s “A False Spring” is fabulous if you want a painfully realistic look at a bonus baby flame-out.
by NearestNorwich on Jan 9, 2009 8:51 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Anyone else tackling 2666? I think I need a support group.
by Evan on Jan 9, 2009 1:24 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Just got it for a Christmas gift and I’ve got it sitting on the bedside table till I get my nerve up. I’m reading A Mercy first (which is the first Morrison book I’ve really loved for a long time) and kind of racing through The Secret Life of Words for fun. But after I’ve limbered my brain up with those I’m going to get started on it.
Get the hell out the way Bengie, Pablito's hit the show!
by Roger on Jan 9, 2009 1:41 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
YES
It’s one of my favorite books ever so far.
It’s a beast but it’s one of m favorite books to read.
Mischievously implosive purple pitching staff.
by SloIsLonelyForTheOrange on Jan 10, 2009 12:03 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Also, what's coming up next on my to-read list:
- In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens by Alice Walker
- Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
- The Great Awakening by Karen Armstrong
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
- The Hollow Earth by Rudy Rucker
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:29 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Journey to the Centre of the Earth is my favorite Verne novel.
It never occurred to me that one man could play with the faith of 50 million.
by imovermyhead on Jan 9, 2009 4:15 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
JCB9
I would be interested to know what you thought of Red Mars. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and was really looking forward to the sequels, but I found them disappointing overall. Do you plan to read Green Mars and Blue Mars next?
Sergio Romo: striking out professional hitters since 2005.
by Lyle on Jan 10, 2009 8:30 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I liked it a lot, although I like another Robinson novel, The Years Of Rice and Salt, better.
I am planning on reading the sequels – I’ve already picked both up. The series was recommended to me by my dad, who had a similar perspective to yours, except that he liked the first two and was only disappointed by the third.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 10, 2009 9:54 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’m guessing your dad and I are about the same age, which could perhaps account for our similar reactions. I may have forgotten whether I specifically like #2 or not. I think my perspective at the end of #2 was “well, I’ve invested all this time and I do want to see how it turns out; but this doesn’t seem to be going in the direction I had hoped/expected.” I’ll be interested to see what you think of them. I thought the politics got excessive and bogged down the story-telling. And the areophiles.
Sergio Romo: striking out professional hitters since 2005.
by Lyle on Jan 10, 2009 1:20 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, his exact complaint about Blue Mars was that all the interesting stuff about exploration and such got bogged down in politics.
As an aside, Kim Stanley Robinson has the same birthday as me, so is clearly an outstanding guy.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 10, 2009 1:22 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Kavalier and Clay
is a GREAT book. Just awe-inspiring how well Chabon writes. A very deserving Pultizer Prize winner.
My plans for 2009: getting married and attending Tim Lincecum Bobblehead Day.
by Kitspool on Jan 12, 2009 9:28 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
In the last few months...
Merle’s Door: Lessons From A Freethinking Dog — Ted Kerasote
Marley and Me — John Grogan
The Art of Racing in the Rain — Garth Stein
All great dog books given to me as my 16 year old golden/chow mix Professor Griff was nearing his end.
RIP Griff < /tear >
Slam — Nick Hornby
Axis and Spin — both by science fiction great Robert Charles Wilson. jcb9 you should check him out if you’re not familiar (based on youre SF titles).
They say some players get out of bed hitting; Pablo Sandoval doesn't wait that long
by bgunn on Jan 9, 2009 1:32 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
RIP Professor Griff. Hopefully the S1-Ws are throwing you bones in heaven.
by Grant on Jan 9, 2009 1:33 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’ve heard the name, but I haven’t read any of his stuff.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:34 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Spin won the Hugo award in 05 for best novel. The Chronoliths (2001) may be his best known work and a great place to start.
They say some players get out of bed hitting; Pablo Sandoval doesn't wait that long
by bgunn on Jan 9, 2009 1:37 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
that's a pretty heady list
Flannery O’ Connor FTW.
I probably shouldn’t say anything, but Howard Zinn’s followers drive me crazy.
We don't really have that much pitching depth. We don't really have that much pitching depth. FOR GOD SAKE, VERUCA, DON'T GO FAKE TRADING JONATHAN SANCHEZ. We don't really have that much pitching depth
by oldjacket on Jan 9, 2009 1:33 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Enh, I’d hardly call myself a follower or anything. Just have an interest in social history and had never actually read that book all the way through before.
I’d be happy to be a follower of Flannery O’Connor, though, because she kicked ass.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:36 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
+1
for the Flannery O’Connor love.
Mischievously implosive purple pitching staff.
by SloIsLonelyForTheOrange on Jan 10, 2009 12:06 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Zinn..
I could hardly read that book when it was my history “textbook.” Ok, it wasn’t my textbook but the teacher basically just told us to not buy the text book since we would only be using Zinn’s book.
The Basil Fawlty Moderating Strategy:
"We could run a nice blog here if we didn't have all these members getting in the way."
by WalrusMan on Jan 11, 2009 1:09 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
The Huey Newton Reader
getting ready for grad school….
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 9, 2009 1:35 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
What are you going to grad school for?
by xanthan on Jan 9, 2009 1:36 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
History
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 9, 2009 1:36 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Grad school people unite!
MA, English with a focus in Creative Writing, University of Illinois, Chicago, 2007.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:37 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
And sometimes I think of getting a PhD. Heaven help me.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:39 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’d like to get into law school eventually but I need monies ;(
by xanthan on Jan 9, 2009 1:39 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’d pretty much have to get a full ride to go back to school. We ain’t got money and I refuse to go into any more debt.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:40 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
If I don’t get a free ride, I’m not going. Plus that means that they probably don’t think I’ll make it
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 9, 2009 1:41 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Since when do computers need monies?
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 9, 2009 1:40 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
True story
I have a friend whose dad went to law school and managed to survive as a “free-gan”
aka, he took all the food the grocery store was going to throw away and lived off of that
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 9, 2009 1:41 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Heaven help you indeed.
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 9, 2009 1:40 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
think long
I mean, it can be exciting, but it’s quite the journey (which, for me, has yet to end)
by BigO on Jan 9, 2009 2:50 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
that’s my plan! :D? :D?
D:
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 9, 2009 2:52 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Nice
I’m finishing up my apps for grad school.
PhD in History, major field American History (20th century), minor field British history, specialization in the African-American civil rights movement in California, from the years 1930-1942, especially regarding the economic situation and the role of the black church in community outreach.
I love grad school apps…
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 9, 2009 1:39 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
My main academic interest is African-American Literature. I must say, though, I know nothing about your specialization!
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:41 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
And I know only marginally more than you!
Mainly because I went to college in Texas, so I’m pretty well versed in the Southern aspect of it.
Who are you reading now?
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 9, 2009 1:42 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Er, Margaret Atwood, who is neither African nor American!
I have some Alice Walker, Samuel R. Delany, Toni Morrison, and Octavia Butler in the queue, though.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:43 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Atwood
Depressing stuff there…..
Your queue looks interesting. Too bad I’m so lazy these days.
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 9, 2009 1:44 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
What can I say – I’m a fan of depressing.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:45 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I guess I am too
That’s probably 90% of what I’ve studied in history…
Holocaust class, Modern China class, African-American history, medieval European history
Wowzas
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 9, 2009 1:46 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Almost
All of history is depressing. Says something about the human race, doesn’t it?
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 9, 2009 2:09 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Well, in part it says that happy times are boring.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 2:11 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Happy times?
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 9, 2009 2:17 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I was mainly thinking of the quote
"Every happy family is the same, but unhappy families are all different."
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 2:18 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Or: “Ancient Chinese Curse: May you live in interesting times”
Get the hell out the way Bengie, Pablito's hit the show!
by Roger on Jan 9, 2009 2:22 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Recent Japanese Slogan: For relaxing times, make it Suntory times.
by Grant on Jan 9, 2009 2:24 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Funny,
(not haha funny) that I didn’t find Atwood that depressing. William Styron on the other hand is so unrelentingly depressing that I just gave up reading him. The Confessions of Nat Turner is an exception though.
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 9, 2009 4:19 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
University of Texas?
Austin is my #2 choice on my list of grad schools, if I go that route.
"While conservatives tell you 'leave things alone and no one will lose,' and liberals tell you 'interfere a lot and no one will lose,' baseball says 'someone will lose.' Not only says it - but insists upon it! ... Democracy is lovely, but baseball's more mature." BVCE supports SF Dugout and Manny Burriss.
by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Jan 9, 2009 10:07 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I went to Baylor
UT is a pretty good school, plus it’s in the middle of a city that has both the “college-town” feel and a “big-city” feel.
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 10, 2009 1:33 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I just found an awesome Longhorns cap. It’s burnt orange (of course) with the kanji for “bull” in orange thread. I love it, and it was only $10.
"While conservatives tell you 'leave things alone and no one will lose,' and liberals tell you 'interfere a lot and no one will lose,' baseball says 'someone will lose.' Not only says it - but insists upon it! ... Democracy is lovely, but baseball's more mature." BVCE supports SF Dugout and Manny Burriss.
by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Jan 10, 2009 3:10 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
That’s at least an Affeldt-caliber acquisition, maybe even Johnson-caliber. Are you a native Texan or something?
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 10, 2009 5:16 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I just loved it because it’s orange (my favorite color) and has kanji on it. Plus like I said I’m looking at UT for grad school so in about a hundred years when I go, I’ll fit in.
"While conservatives tell you 'leave things alone and no one will lose,' and liberals tell you 'interfere a lot and no one will lose,' baseball says 'someone will lose.' Not only says it - but insists upon it! ... Democracy is lovely, but baseball's more mature." BVCE supports SF Dugout and Manny Burriss.
by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Jan 10, 2009 5:56 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Sounds like a plan. Good luck with your endeavors toward that.
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 11, 2009 11:07 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Do you have a huge mustache and wear those corduroy sports jackets with the leather pads on the elbows?
(plz say yes)
by xanthan on Jan 9, 2009 1:39 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Not yet
They give a massive makeover though.
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 9, 2009 1:39 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
You’re confusing him with oldjacket’s avatar.
They say some players get out of bed hitting; Pablo Sandoval doesn't wait that long
by bgunn on Jan 9, 2009 1:40 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
confusing him with oldjacket
cept that the wife made me get rid of the facial hair
We don't really have that much pitching depth. We don't really have that much pitching depth. FOR GOD SAKE, VERUCA, DON'T GO FAKE TRADING JONATHAN SANCHEZ. We don't really have that much pitching depth
by oldjacket on Jan 9, 2009 1:40 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
fyi: I was pretty bummed when I found out that you look nothing like your avatar.
by xanthan on Jan 9, 2009 1:42 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
same to you
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 9, 2009 1:42 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I don’t look much like my avatar either.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:42 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’ve seen Natto’s Facebook picture, I can verify this.
by xanthan on Jan 9, 2009 1:47 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I look almost exactly like mine.
Get the hell out the way Bengie, Pablito's hit the show!
by Roger on Jan 9, 2009 2:03 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I act exactly like mine.
The Basil Fawlty Moderating Strategy:
"We could run a nice blog here if we didn't have all these members getting in the way."
by WalrusMan on Jan 11, 2009 1:12 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
So he’s not Commission Gordon? Damn…
by lincypoo i wuv u on Jan 13, 2009 1:01 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Just Read
Fantasyland – Sam Walker
A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson
Just Started
Chinese Lesson – John Pomfret
Going to Read
Return of Depression Economics – Paul Krugman (that will be a reread)
Red State, Blue State – Andrew Gelman
Who Hates Whom – Bob Harris
Years of Rice and Salt – K.S. Robinson
We don't really have that much pitching depth. We don't really have that much pitching depth. FOR GOD SAKE, VERUCA, DON'T GO FAKE TRADING JONATHAN SANCHEZ. We don't really have that much pitching depth
by oldjacket on Jan 9, 2009 1:43 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
I finished A Short History… over the summer, did you like it? I really like Bryson, he’s a fun guy to read.
by xanthan on Jan 9, 2009 1:44 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Talking to myself … if you like Bryson, check out ‘A Walk in the Woods’ his book on hiking the AT. Also, ‘Neither Here Nor There’ is his travel memoir from Europe, it’s pretty good too.
by xanthan on Jan 9, 2009 1:46 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’d also recommend Notes From a Small Island.
I didn’t much like his childhood memoir, though. I can’t remember the whole title – something about the Thunderbolt Kid.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:46 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I think he has a new book out on Shakespeare, anyone read it?
by xanthan on Jan 9, 2009 1:47 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I loved Short History,
… but I also somewhat recently read his book about returning to the States, “I’m a stranger here myself,” and was terribly bored by it. Don’t think I finished it.
Saving countless runs with my Brian Horwitz
by lyricalkiller on Jan 9, 2009 2:21 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Love love love Notes from a Small Island. Classic Bryson.
Omar...I'm done with you. Hello Darren Ford! Come to papa.
by PacBellBoozer on Jan 11, 2009 5:41 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I heard “A Walk in the Woods” is going to be made into a movie starring Robert Redford, but that was a little while ago. I wonder if they canned it
Wall-E for Best Picture 2008
by Useful_Idiot on Jan 9, 2009 5:29 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Being a refugee from Iowa, Bryson is a favorite of mine.
I have read everything he has written and am still amazed he was raised in Des Moines. ’Neither Here Nor There" is my favorite.
"It hurts sooooooo... good!"
by Baybear on Jan 10, 2009 8:54 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, love me the Bill Bryson, and that is amongst my favorites by him. He gets better with age.
We don't really have that much pitching depth. We don't really have that much pitching depth. FOR GOD SAKE, VERUCA, DON'T GO FAKE TRADING JONATHAN SANCHEZ. We don't really have that much pitching depth
by oldjacket on Jan 9, 2009 1:48 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I really liked A Short History of Nearly Everything and Years of Rice and Salt.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:44 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Recommended highly
Everything is Illuminated- by Foer
Ragtime – by Doctorow
Slaughterhouse Five – by Vonnegut
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 9, 2009 1:47 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
I’m woefully underread on Vonnegut. I’m pretty ashamed of that.
by xanthan on Jan 9, 2009 1:48 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Hahaha, I am too, but I never really got into novels until last year. Vonnegut’s a character
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 9, 2009 1:50 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’ve only read Slaughterhouse-Five, The Sirens of Titan, and Cat’s Cradle, which are pretty much the most obvious ones.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 1:50 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
those are some of the best but there are so many more that are awesome too!
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 9, 2009 2:14 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
READ MORE VONNEGUT.
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 9, 2009 2:14 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Slaughterhouse Five is really great.
Castillo got the DFA. Guestimate for Castillo DFA to come before the 2009 season = 2.
by kennv on Jan 9, 2009 2:21 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Ragtime FTW!!
No one ever mentions this one, and I just loved it. The stream of consciousness type of writing was something I had never seen before. It was also a fascinating portrait of the 1920’s – while being a compelling story as well.
There was one awkward thing, though. We read this one in school, and my teacher made some poor kid read the “jizzing in the closet” scene to the whole class. He was so embarassed…
72-90 - TIMMY FOR CY YOUNG!!!
Adopted Giant: Daryl Maday - The roller coaster ride continues - Augusta to Norwich to San Jose, the latter of which has been a success so far. 1.59 ERA.
by rhys on Jan 9, 2009 3:07 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’ve recently started reading “This is Your Brain on Music” by Daniel J. Levitin. I’m only about 40 pages in but it’s pretty fascinating so far. Here’s what is says on the back cover:
In this unprecedented meeting of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between music – it’s performances, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it – and the human brain. Drawing on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart, Ella Fitzgerald, and U2 to Schoenberg, Metallica, and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” Levitin reveals:
- how composers exploit the way our brains make sense of the world
- why we emotionally attach to music we list to as teenagers
- why 10,000 hours of practice – not talent – makes virtuosos
- how insidious jingles [aka ear worms] get stuck in our heads
Taking on prominent thinkers who argue that music is nothing more than an evolutionary accident, Levitin argues that music is fundamental to our species, perhaps even more so than language. This Is Your Brain On Music is an ear-opening, mind-blowing investigation into an obsession at the center of human nature.
We're all basically Pedro Feliz.
by SF Pete on Jan 9, 2009 1:48 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
I'm partway through that too
I love it, but I have a really bad habit of starting multiple books and not finishing any of them. So I haven’t picked it up for weeks though I was digging it when it was in the rotation
by moonman on Jan 10, 2009 1:30 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Art of War-Sun Tzu
Adventures of Tintin-Red Rackham’s Treasure by Herge
by Todd Linden on Jan 9, 2009 1:50 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Yay for the Art of War. In 2007 I wrote an essay comparing it to modern political realism and what went wrong in the modern usage.
"While conservatives tell you 'leave things alone and no one will lose,' and liberals tell you 'interfere a lot and no one will lose,' baseball says 'someone will lose.' Not only says it - but insists upon it! ... Democracy is lovely, but baseball's more mature." BVCE supports SF Dugout and Manny Burriss.
by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Jan 9, 2009 10:08 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Anybody else read The Rest is Noise? Great stuff. Strangely, I’ve had an insatiable appetite for listening to “I am sitting in a room” ever since I read it.
Get the hell out the way Bengie, Pablito's hit the show!
by Roger on Jan 9, 2009 2:07 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
I’m still kind of sort of not really reading The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom! I really suck at reading sometimes.
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 9, 2009 2:14 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Actually
All of the time.
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 9, 2009 2:16 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I was thankful that I had to read
The Sound and the Fury for school. I wouldn’t have made it through otherwise. But once I did finish it, talked and wrote about it, I realized that the disjointed chronology and multiple POVs were the only to truly tell the story. It still ranks as one of the best books I’ve read after all these years.
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 9, 2009 4:28 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Me too dude. I didn’t read much of anything last year. I did write a heck of a lot more this past semester with journalism and screenwriting classes.
"While conservatives tell you 'leave things alone and no one will lose,' and liberals tell you 'interfere a lot and no one will lose,' baseball says 'someone will lose.' Not only says it - but insists upon it! ... Democracy is lovely, but baseball's more mature." BVCE supports SF Dugout and Manny Burriss.
by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Jan 9, 2009 10:09 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I don’t think not really reading Faulkner counts as having trouble reading. At least, I hope not.
I know Faulkner and Joyce are considered great, but if you have to work that hard to get at what they offer, in my opinion it isn’t worth it.
Homer, now – that’s great literature.
I'm as tall as Mel - why can't I hit 500 home runs?
by Ott on Jan 9, 2009 2:37 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
FWIW, Joyce’s first two books are relatively easy reads. Especially Dubliners.
I do enjoy a really challenging book, though. Not all the time, but every now and then. Good for stretching the mind – and, as with many things in life, sometimes the fact that something’s challenging ends up making it that much more enjoyable.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 2:41 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Dubliners is definitely in my top 3 of all time
by igotnothing on Jan 12, 2009 3:56 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
That’s almost exactly the opposite of Joyce’s theory, people only value things that are hard to get at. Pretty much the literary equivalent of only being attracted to people who aren’t interested in you.
(oh and by the way, both Joyce and Faulkner are both awesome).
Get the hell out the way Bengie, Pablito's hit the show!
by Roger on Jan 9, 2009 2:43 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
One bit of literary blasphemy that my father and I share is that we both hate The Great Gatsby. I dislike the flat characters and unconvincing love story, but my father’s main objection is that the book is too straightforward and easy.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 2:45 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I'm with this.
Daisy is the sexiest imaginary character ever, but you can pretty much skim the book and be done.
Saving countless runs with my Brian Horwitz
by lyricalkiller on Jan 9, 2009 3:10 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I can't agree with that
It’s really easy to miss pretty major things in Gatsby — and I know because I taught it every year for several years in college classes and pretty routinely the students were amazed at how much they missed. And as I’ve gotten older and nostalgia has become much more emotionally meaningful to me, it really is amazing how strongly that book is both FOR and AGAINST it. In every possible way it warns against and disapproves the nostalgic impulse even as it gives way to it fully. A very emotionally rich novel. Yeah characters are flat and dialogue ludicrous, but that narrative voice is amazing.
Get the hell out the way Bengie, Pablito's hit the show!
by Roger on Jan 9, 2009 8:41 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I loved The Great Gatsby, but Fitzgerald’s excessive use of symbolism grates on me a bit. I think it was Hemingway who said that all the symbolism people find in his books is bull****. Reading a book shouldn’t be like piecing a puzzle together.
Wall-E for Best Picture 2008
by Useful_Idiot on Jan 9, 2009 9:27 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I guess that would be where I disagree with Joyce. I don’t mind reading difficult literature, but I do mind literature that is difficult for the sake of being difficult.
I forget what the name is, but there is a literary theory that talks about mankind’s desire to find order and unity, even if there is none in the subject studied. Joyce and Faulkner capitalize on that. I’m not saying they aren’t intelligent, and didn’t come up with some impressive stuff, but when I finished reading The Sound and the Fury, for example, I didn’t feel as though I was substantially improved for what I had just read, which is one of my goals in reading good literature (as opposed to dime novel types). Maybe I’ll look at it again, but one of my marks for a great author is that he knows how to communicate. Homer, Shakespeare, and Dante all take getting used to, but they communicate well and have depths that reward multiple readings. I don’t get that same impression from Faulkner.
Admittedly, I can’t comment on Joyce except by reputation, as I haven’t read him. My experience with Faulkner sort of soured me on trying Joyce. I’m sure I’ll pick him up one day, and I will give him a fair reading when I do. I’m willing to change if I’m wrong.
I'm as tall as Mel - why can't I hit 500 home runs?
by Ott on Jan 9, 2009 3:48 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’ve got to join in on recommending Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist. I’m with you on Ulysses (Benefit<Cost).
We don't really have that much pitching depth. We don't really have that much pitching depth. FOR GOD SAKE, VERUCA, DON'T GO FAKE TRADING JONATHAN SANCHEZ. We don't really have that much pitching depth
by oldjacket on Jan 9, 2009 3:55 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I guess that would be where I disagree with Joyce. I don’t mind reading difficult literature, but I do mind literature that is difficult for the sake of being difficult.
It took me about 20 listens to appreciate Tom Waits’s “Rain Dogs.” Time spent: about 15-20 hours
It took me about five viewings to appreciate 2001: A Space Odyssey. Time spent: about 13 hours
But books…man. There is so much I want to read, and there is so much that I’ll never get a chance to read, that it’s hard for me to commit for the 40+ hours it takes to read a book that I’m not actively enjoying, much less several times. That’s why I have less patience with literature that I’m having trouble with. Because it isn’t as if I appreciate “Rain Dogs” more than “Pet Sounds” because I overcame some initial prejudices, and it isn’t as if 2001 beats out Casablanca because I had to struggle with the former.
by Grant on Jan 9, 2009 3:58 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
It took me
4 viewings to start liking The Big Lebowski, and a year of owning IV to start liking Led Zeppelin. Sometimes it’s worth it, though I agree that it’s much easier with music and movies than it is with books.
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 9, 2009 4:24 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Really?
“4 viewings to start liking The Big Lebowski”
I liked the shit out of that movie the first time I saw it, and every time since then it just gets better and better.
by Mrbasepaul on Jan 9, 2009 6:16 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
the literary equivalent of only being attracted to people who aren’t interested in you.
That makes me sad…
Wall-E for Best Picture 2008
by Useful_Idiot on Jan 9, 2009 5:30 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I like Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist from Joyce.
And I like Faulkner! I loved As I Lay Dying. It’s not him here, it’s me! I would have trouble reading Harry Potter at the moment. :(
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 9, 2009 2:43 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Ulysses is my favorite, but the hellfire and brimstone sermon from Portrait is one of my favorite passages from any book, ever. Gives me chills.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 2:48 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I still want to give Ulysses a shot someday. I picked it up in the Irish Writers museum in Dublin though, thinking “there’s no way it can be that bad!” and promptly wtf’d.
…Then I picked up Finnegans Wake.
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 9, 2009 2:49 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
The beginning of Ulysses is actually one of the easiest parts.
Later, there’s an episode/chapter (known as Oxen of the Sun) in which the writing styles recreate the entire history of the English language. And the last episode, Penelope, is about 50 pages but only has three punctuation marks. That might be my favorite part of the whole novel.
And yeah, even when I was in grad school for English, we had conversations about how you had to be crazy to try to read Finnegans Wake.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 2:53 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Absalom, Absalom!
Stick with this book; the payoff at the end is huge. Don’t worry too much if you’re not picking up on every single item in the first, oh, three-fourths of the book…it’s all supposed to be something of a this-is-the-way-we-remember-things montage anyway…and revel in the last part when things suddenly become crystal clear and the narrative traditional and riveting. There’s one line of dialogue between the half brothers that I will never forget, and made the whole experience worth the occasional passage of bafflement.
by VidaWantsYourCar on Jan 9, 2009 4:43 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
My 2008 list
Just put it togeher a few days ago, actually. Ranked by goodness.
42. A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby
41. Firehouse, David Halberstam
40. American Nerd, Benjamin Nugent
39. The Good Rat, Jimmy Breslin
38. Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk
37. Gratitude, by William F. Buckley
36. The Abstinence Teacher, Tom Perotta
35. Ignatius Frequenaut, Paul Feig
34. The Dark Knight, Frank Miller
33. Things the Grandchildren Should Know, Mark Everett
32. Pontoon, Garrison Keilor
31. Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
30. What I’d say to the Martians, Jack Handey
29. The Appeal, John Grisham
28. Oil, Upton Sinclair
27. Supreme Courtship, Christopher Buckley
26. Rapture Ready, Daniel Radosh
25. Everyman, Philip Roth
24. Night, Elie Wiesel
23. Don’t Think of an Elephant, George Lakoff
22. The Night of the Gun, David Carr
21. Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain, Scott Adams
20. Children of Men, P.D. James
19. Baseball Prospectus
18. God Save the Fan, Will Leitch
17. The Nine, Jeffrey Toobin
16. The Astounding Life of Octavian Nothing (Vol. 1), M.T. Anderson
15. Letter to a Christian Nation, Sam Harris
14. Portnoy’s Complaint, Philip Roth
13. Prince Caspian, C.S. Lewis
12. Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris
11. All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy
10. Boys on the Bus, Timothy Crouse
9. Blind Side, Michael Lewis
8. On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan
7. Autism’s False Prophets, Paul Offit
6. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
5. The Bush Tragedy, Jacob Weisberg
4. The Watchmen, Alan Moore
3. The Ghost Writer, Philip Roth
2. Ball Four, Jim Bouton
1. Nixonland, Richard Perlstein
Saving countless runs with my Brian Horwitz
by lyricalkiller on Jan 9, 2009 2:17 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
I made a big push to read most of Roth’s major stuff, and in the end I was pretty underwhelmed. Just like Joyce Carol Oates (who I think has never written a second draft of anything) I’m doomed ot not get what the all the hooplas about with with him.
Get the hell out the way Bengie, Pablito's hit the show!
by Roger on Jan 9, 2009 2:22 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Funny, my reading project this year is to get through as much Roth as possible. Maybe I’ll change course. Ghost Writer might be my favorite book ever about writing, though.
Saving countless runs with my Brian Horwitz
by lyricalkiller on Jan 9, 2009 2:24 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Philip Roth is someone I’m really embarrassed not to have read. I recently picked up a copy of The Plot Against America, though.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 2:29 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
The Dark Knight counts?
Then I’ll put my hat in the proverbial ring and say I conquered The Dark Knight Returns.
STEVE HOLM! refuses to be the odd man out.
by UnleashTheGore on Jan 9, 2009 2:33 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
What about The Dark Knight Strikes Back? When I first read it I thought “Underrated,” but now who knows. It’s been three or four years. But the book could probably be helpful when one tries to pinpoint exactly when Frank Miller lost his mind.
by sakbaum on Jan 12, 2009 10:31 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I think you mean The Dark Knight Strikes Again. I really didn’t like it.
by Natto on Jan 12, 2009 10:34 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, that’s the one. Based on his recent output, I don’t think I’ll be revisiting it to see if my original opinion was justified.
by sakbaum on Jan 12, 2009 10:39 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I own it and reread it a couple times just to make sure I wasn’t overlooking something that’d make it good. Still didn’t find anything. Fortunately, it was a gift, so I didn’t pay for it myself.
by Natto on Jan 12, 2009 10:52 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
The Blind Side is very good.
We don't really have that much pitching depth. We don't really have that much pitching depth. FOR GOD SAKE, VERUCA, DON'T GO FAKE TRADING JONATHAN SANCHEZ. We don't really have that much pitching depth
by oldjacket on Jan 9, 2009 2:37 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I enjoyed that as well. Then again I like reading about educational experiences – from different perspectives.
by Merope on Jan 12, 2009 1:07 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I'm interested in what you thought of
Oil, and Firehouse. I read Halberstam’s The Breaks of the Game and thought it was awesome.
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 9, 2009 6:05 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I really disliked Firehouse. I’m not sure I can stand more than about 8,000 words of Halberstam. He’s just too certain of his own interestingness. Anyway, it felt phoned in, like he had to do SOMETHING about 9/11 and he didn’t want to have to drive to a second location.
Oil! was awesome for about 100 pages — the first 50 are the rough outline of There Will Be Blood — and then it ran out of steam. It was interesting for the history (especially because it’s about the area around my house) but it didn’t really have scandal or story.
Saving countless runs with my Brian Horwitz
by lyricalkiller on Jan 9, 2009 7:30 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
#29
I really enjoy Grisham. I just finished The Broker and really enjoyed it. I picked up The Appeal in November when it came available in paperback. I have 3 or 4 more of his books left to read.
Giant Dirtbags: Brian Anderson, Todd Jennings, Steve Hammond, John Bowker
Jeremy Affeldt Ready To Make His Father Proud
by Giant among Angels on Jan 9, 2009 8:16 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Go you for the Narnia read. I like Prince Caspian the book, the movie was a good movie but I’d like for it to have followed the book more.
The Basil Fawlty Moderating Strategy:
"We could run a nice blog here if we didn't have all these members getting in the way."
by WalrusMan on Jan 11, 2009 1:19 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I read a chapter of Narnia whenever I visit The Porcelain Library.
It’s not all that compelling , seems to be written for children. I’m doing it more because Vic Jr. recommended it than any other reason like constipation.
I recently was looking for the source of the phrase “Ford be praised!” and as a result will soon be rereading Brave New World after first reading it some thirty five years ago.
Who has the fun?
Is it always the man with the gun?
- The Stranglers
by victor frankenstein on Jan 14, 2009 2:39 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Perhaps it is written for children.
But maybe that’s some of the fun. Of course maybe it’s just I connected with the books and read them all the time when i was a kid.
The Basil Fawlty Moderating Strategy:
"We could run a nice blog here if we didn't have all these members getting in the way."
by WalrusMan on Jan 14, 2009 2:53 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
The Dragonriders of Pern trilogy by Anne McCaffrey , when I was 13.
I’d hit that again.
Who has the fun?
Is it always the man with the gun?
- The Stranglers
by victor frankenstein on Jan 16, 2009 7:22 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
As of July 2006, the series consists of 18 novels or novellas and several short stories, you definitely need to revisit.
by timmeh on Jan 16, 2009 8:21 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Grades/Revies please
How dod 17 and 33 compare to their other novels. I haven’t read any LeGuin in a decade, so maybe 2009 is a good time to start.
Castillo got the DFA. Guestimate for Castillo DFA to come before the 2009 season = 2.
by kennv on Jan 9, 2009 2:23 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
The LeGuin novel is the first book in a new young adult series. I liked it a lot – it’s about a pre-industrial culture where every family has an inherited ability, mostly to do with violence – the first book of the series is about a young man from one of the families whose gift is uncontrollably strong, so he is blinded so he can’t use it.
The Neil Gaiman book (33) was pretty good, but I haven’t liked his last couple of books as much as some of his earlier ones.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 2:27 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Currently I'm doing Audio Books with light bathrooming reading
Audio Book
-1776
-To Fat To Fish (artie lang)
-John Adams
-The Appeal (John Grisham)
Graphic Novel
-Walking Dead
Magazine
-The Economist
Down in Front Meat!
by homerdrew415 on Jan 9, 2009 2:31 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
I've never heard bathrooming used as a verb
But it has a certain 20th century elegance
Saving countless runs with my Brian Horwitz
by lyricalkiller on Jan 9, 2009 2:32 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
do you still enjoy Grisham's new stuff?
I used to be a big fan, but his last 5 books or so have been pretty blah. The Firm was definitely his best, IMO.
STEVE HOLM! refuses to be the odd man out.
by UnleashTheGore on Jan 9, 2009 2:34 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
After I read
The Firm I swore I would never waste my time reading another John Grisham novel. While he certainly has a talent for plot, he can’t write, in the true sense, at all. The Firm had a flat ending because he could not sustain through his writing, any of the suspense he had created through his plot devices.
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 9, 2009 4:36 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I haven’t read The Firm, but this reminds me – am I the only one who found The Da Vinci Code to be very mediocre?
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 9, 2009 4:43 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
No
You are definitely not the only one. I thought it was a good idea turned turned bad. It annoyed me considerably.
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 9, 2009 5:16 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
God, I hated that book. I’m really not an elitist — I’ve debated the merits of Stephen King with a giantsrainman-like zeal — but that book suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked.
by Grant on Jan 9, 2009 5:53 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I think he’s actually saying that he’s argued on the side of King.
Which is something I would probably also do if we could pretend that he didn’t write The “Steaming Pile of” Stand.
Sorry, I just can’t miss an opportunity to take a shot at that book. Otherwise, King, fine writer on the whole.
My Dave Righetti is better than your Dave Righetti.
by howtheyscored on Jan 12, 2009 9:22 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, I think blocked out the word ‘merit’ for some reason. I enjoy King a good bit, but a lot of book snobs look down on him. I haven’t read the Stand yet.
by xanthan on Jan 12, 2009 9:32 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I haven’t read the Stand yet.
Unless you’re totally dying for 1000+ pages of crap, I’d leave it alone.
Then again, I know plenty of people who really liked it, so it could just be that it’s simply not my thing.
My Dave Righetti is better than your Dave Righetti.
by howtheyscored on Jan 12, 2009 11:31 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I think I’ve got a friend who read the longer version and liked it. I don’t know, I’d like to try it one day.
by xanthan on Jan 12, 2009 11:34 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Semi-hijack
Worst Stephen King adaptation-to-movie? I’m going with Dreamcatcher. The book was thrilling and the movie just left me angry.
STEVE HOLM! refuses to be the odd man out.
by UnleashTheGore on Jan 12, 2009 11:39 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Never saw or read Dreamcatcher. I haven’t actually seen many King movies.
Silver Bullet was the awesome when I was 10, though.
/shoots wolf in the eye with rocket
/fist pump
Also, it has Gary Busey in it. Awesome.
by xanthan on Jan 12, 2009 11:42 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
What was that one with the industrial laundry machine? I choose that one.
by sakbaum on Jan 12, 2009 11:46 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
That was the one with Jason Lee not being in a Kevin Smith movie and before he made Earl.
I guess that also describes Mumford, though….
My Dave Righetti is better than your Dave Righetti.
by howtheyscored on Jan 12, 2009 11:53 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Dreamcatcher was so awful. Buttworms and a slow kid with magical powers? No thanks.
"While conservatives tell you 'leave things alone and no one will lose,' and liberals tell you 'interfere a lot and no one will lose,' baseball says 'someone will lose.' Not only says it - but insists upon it! ... Democracy is lovely, but baseball's more mature." BVCE supports SF Dugout and Manny Burriss.
by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Jan 12, 2009 6:24 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
The Langoliers
Horrible made for TV movie. The only good thing about the movie was that Balky Bartokomous from the TV show Perfect Strangers was in it.
Giant Dirtbags: Brian Anderson, Todd Jennings, Steve Hammond, John Bowker
Jeremy Affeldt Ready To Make His Father Proud
by Giant among Angels on Jan 12, 2009 7:33 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
agree
It had these computer graphics from like 1983, some pac-man dudes eating time and space and a black guy dying first.
by lincypoo i wuv u on Jan 13, 2009 1:10 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’m ashamed to say, that I watched both parts of the Langoliers one Saturday a month or so ago on the Sci-Fi channel.
I GOT SUCKED IN
/airplane flies through space time rip
by xanthan on Jan 13, 2009 5:18 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
The greater your enjoyment of the depth of King’ idiosyncrasies in print the depth of your disdain for the adaptations – or is that just me?
Who has the fun?
Is it always the man with the gun?
- The Stranglers
by victor frankenstein on Jan 14, 2009 2:42 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Also – I read “DaVinci” during busrides across Phoenix two years ago. I’m with the “Meh” crowd…was it written after the movie? That was the impression it left with me.
Who has the fun?
Is it always the man with the gun?
- The Stranglers
by victor frankenstein on Jan 14, 2009 2:45 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Nah.
It.
Who has the fun?
Is it always the man with the gun?
- The Stranglers
by victor frankenstein on Jan 16, 2009 7:24 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
The book really creeped me out but the movie not so much. As I have stated before I really hate clowns, between the book and my imagination, i had every light in the apartment on. I was 25.
by timmeh on Jan 16, 2009 8:28 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Remember when the D - Blanks fell out of first place?
I sent the Pit a message that read:
“We all float down here…you’ll float , too…”
They wer not amusd.
Ehh , the minute whatever character said “There’s something evil in Derry” I was gone…
Who has the fun?
Is it always the man with the gun?
- The Stranglers
by victor frankenstein on Jan 16, 2009 9:13 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
My wife has read that book like 20 times. What can I say – she’s a little weird.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 12, 2009 11:40 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I couldn’t go beyond the first chapter
Wall-E for Best Picture 2008
by Useful_Idiot on Jan 9, 2009 6:27 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Dan Brown: “[Anything]”
Me: “Jesus, this is stupid.”
GROUGTHINK ALERT
by groug on Jan 9, 2009 9:24 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I thought it was enjoyable
But Angels & Demons was better.
STEVE HOLM! refuses to be the odd man out.
by UnleashTheGore on Jan 12, 2009 8:07 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’m not ashamed to say I enjoy his storytelling, though I basically skip everything but the dialogue and read ’em all in two hours. But it had been a long dry spell before the Appeal, which I thought was his best in a good 10 years.
Saving countless runs with my Brian Horwitz
by lyricalkiller on Jan 9, 2009 7:31 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
How is The Appeal so far?
Giant Dirtbags: Brian Anderson, Todd Jennings, Steve Hammond, John Bowker
Jeremy Affeldt Ready To Make His Father Proud
by Giant among Angels on Jan 9, 2009 8:17 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Oh bother
This year has been bad for reading books, unless you count the four massive CPA Exam study books I read over a couple times.
Off the top of my head…
Stephen King: Cujo
Michael Connelly: Echo Park
Alan Greenspan: The Age of Turbulence
STEVE HOLM! refuses to be the odd man out.
by UnleashTheGore on Jan 9, 2009 2:37 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
I am reading a book with my wife right now, she hates reading and I am trying to get her into reading more. We are reading Inkheart right now, it is a teen novel, but its what we read so she can get into it. I also read almost the entire Drizzt saga by Salvatore, I just have to finish the last three books, since school starts monday we’ll have to see when that happens.
I can haz homerunz!
by jbowl on Jan 9, 2009 2:49 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
This year will probably follow my usual patterns
Terry Brook’s new books
Jim Butcher’s new books
Clive Cussler’s new books
New Salvatore Drizzt book whenever it comes out on paperback
Cussler has 3 concurrent series, so there’s usually at least 3 a year. I really recommend these three guys for easy style and fairly light, escapist reading.
I read the 1st book of the Dark tower series – might get off my ass and read #2
There’s a book about Teddy Roosevelt’s journey up the amazon that I might make as my 1 non-fiction for the year, but we’ll see. With a lot up in the air, I need fiction. I also have the newer biography of Joe Strummer waiting to be read, but its been sitting for a year.
I’m a pretty solid expert on the fantasy genre, if people have any questions.
Tentatively adopting Dan Ortmeier. And Boom Goes the Dynamite.
by Andy from DC on Jan 9, 2009 2:54 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Andy, have you ever read the shadowrun books, if so how are they? I have thought about getting some.
I can haz homerunz!
by jbowl on Jan 10, 2009 9:18 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Let's see...
Finished rereading Catch 22. One of the most awesomest books things in the history of books things.
I’ve also just finished I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. Meh. Not really my taste, I guess.
I stopped about halfway through Hammer of The Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga. It wasn’t bad, just got repetitive after a while. So they had another orgy in a jacuzzi filled with baked beans, big whoop.
Have also read some short stories by Kafka, and miserably failed at reading A Tale of Two Cities. I refuse to read a translated version, though, so I think I’ll go back to it in a year or so.
I’m now reading Can’t Buy Me Love. I’m only around page 100, but It’s been really interesting so far.
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 9, 2009 3:00 PM PST reply actions 1 recs
Catch-22
BEST BOOK EVER
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 9, 2009 3:02 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
I really think it’s my all time favorite book. It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever read, it has some of my all time favorite characters (MMMM, Colonel Cathcart, Nately’s whore, Orr – I could go on for a long time), and it has some surprising emotional depth. Plus, I could quote it for hours.
One of my favorite parts:
[ General Dreedle]: “Do you think it does you credit to have your chaplain hanging around here every night? He’s in here every goddamn time I come.”
“You’re right, sir, absolutely right,” Colonel Cathcart responded. “It does me no credit at all. And I am going to do something about it, this very minute.”
“Aren’t you the one who ordered him to come here?”
“No, sir, that was Colonel Korn. I intend to punish him severely, too.”
“If he wasn’t a chaplain,” General Dreedle muttered, “I’d have him taken outside and shot.”
“He’s not a chaplain,” Colonel Carthcart advised helpfully.
“Isn’t he? Then why the hell does he wear that cross on his collar if he’s not a chaplain?”
“He doesn’t wear a cross on his collar, sir. He wears a silver leaf. He’s a lieutenant colonel.”
“You’ve got a chaplain who’s a lieutenant colonel?” inquired General Dreedle with amazement.
“Oh no, sir. My chaplain is only a captain.”
“Then why the hell does he wear a silver leaf on his collar if he’s only a captain?”
“He doesn’t wear a silver lead on his collar, sir. He wears a cross.”
“Go away from me now, you son of a bitch.”
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 9, 2009 4:02 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
That’s probably my favorite book of all time, but I wish that Heller just used “said” instead of 144,303 different verbs.
by Grant on Jan 9, 2009 4:07 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I find that I really just ignore the “said” or other variants 99% of the time.
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 9, 2009 5:04 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever read
You, sir, have obviously never read Stephen Colbert’s: I Am America and So Can You!
STEVE HOLM! refuses to be the odd man out.
by UnleashTheGore on Jan 9, 2009 4:22 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Let me guess
It’s like Jon Stewart’s America (The Book), only from a fake Republican point of view.
I like Colbert, but his “look at me I’m the opposite of Stewart!” thingy can get tiring. Though I’m sure that I’d enjoy the book if I read it.
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 9, 2009 4:30 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
It's more of a toilet book
Pretty much just his random Republican-character viewpoint on everything. If you watch the show regularly, you’ve probably heard it all, and it’s funnier to hear him say it than to read him saying it.
STEVE HOLM! refuses to be the odd man out.
by UnleashTheGore on Jan 12, 2009 8:09 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Now I'm confused
Was your previous comment sarcastic?
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 13, 2009 7:27 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I was particularly fond of...
Milo Minderbinder as a character, but for names alone I thought the appropriate apellation of Lt. Scheiskopf was the best.
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 9, 2009 5:13 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I loved Milo
But his shtick got a bit tiring near the end.
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 9, 2009 5:57 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
True
But his leasing out of American planes to bomb their own airstrip was, in my mind, the height of absurdism. I read the book many years ago, and that episode is still one that really sticks out.
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 9, 2009 6:02 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I loved Milo up until the chapter where he abandons Yossarian while he’s AWOL. Up until that point, all his bad qualities were funny but after that, he seemed more, idk, maliciously self-centered.
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 9, 2009 6:17 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Such a great book, definitely one of the best ever written in the English language. I like the jumping in and out of the tent by whoever the leader is, I think? or am I just butchering that scene?
by Mrbasepaul on Jan 9, 2009 6:23 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
He probably seems that way
because I think he was, as you appropriately state it,“maliciously self-centered”. Still, not that I liked him, but there was something that made him interesting.
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 9, 2009 6:24 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Oh yeah, there are plenty of characters in that book who I don’t really like, but find very amusing or interesting. Like Cathcart, for example. Both the funniest and one of the most horrifying characters in the book.
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 9, 2009 6:42 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Well that's kind of the point
SPOILER
The last 100 pages or so are all about Yossarian’s world falling apart. All of his friends die or disappear, except for the chaplain, who isn’t exactly a friend, while the negative characters (Cathcart, Korn, Milo) slowly change from merely annoying to downright evil.
And more importantly, I think Milo is supposed to represent the “downside” of individualism. I think Heller tries to mock both sides – Nately represents collectivism and idealism, and Milo represents egoism and pragmatism. In the end, they both suck – Nately is exploited throughout the book, and in the end dies for no good reason, while Milo has no problem doing anything, including killing, for his own personal profit, which he does in the end by attacking his own airstrip, and indirectly killing Snowden (I think he replaced the first aid kit with a bunch of cotton balls, or something like that).
Also, Milo obviously represents capitalism at its worst, but that’s a whole other story.
Or I could be talking crap.
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 9, 2009 7:00 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, that’s true. Good points.
Still, Milo is portrayed as more of a good-ish guy throughout the book when compared to Cathcart, Korn, etc. Or, at least, more harmless. So I guess it comes as more of a shock or I get a more visceral reaction from it.
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 9, 2009 7:20 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Going against the grain is appealing, but ultimately perverse.
We don't really have that much pitching depth. We don't really have that much pitching depth. FOR GOD SAKE, VERUCA, DON'T GO FAKE TRADING JONATHAN SANCHEZ. We don't really have that much pitching depth
by oldjacket on Jan 9, 2009 7:35 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Definitely more harmless ( less harmful?)
But I don’t know about good-ish. I mean, I know it feels that way, but when I think about it, I can’t remember one nice thing Milo did or said throughout the entire book. In fact, I can’t even recall a single conversation in which he took part that didn’t revolve around him and his syndicate.
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 10, 2009 3:02 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
(Everybody has a share)
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 10, 2009 3:26 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
*force feeds you Egyptian Cotton covered in chocolate*
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 10, 2009 8:38 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Yup
one the three great reading “awakenings” of my life. Incredible to feel so jazzed from a handful of paper.
Get the hell out the way Bengie, Pablito's hit the show!
by Roger on Jan 9, 2009 8:33 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Gatsby and Moby Dick. All when I was about 16-17, the perfect time to have your mind opened by great literature.
Get the hell out the way Bengie, Pablito's hit the show!
by Roger on Jan 13, 2009 2:09 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
+100
ignore the reply fail somewhere else
by lincypoo i wuv u on Jan 13, 2009 1:15 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Wait. A Tale of Two Cities is by Dickens. Dickens was as English as English can be. Why would you need to refuse to read a translated version?
Confused, I am.
Speaking of Dickens, Bleak House is another book I want to read this year. And Catch 22 is a book I need to get a copy of.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 3:03 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
English
Is my second language. I read it pretty well, enough to do most of my reading in it, but Dickens was a bit too much. It’s not that I couldn’t do it, but I just felt like I’m putting too much effort into it.
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 9, 2009 4:15 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
tale of two cities
I didn’t like most of it that much. The last seven-ish chapters were really good, I thought, but the first 200 pages didn’t appeal to me much.
Less arm, more talk. Raisingcain is a GAMER.
Adopted Giant: Henry Sosa
by raisingcain on Jan 9, 2009 4:38 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Ahh, gotcha. Since your command of English seemed perfectly fine, I was a bit confused there.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 9, 2009 9:43 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
nosy
Can I ask what your first language is?
"While conservatives tell you 'leave things alone and no one will lose,' and liberals tell you 'interfere a lot and no one will lose,' baseball says 'someone will lose.' Not only says it - but insists upon it! ... Democracy is lovely, but baseball's more mature." BVCE supports SF Dugout and Manny Burriss.
by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Jan 9, 2009 10:10 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Hebrew
I’m pretty sure that I mentioned this a couple of times, but that was when I was still a n00b. I’m posting from Jerusalem.
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 10, 2009 5:33 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
That is hella cool. I’m obsessed with languages so I had to ask. :)
"While conservatives tell you 'leave things alone and no one will lose,' and liberals tell you 'interfere a lot and no one will lose,' baseball says 'someone will lose.' Not only says it - but insists upon it! ... Democracy is lovely, but baseball's more mature." BVCE supports SF Dugout and Manny Burriss.
by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Jan 10, 2009 12:34 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah I remember
I have a similar obsession. Though my obsession consists of talking about how I should learn a bunch of languages and not doing anything about it. Hopefully at some point I’ll start learning Arabic, and at least one out of French, Italian, and Spanish.
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 10, 2009 1:56 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Bleak House
One of the great introductions in all of literature — you certainly know what he thinks of courts and lawyers by the time he’s written just a few paragraphs.
by NearestNorwich on Jan 9, 2009 8:43 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’ll second the Catch-22 nom.
Major Major Major Major is so awesome.
We don't really have that much pitching depth. We don't really have that much pitching depth. FOR GOD SAKE, VERUCA, DON'T GO FAKE TRADING JONATHAN SANCHEZ. We don't really have that much pitching depth
by oldjacket on Jan 9, 2009 3:06 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’ve always had a soft spot for ex-PFC Wintergreen, essentially a real life troll.
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 9, 2009 3:09 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Poor, poor Snowden
Wall-E for Best Picture 2008
by Useful_Idiot on Jan 9, 2009 5:33 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
That's not funny!
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 13, 2009 7:28 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
yup.
clevinger’s trial is pretty fucking funny
"ever so cynical yet whimsical giants related signature"
by The Gene Hackman on Jan 12, 2009 4:30 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
It really gets good around page 150. Ronald becomes one of the popular kids, and his relationship with Kenneth falls apart. I really enjoyed the 15-page passage describing the African Anteater Ritual — it was one of the most apt metaphors I’ve ever read.
by Grant on Jan 9, 2009 3:11 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
A movie so bad
They had to make it twice.
But yeah, I meant this one.
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 9, 2009 3:41 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’ve read I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. I can’t say I enjoyed it, but I did find it interesting.
by Merope on Jan 9, 2009 4:26 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
That's pretty much how I felt
It’s not a bad book, and it has some interesting parts, but really, I could have stopped reading at any point without feeling any need to start again.
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 9, 2009 4:36 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Almost forgot
I’m also going to start Posnanski’s The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America .
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 10, 2009 9:29 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
That book
is wonderful. I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy 99% of it. The 1% you won’t enjoy? When you don’t have any more of it to read.
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 10, 2009 1:30 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Cool
My dad bought it for me, but then started reading it, and only let me have it after he was done.
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 10, 2009 1:36 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Hahahha
The Soul of Baseball = the awesome gift that you want to keep for yourself. I eventually gave away my copies to friends, but I may buy another one so I have my own again.
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
by baetown415 on Jan 10, 2009 5:20 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I read it twice in a row.
Best baseball book written in a long, long time.
Saving countless runs with my Brian Horwitz
by lyricalkiller on Jan 11, 2009 9:30 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I love that book a ridiculous amount. I cried at the end. :(
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 10, 2009 7:36 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Another orgy?
Wow!
The Basil Fawlty Moderating Strategy:
"We could run a nice blog here if we didn't have all these members getting in the way."
by WalrusMan on Jan 11, 2009 1:20 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I didn't make that up, BTW
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 11, 2009 1:44 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
For which book?
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 13, 2009 7:30 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Fantasy ftw
Wheel of time
Song of ice and fire (dance with dragons better come out soon)
Ender in Exile
Beadle the Bard
His Dark Materials
A Painted House
Garlic fries 08
by operation carrot on Jan 9, 2009 3:07 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Beadle the Bard good? My mom has been trying to get me to read it because I loved Harry Potter.
I can haz homerunz!
by jbowl on Jan 9, 2009 3:10 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I heard a diss about it in a review...
The author said it was more like a pamphlet becuase it was 111 pages, double spaced, and in a huge font. That being said, I liked the first 4 Potter books.
72-90 - TIMMY FOR CY YOUNG!!!
Adopted Giant: Daryl Maday - The roller coaster ride continues - Augusta to Norwich to San Jose, the latter of which has been a success so far. 1.59 ERA.
by rhys on Jan 9, 2009 3:12 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Damn right it better come out soon.
I’m seriously considering rereading, or just waiting quite a while.
Tentatively adopting Dan Ortmeier. And Boom Goes the Dynamite.
by Andy from DC on Jan 9, 2009 3:55 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
huh?
72-90 - TIMMY FOR CY YOUNG!!!
Adopted Giant: Daryl Maday - The roller coaster ride continues - Augusta to Norwich to San Jose, the latter of which has been a success so far. 1.59 ERA.
by rhys on Jan 9, 2009 4:22 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I was talking about Dance With Dragons.
its book 5 in a Song of Fire and Ice, by George RR Martin – considered to be one of the most realistic fantasy series out there.
Really good stuff, but it seems like he wrote the first 3 and started to slow down.
Tentatively adopting Dan Ortmeier. And Boom Goes the Dynamite.
by Andy from DC on Jan 9, 2009 4:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Just finished Ender in Exile
Im an Orson Scott Card fan
I see the future, and it is Pablo
by CB30 on Jan 9, 2009 4:42 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
"Not a Genuine Black Man" by Brian Copeland!
It’s this year’s Silicon Valley Reads book. Silicon Valley reads is like a book club for the whole Bay Area, there tag line is “What if everyone in Silicon Valley read the same book, at the same time… and then discussed it?”. Kind of a cool concept and the author is speaking a number of locations throughout the bay.
Funny, sad, insightful. Great book!
by Sigualicious on Jan 9, 2009 3:10 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Just discovered a new writer through the New Yorker - which is great, by the way
His name is Daniel Alarcón. I have spent the last few months consuming everything he has ever written and it has all been wonderful. He has a novel called Lost City Radio and short story collection called War By Candlelight. Such deep, thoughtful, though-provoking, spellbinding writing. Highly recommended.
72-90 - TIMMY FOR CY YOUNG!!!
Adopted Giant: Daryl Maday - The roller coaster ride continues - Augusta to Norwich to San Jose, the latter of which has been a success so far. 1.59 ERA.
by rhys on Jan 9, 2009 3:11 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Olde Tyme Bookes
I received a Kindle for xmas and have been picking out “classic” type literature from
http://www.freekindlebooks.org/ because I’m too cheap to actually buy anything at the moment.
So I’ve read or reread a buncha stuff by PG Wodehouse, Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott and Jules Verne
Mmmm… by the way…. Alice in Wonderland and Nyquil… don’t mix!
by Merope on Jan 9, 2009 4:23 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
How do you like your Kindle? I been thinking about getting one. As for freebies , Jane Austen is always fun, really Mr Darcy. Can anyone propose like him, then wonder why she didn’t accept?
by timmeh on Jan 10, 2009 3:44 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
At first we didn’t think we’d like them, but for free…… you can’t really complain can you?
The thing has come in mighty handy in waiting room situations and while travelling – if you buy a lot of hardcover books you’ll save yourself some $$ in the long run.
It also has a limited internet capability – I can access McCovey Chron. and Mr Merope uses Slash Dot. – and any page that has a mobile version. You can also subscribe to McCovey Chronicles for something like $1 a month. I’m not sure how it differs from the mobile version- I’m waiting till baseball season to try it out.
Truthfuly: I’d never buy one for myself… I tend to buy my books at the 2nd hand store…. but as a gift: neato!
So if priceis an issue maybe start softening up the Easter Bunny or the Birthday Fairy
by Merope on Jan 10, 2009 4:50 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Also for a free read go to the project gutenberg. It has many titles and they keep adding all the time. I’ve gotten quite a few and have started an e-library on my computer. If you can load from your computer to the Kindle this site may be a place to start.
by timmeh on Jan 10, 2009 9:18 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
That’s actually where freekindlebooks gets their books. They are in some way affiliated with project gutenberg: it’s all explained in the fine print that I never bother to read!
by Merope on Jan 11, 2009 9:08 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
A few recent gems (fiction category)
What is the What by Dave Eggers
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (so much more than the movie would lead you to believe)
Returning to Earth by Jim Harrison
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (I dig Russian writers; that society was built for great literature—comes with never quite getting the right system in place, I suppose)
by VidaWantsYourCar on Jan 9, 2009 4:53 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Oh, and one more...
Falling Man by Don DeLillo was…interesting. I’m a fan, but am not sure writing about 9/11 suited his detached style. I’m waffling on whether I liked it or not, though the fact I’m waffling and forgot to put it on my list initially probably settles it.
by VidaWantsYourCar on Jan 9, 2009 8:08 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I was a fan of DeLillo,
but he kind of lost me along the way. Some of his books, like White Noise are modern classics. I loved Libra. But I read one too many of his books where I felt he strung me along, hinting at some conflict to come, or some change of some sort, and yet nothing happened. I felt disappointed or, at least let down, by Americana, Ratner’s Star, and Underworld.
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 12, 2009 1:51 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Have you read The Master and Margarita? The author escapes me, but if you like Russian lit, this is a funny book and a good read.
Wall-E for Best Picture 2008
by Useful_Idiot on Jan 9, 2009 9:35 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Speaking of Dostoevsky...
I just picked up Crime and Punishment. It’s taken me a week to get through the first fifty pages. Just looking at it now makes my head hurt. The thing is, the man can freaking write. Once you get past the headache, it’s so engaging. I really like how he uses the vagueness of the character’s motivations as a way to keep the reader engaged. Oh, and the prose. That too.
by cornball on Jan 9, 2009 10:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I read that while I was in Cairo back in April and yeah, it can get really convoluted and difficult to read at times, but it’s worth it.
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 9, 2009 11:36 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
F.D.
I’ve read all of Dostoevsky’s major novels, and that is the recurring pattern: really difficult to get into, a strain to get a grip on who is who (given all the variations on their names), and then at a certain point—right around when you’ve finally got everyone straightened out and they all finally start to break free from character-establishing scenes and engage in events that move the plot forward, it all becomes fantastic. It takes me weeks to get through the first quarter or so of one of his books, and then days to finish the rest.
by VidaWantsYourCar on Jan 10, 2009 9:08 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Oh no
Brothers K is the fastest 1200 pages ever.
Get the hell out the way Bengie, Pablito's hit the show!
by Roger on Jan 10, 2009 9:19 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Indeed
More than any other, that one breaks the mold I described. It really hits the ground running. I guess I kind of forgot since the last couple Dostoevskys I’ve read since BK are The Idiot and Demons (which REALLY takes a while to get cooking).
by VidaWantsYourCar on Jan 10, 2009 12:11 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
The Peaver/Volokhonsky translation of BK is phenomenal.
by sakbaum on Jan 12, 2009 10:42 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Reading these for a class:
Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation. Great book.
Bethany McLean & Peter Elkind, The Smartest Guys in the Room. The Enron story. A good book, although I thought the authors could have made the financial wranglings even clearer. Of course, the whole point of the episode was that some of those transactions were very complex.
Christopher Cooper & Robert Block, Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security. Another good book. Gives the FEMA/DHS side of the story (not that the authors defend them; they’re quite critical) rather than focusing on the human tragedy of the hurricane victims.
by non sequitur on Jan 9, 2009 5:20 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Fast Food Nation..
Read that in 12th grade. It was interesting but I was probably not into it. Perhaps I’ll read it again.
The Basil Fawlty Moderating Strategy:
"We could run a nice blog here if we didn't have all these members getting in the way."
by WalrusMan on Jan 11, 2009 1:23 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I reread The Grapes of Wrath,
Of Mice and Men
and
East of Eden
this year. I went on a bit of a Steinbeck binge over the summer. He’s far and away my favorite author- I’ve yet to read an author that can put a scene together like he does. Plus, being on the east coast, it reminds me of home in California, and that’s always nice.
On another note, are there any aspiring novelists or other writers here?
Wall-E for Best Picture 2008
by Useful_Idiot on Jan 9, 2009 5:38 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Wow, I think I hit the wrong buttons… Oh well, you get what I was saying
Wall-E for Best Picture 2008
by Useful_Idiot on Jan 9, 2009 5:39 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Steinbeck is one of my favorites too.
For some reason though, I didn’t like Of Mice and Men as well as I liked The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden . It probably is due to a deficiency in my character and not Steinbeck’s writing. And it’s not that I didn’t think it was good, but I just liked the other two better.
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 9, 2009 5:54 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
“Cannery Row” was my favorite work of fiction that I read this year. I went into it thinking it was going to be some dry piece of drudgery like “The Jungle,” and I was blown away at how beautiful and vivid the characters were.
by Grant on Jan 9, 2009 5:56 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
If you like Cannery Row for that reason, you’ll love Steinbeck’s other books as well (that is, if you haven’t already read them)
Wall-E for Best Picture 2008
by Useful_Idiot on Jan 9, 2009 6:24 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Cannery Row
is next up for me; I do have to disagree though, I liked The Jungle a lot, although it is really boring and I read it a long time ago. At least I remember at the time (high school) liking the book.
My favorite Steinbeck book is Tortilla Flat; I don’t think it gets anywhere near the credit it deserves
by Mrbasepaul on Jan 9, 2009 6:26 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I can’t think of anything that I’ve ever both enjoyed and found to be boring at the same time
Wall-E for Best Picture 2008
by Useful_Idiot on Jan 11, 2009 8:21 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I don’t find the two to be mutually exclusive. King of the Hill, for instance. You just know that show is going to bore the heck out of you, but darned if it doesn’t have me laughing a lot of the time, too.
My Dave Righetti is better than your Dave Righetti.
by howtheyscored on Jan 11, 2009 10:14 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
King of the Hill
That’s exactly how I feel. It’s boring, and I never really feel like watching it, but whenever I do It’s hilarious.
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 11, 2009 11:54 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
+1
I think sometimes you have to trudge through things that at first are boring, and then are rewarded later. I am bored sometimes and enjoy it too…don’t know if that actually makes any sense
by Mrbasepaul on Jan 12, 2009 3:20 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
That, Doug and Rugrats were the boring fun shows of my childhood
by lincypoo i wuv u on Jan 13, 2009 1:28 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
HOW DARE YOU CALL DOUG AND RUGRATS BORING
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 13, 2009 12:34 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Those are fightin’ words.
The first person to say an ill word about Rocko’s Modern Life, dies.
by xanthan on Jan 13, 2009 12:45 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
The show Doug ruined my life in elementary school
“Hey, where’s Patty Mayonnaise?”
" I don’t see Skeeter anywhere!"
“Something about Porkchop!”
GROUGTHINK ALERT
by groug on Jan 13, 2009 1:17 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
You thought you had it bad? You should meet my friend Rita Repluso.
by Natto on Jan 13, 2009 1:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I had a friend named Jesse Lopez. J-Lo
Wall-E for Best Picture 2008
by Useful_Idiot on Jan 13, 2009 1:58 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Mulva!
The Basil Fawlty Moderating Strategy:
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by WalrusMan on Jan 13, 2009 2:54 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Depends on Doug.
When did you watch it? Was it the Nick version that was on from 91-94 or the disney version that was on after that.
Nick’s ruled.
The Basil Fawlty Moderating Strategy:
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by WalrusMan on Jan 13, 2009 3:00 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
The Nickelodeon Doug was really good, but Hey Arnold was the best Nick show evah. It’s one of the all time greats, animated or not.
Wall-E for Best Picture 2008
by Useful_Idiot on Jan 13, 2009 5:41 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
They really need to release that on DVD (along with a bunch of other Nicktoons). Spongebob and Fairly Oddparents are OK, but you can’t beat the classic ’Toons.
by Natto on Jan 13, 2009 5:53 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Best..
Besides the Angry Beavers.
The Basil Fawlty Moderating Strategy:
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by WalrusMan on Jan 13, 2009 6:37 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I never really cared for the Angry Beavers.
by Natto on Jan 13, 2009 6:42 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
The Disney version was an abomination, this is true.
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 13, 2009 8:39 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
One funny thing about it though...
Doug got a sister and it was named Cleopatra Dirtbike Funny. Beat that, crazy Hollywood parents!
Wall-E for Best Picture 2008
by Useful_Idiot on Jan 14, 2009 7:19 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I can’t remember: did/do you go to SJSU? I took Shillinglaw’s (don’t know if she still teaches there) Steinbeck class. Pretty good stuff. Cannery Row is my favorite Steinbeck.
by sakbaum on Jan 12, 2009 10:27 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, I probably would have taken the class if I weren’t so close to graduating. But I read Cannery Row for 193, and I loved it so much I immediately turned to the front to read the introduction. I never do that. I had no idea that it was written by a SJSU prof (Shillinglaw).
by Grant on Jan 12, 2009 1:59 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Huh. Thinking back on that class just now, I did a search on Shillinglaw. Turns out she did a commentary for the Grapes of Wrath DVD. Good for her.
by sakbaum on Jan 12, 2009 4:47 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Wait, did I somehow equate “doing a DVD commentary” with a great life achievement?
by sakbaum on Jan 12, 2009 5:00 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
It beats the heck out of whatever it is I did for a paycheck today.
by Grant on Jan 12, 2009 5:26 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I really hope she’s still there because I start SJSU in the fall. I heart Steinbeck.
"While conservatives tell you 'leave things alone and no one will lose,' and liberals tell you 'interfere a lot and no one will lose,' baseball says 'someone will lose.' Not only says it - but insists upon it! ... Democracy is lovely, but baseball's more mature." BVCE supports SF Dugout and Manny Burriss.
by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Jan 12, 2009 6:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’ve been “working on stuff” for quite awhile. You?
And I hear ya about the east coast thing. I moved to New York about four years ago, and my eyes light up whenever Steinbeck comes up in conversation out here (not all that often).
by sakbaum on Jan 12, 2009 12:44 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
This is a partial list
since I am as disorganized in my reading as I am in everything else. I should write these things down, but I don’t. So the list is partial because it is only from memory. I am not even at home where I could go rummaging around and probably find several I have forgotten.
The Autobiography of Saduharo Oh
Sock, by Penn Jillette (He should stick to his day job.)
Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon
Samurai William, by Giles Milton (the nonfiction account of the man that inspired Shogun. It reads like fiction.)
Between the Bridge and the River, by Craig Ferguson
Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy
The Master Butcher’s Singing Club, by Louise Erdich
The plague of Doves, by Louise Erdich
The Heart of the Matter, by Graham Greene
The Third Man, by Graham Greene
Benedict Arnold’s Navy, by James Nelson
The Darling, by Russell Banks
The March of Folly, by Barbara Tuchman
I’m sure I must be leaving out some books on WWII, since I read a lot about the Pacific theater of the War. I reserve the right to edit and amend these comments.
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 9, 2009 5:48 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
I just remembered another one
Remembering Laughter, by Wallace Stegner
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 9, 2009 6:20 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Graham Greene has never made sense to me. I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t ever figure out what he’s getting at, and it makes me feel stupid
Wall-E for Best Picture 2008
by Useful_Idiot on Jan 9, 2009 6:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Maybe you're trying too hard
to find something that’s right there in plain sight. Graham Greene is the kind of author that I like read slowly so I can apprecicate the eloquence of his writing. The Heart of the Matter has an incredible number of beautifully written lines that sum up human behavior in insightful terms. Also, there is a lot of variation in his writing, so you might try another book. The Human Factor was very complex and layered. There was a lot of sublety that you needed to catch, but on the other hand, I thought Our Man in Havana was very funny. It wasn’t totally accessible like best-seller stuff, but a good one to try.
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 9, 2009 6:35 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
That could definitely be it. I think I’ll head over to my bookshelf and give him another try
Wall-E for Best Picture 2008
by Useful_Idiot on Jan 9, 2009 9:37 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’ve never read that, but I had to read Angle of Repose by him in high school and I loved it.
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 9, 2009 6:43 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Angle of Repose is one of my favorite books.
I thought I had read everything Stegner had written, but I ran across Remembering Laughter. It’s a novella just republished recently. It was a submission to a writing contest made when he was still teaching, and had yet to have anything published beyond short stories and articles in magazines. It does not compare to Angle of Repose, or The Big Rock Candy Mountain, but it was still interesting.
Oh, it won the contest BTW.
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 10, 2009 7:28 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I love Oh’s autobio. There’s some really profound stuff in there.
"While conservatives tell you 'leave things alone and no one will lose,' and liberals tell you 'interfere a lot and no one will lose,' baseball says 'someone will lose.' Not only says it - but insists upon it! ... Democracy is lovely, but baseball's more mature." BVCE supports SF Dugout and Manny Burriss.
by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Jan 9, 2009 10:13 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Yes
I loved it too. It was very interesting beyond the baseball aspect. I really liked the glimpse it gave into the Japanese culture from his somewhat unique situation. Plus the training with the samurai sword was pretty cool too.
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 10, 2009 7:32 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I remembered another one.
Tales from Q School, by John Feinstein
Greetings, Marklar! I am Marklar! This is Marklar.
by marklar on Jan 10, 2009 7:33 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Have read, will read
Just finished:
Kitchen Confidential (reread), Anthony Bourdain
Johnny Got his Gun, Dalton Trumbo (Metallica based One off of the movie I believe)
Benjamin Button Short Story by Fitzgerald
On the docket:
Cannery Row
Down and Out in Paris and London
Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott
by Mrbasepaul on Jan 9, 2009 6:28 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
+Eleventybillion for anything by Bourdain
Omar...I'm done with you. Hello Darren Ford! Come to papa.
by PacBellBoozer on Jan 11, 2009 5:49 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
yeah, ridiculously funny writer. The end of the second chapter, when he describes the exact moment when he was inspired to be a cook, is awesome
by Mrbasepaul on Jan 12, 2009 3:21 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’m too lazy to list, but I got a book of sonnets for xmas. That will keep me occupied for awhile.
by timmeh on Jan 9, 2009 10:21 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
I am currently reading the Bible. When I am done with that, I will start reading Shakespeare.
I intend to be on Jeopardy one day, and these are important things to have read.
GROUGTHINK ALERT
by groug on Jan 9, 2009 11:49 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
I digged the Bible
But I can’t decide if I should pick up the sequel or not. I’ve heard from some that it’s nowhere nearly as good as the first, but OTOH, I’ve literally had people knock at my door just to tell me how good it is.
..so allow me to present Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain as two sweet, sweet bottles of warming hooch.
by Cookyman on Jan 10, 2009 5:55 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs
The spinoffs were pretty lame. It’s like someone completely different wrote them or something.
by Natto on Jan 10, 2009 10:48 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I think it was Gregory Benford.
My Dave Righetti is better than your Dave Righetti.
by howtheyscored on Jan 10, 2009 12:41 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Those, and the Mr. Boston Guide to Bartending.
by VidaWantsYourCar on Jan 10, 2009 9:10 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
the equivalent of 8-2-6...
It’s a weird double play. Read The Last Lecture, an inspiring and profound set of principles spelled out by a brilliant professor as he knows he is dying of cancer. But lest you think I’m sophisticated or emotionally attuned or something, I also thoroughly enjoyed The Game, the story of how some nerdy reporter from Rolling Stone fell into this weird society of guys who have reverse-engineered sexual attraction and come up with some fascinating (and pretty successful) principles for picking up girls.
I got one word for you: "youneverknow"
by senorvegas on Jan 10, 2009 12:13 AM PST reply actions 0 recs
This year I decided to read 'War and Peace.'
I finished it, but spent many hours of headaches to do so. I have been on a murder mystery kick of late (Perry, Tyler, Sandler, Oppenheimer), add in two Cormac McCarthy books and have one more in “to read” pile. Jacques Pepin’s autobiography and ‘The $64 Tomato’ are in there somewhere too.
This is a good OT post and I now have a long list of books to add to my “to read” piles. Thanks McC’s for the heads up.
"It hurts sooooooo... good!"
by Baybear on Jan 10, 2009 9:19 AM PST reply actions 0 recs
only a few right now
in the middle of 2666S. It’s huge and daunting and a first draft. however, it’s so worth it. Bolano has one of the best narrators that I’ve ever read and the translation from Spanish is solid and robust. I really really really like this book.
A little while ago, I finished Parasites Like Us by Adam Johnson. Not the most prolific writer, but if you like apocalyptic archaeological thrillers that are narrated gracefully and patiently, I’d recommend it highly.
When You Are Engulfed in Flames is a solid addition to Sedaris’ library. It’s not his best collection but still enjoyable. If y’all are interested in short stories Children Playing Before A Statue Of Hercules is an excellent collection, edited by Sedaris and the proceeds go to an excellent literaracy charity, 826 NYC.
I won’t be reading much outside of school. Modern Russian History = 13 books. yeeesh.
Mischievously implosive purple pitching staff.
by SloIsLonelyForTheOrange on Jan 10, 2009 1:02 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
not surprising to see Kim Stanley Robinson on this a few times. I just started reading him this year and have enjoyed all that stuff. Red Mars Green and Blue Mars lots. Wish I had been in a class or a group for Years of Rice and Salt, to talk about it every day. I guess there are online groups. KSR has pretty much consumed the year for me! Don’t think I have ever been so enmeshed in one writer.
Our Game by Le Carre was tangled and enjoyable.
Got given a Bryson for Christmas, history of nearly everything, and liked the couple of chapters I read, they went pretty quick.
adopter/sponsor of "Go, Antoan" Richardson
by foothillsfan on Jan 10, 2009 10:22 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
also in 2008: continued T.C. Boyle’s excellent novels. Mostly set in coastal Calif in various time periods and with various themes. Tortilla Curtain is used a lot in colleges because it puts human faces on immigration topics. Riven Rock maybe my fave so far, despite weird characters, some of them certifiably crazy, but well drawn. East of East is rowdy and fun about a Japanese wetback hiding out in USA. Friend of the Earth about lefty green activists sitting in trees and then getting older as the earth gets stranger
am always reading Asia stuff, really liked 3 cups of tea and A fine balance.
adopter/sponsor of "Go, Antoan" Richardson
by foothillsfan on Jan 11, 2009 10:13 AM PST reply actions 0 recs
This year..
I probably read more but here’s what I can remember reading.
The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis
The Blue Nowhere by Jeffry Deaver
The Beatles by Bob Spitz
Saucerful of secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey by Nicholas Schaffer
John by Cynthia Lennon
Introducing Anthropology: An Integrated Approach by Michael Alan Park
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
I think that’s it, although there were more I’m sure that I’m missing.
The Basil Fawlty Moderating Strategy:
"We could run a nice blog here if we didn't have all these members getting in the way."
by WalrusMan on Jan 11, 2009 1:33 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
I see you followed th Bad and Wrong newfangled Narnia book order.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 11, 2009 1:47 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Perhaps.
I’ve always read the chronological Narnian time order, but I’ve seen arguments for the chronological release date order. I don’t really think it matters to me, unless there is really something profound when reading a certain way. I just read it that way because I’ve got a book that combines them all in that order.
The Basil Fawlty Moderating Strategy:
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by WalrusMan on Jan 11, 2009 3:00 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Do you stop in the middle of TL,TW&TW to read The Horse and his Boy?
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
by jponry on Jan 11, 2009 3:36 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
They didn’t institute the chronological order until long after I first read the books, so that order just seems wrong to me. But mainly I just think it’s crazy not to have The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe first – it so clearly reads as the introduction to Narnia.
Never has a poster been more correct in the history of the internet. Ever! - ResDog on yours truly
by jcb9 on Jan 11, 2009 4:06 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
At least that order..
Fits better for the movies definitely. The children grow older as the series grows older until The Silver Chairbut then new actors will be needed for the first one (if it ever gets that far I guess).
Agree that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the perfect introduction though.
The Basil Fawlty Moderating Strategy:
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by WalrusMan on Jan 11, 2009 7:59 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Ah one last one I remember.
The Last Season by Eric Blehm
Interesting about a Kings Canyon backcountry ranger that gets lost in the high sierra and the search for him.
The Basil Fawlty Moderating Strategy:
"We could run a nice blog here if we didn't have all these members getting in the way."
by WalrusMan on Jan 11, 2009 8:01 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
A little late to the game...but what the hey
Recently finished…
Bloody Confused by Chuck Culpepper
A Cook’s Tour by Anthony Bourdain
The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain
How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer
Stuck in the middle of…
Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill (just pissed me off too damn much)
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (just not all that interesting really)
Over the Edge of the World by Laurence Bergreen (they just rounded the tip of South America and I know some folks are about to get eaten!)
On Deck…
Universe of Stone: A Biography of Chartres Cathedral by Philip Ball
Countless other reference books that I’ll need to comb over to prepare for my upcoming tests for the Architect Registration Exam
Omar...I'm done with you. Hello Darren Ford! Come to papa.
by PacBellBoozer on Jan 11, 2009 6:12 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
I sort of read Freakonomics. It got old after awhile, perhaps after 1 or 2 chapters, then I just kinda skimmed through and read the bits that interested me.
by Merope on Jan 12, 2009 1:10 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I have not those other books by Bourdain, they will now be on my to-read list. Thanks
I read How Soccer Explains the World, pretty cool book. Especially enjoyed the FC Barcelona info, gives me a new appreciation for their team (although still not cool with the 25 dollar fee just to tour their stadium)
by Mrbasepaul on Jan 12, 2009 3:24 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I trust all you futbol fans...
have read Bill Buford’s Among the Thugs. If not, go get you some.
The book’s wiki.
They say some players get out of bed hitting; Pablo Sandoval doesn't wait that long
by bgunn on Jan 12, 2009 4:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Yup....have read this one already
My next footy hooligan book will be:
Congratulations, You Have Just Met the I. C. F. by Cass Pennant
Omar...I'm done with you. Hello Darren Ford! Come to papa.
by PacBellBoozer on Jan 12, 2009 10:44 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Just this morning read a review
of a new novel by the great Charlie Huston (even better than George Pelecanos because he’s so ungodly funny) called The Mystic Arts of Erasing all Signs of Death. Compares it to both Donald Westlake and Catch-22. I believe I’ve found my next read.
Get the hell out the way Bengie, Pablito's hit the show!
by Roger on Jan 12, 2009 7:14 AM PST reply actions 0 recs
I think I’ve plugged Charlie Huston around here a couple of times … he’s a Giants fan, and his first novel (Caught Stealing) concerns a guy on the run from the Russian mob while trying to keep up with the Giants’ pennant chase. Great read, and I’ve heard the new one is better.
by Evan on Jan 13, 2009 10:59 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah. Although sci-fi was really the first thing I ever read, crime has really become the genre choice my adulthood. I can’t read Huston without imagining the Tarantino adaptation to come.
Get the hell out the way Bengie, Pablito's hit the show!
by Roger on Jan 13, 2009 2:08 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Mentioned this last month in some other post
My sister gave me The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac as a birthday present, per my request, after Paul Lukas (the Uni Watch guy on ESPN.com) and others raved about it. I just started it so all I can tell you is that it’s that, graphically and layout-wise, it’s one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever seen. Plus it’s just funky and weird, breaking down the “spirit animal” and “creation myth” of stars like Tim Duncan and Tracy McGrady, and explaining why the Egyptian pyramids would have been built faster if Leandro Barbosa had been in charge.
My plans for 2009: getting married and attending Tim Lincecum Bobblehead Day.
by Kitspool on Jan 12, 2009 9:45 AM PST reply actions 0 recs
I usually have one whiskey a night. Last night, I had two.
Drunken book buying spree!
“The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America” –
Joe Posnanski
“The Making of the Atomic Bomb” – Richard Rhodes
“The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments” – George Johnson
Because I obviously don’t have a backup of books, or anything. I needed more.
by Grant on Jan 12, 2009 10:06 AM PST reply actions 0 recs
I usually do that with baseball cards. I go on Ebay and buy baseball cards, Matt Cain autos and Lincecum autos, and then wake up and go ‘Fuck!’, why did I just spend 50 bucks on baseball cards last night?!!
by Mrbasepaul on Jan 12, 2009 3:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I just finished Pratchett’s Equal Rites with some reservations (as I move rather slowly and enjoyably through the Discworld collection), and I’m about to finish Connie Willis’s “Passage” (which I seem to be reading more out of the hope that, having liked her time travel books, I will also enjoy this book which I am currently 645 pages into not enjoying… oh well, only 130 some odd pages of stubbornly not enjoying it to go).
I also recently finished the Tales of Beadle the Bard (seriously, I had a free half hour to spare), and had some reservations about that as well.
Eventually I’ll finish Against the Day. Next on tap, though, I think is definitely Avram Davidson’s Adventures in Unhistory, which just looks so damn fun.
My Dave Righetti is better than your Dave Righetti.
by howtheyscored on Jan 12, 2009 10:11 AM PST reply actions 0 recs
With the posts I’ve made in this thread today, I think I’ve doubled the total number I’ve posted to MCC in the last three or four years of visiting the site on a near-daily basis.
I can’t wait until the next time favorite music/video games comes up. Left 4 Dead and the new Animal Collective are my current obsessions.
Baseball what?
by sakbaum on Jan 12, 2009 10:46 AM PST reply actions 0 recs
I think we already had a video game thread reacently, but Left 4 Dead is awesome.
by Natto on Jan 12, 2009 10:53 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, that one sold me on Left 4 Dead.
by sakbaum on Jan 12, 2009 11:02 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
If you have the 360 version, I’m always down for some zombie-killing action. It’s nice to have teammates who aren’t annoying 12 year olds who don’t cooperate.
by Natto on Jan 12, 2009 11:08 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Oh, indeed. My id is sakbaum. I’ve just started playing, but I don’t go running half-cocked into the horde or anything.
by sakbaum on Jan 12, 2009 11:10 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Full-cocked only.
My Dave Righetti is better than your Dave Righetti.
by howtheyscored on Jan 12, 2009 11:18 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
anyone have it for PC?
and while I’m at it, what kind of graphics card would you folkssuggest in the under-$100 range? I’ve got an NVida 6100 something-or-other that came stock w/ my computer. I wanna get L4D but my card can’t even handle TF2, so I’m doubtful that L4D will run well.
STEVE HOLM! refuses to be the odd man out.
by UnleashTheGore on Jan 12, 2009 11:38 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
For Valve games, you shouldn’t need a crazy powerful graphics card. I just bought this a couple days ago, since the reviews seem pretty positive. I’ll tell you how it fares with TF2 once it comes, and I install it. If it runs TF2, it should be able to handle L4D just fine.
by Natto on Jan 12, 2009 12:01 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
fantastic
your reactions to it would be much appreciated.
STEVE HOLM! refuses to be the odd man out.
by UnleashTheGore on Jan 12, 2009 12:57 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
OK dunno if you'll see this...
but I got the card today and installed it. TF2 looks fantastic with it (as does HL2). There is some slight lag, but I think that’s my computer rather than the card because the lag was there before I installed the card. I’m reinstalling Bioshock right now to test that out.
by Natto on Jan 15, 2009 12:04 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
It works with Bioshock! And everything looks spectacular. I can finally play the game without a hack.
by Natto on Jan 15, 2009 12:21 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
fantastic
thanks a bunch. I will have to make that investment.
You said I only need one PCI slot? It looks from my computer’s specs that I currently have one in use and one available.
STEVE HOLM! refuses to be the odd man out.
by UnleashTheGore on Jan 15, 2009 8:09 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
do you need an additional power supply for that card?
I’ve had a hard time finding out what amount of power my computer already has. It’s a year-old HP, so I’m assuming it would be ok?
STEVE HOLM! refuses to be the odd man out.
by UnleashTheGore on Jan 13, 2009 11:53 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
It’s nice to have teammates who aren’t annoying 12 year olds who don’t cooperate.
/joke about that’s how Goofus ended up in prison once
by Grant on Jan 12, 2009 1:55 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Awesome Topic
This is an awesome thread. Makes me feel like I’m not the only nerd reading this thing
by Mrbasepaul on Jan 12, 2009 3:26 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Before this thread goes archive...
I just wanted to pimp a great local literary publication which I also
just finished reading. It’s called Instant City – A literary exploration
of San Francisco (http://www.instantcity.org/).
It’s a collection of submitted short stories and 2D visual arts that
adhere to a theme. Volume 6’s theme was Portals of the Past and
the stories speak to legendary bars (The Chameleon and The Owl
Tree), businesses, the Polk Street scene in the late 70s, and Russian
Hill when it was home to Russians.
Every issue has been great, and supporting the local Arts is a good
thing IMO. The website has some sample stories (you can even select
based on neighborhood).
They say some players get out of bed hitting; Pablo Sandoval doesn't wait that long
by bgunn on Jan 13, 2009 12:47 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
I’m late! I’m late!
So far this year:
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
Media Unlimited by Todd Gitlin
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
Bonk by Mary Roach (God, the snideness)
and I’m reading a book called “How the States Got Their Shapes” by a comedic screenwriter, so it’s good
and I’m reading the entire Little House on the Prairie series to my dog before bedtime.
Still-proud, adoptive mama of Notgardo Alfonzo, who's back from the 50-game purgatory. He promises never to do it again. I couldn't get him to promise to hit, though. We're working on that with bribes of M&Ms, kind of like potty training.
by tk on Jan 13, 2009 5:24 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
I’ve been practicing iambic pentameter of sonnets on my doggies. Unfortunately the first ten sonnets deal with the speaker trying to convince a young man who is extremely attractive to marry and procreate. My pups are fixed, I think its lost on them.
by timmeh on Jan 13, 2009 5:31 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Reading now or planning to read soon
The Age of Capital, Eric Hobsbawm
Occidentalism, the West in the eyes of its enemies, Buruma & Margalit
Dr Johnson’s London, Liza Pickard
Cheeses of the world, Roland Barthelemy & Armand Sperat
Bachmania, the essential listener’s guide to Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier, Eric Altschuler. Read while listening to the WTK, preferably Richter’s performance of it.
Programming the Absolute: Nineteenth-Century German Music and the Hermeneutics of the Moment, Berthold Hoeckner.
ZIPS: Milledge: 466 HR, 485 2B, 2282 hits, 278-379-524
by rfloh on Jan 13, 2009 8:05 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
/imagines rfloh in a smoking jacket with a snifter of brandy
by xanthan on Jan 14, 2009 7:09 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I’d like to know what you think of Hobsbawm. I read a goodly chunk of Age of Extremes, which was certainly not boring.
We don't really have that much pitching depth. We don't really have that much pitching depth. FOR GOD SAKE, VERUCA, DON'T GO FAKE TRADING JONATHAN SANCHEZ. We don't really have that much pitching depth
by oldjacket on Jan 14, 2009 8:20 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I have read his Revolutionaries
It is basically a collection of essays and book reviews on Marxism, Communism, radical movements etc in the 20th century, contemporary appraisals of those various movements, covering a whole host of topics. The essay on sex and revolutions is IMO very enlightening. Even though I didn’t necessarily agree with some of his points, found him erudite, thoughtful and yes, certainly not boring. Found the book well researched, and his arguments coherent and lucid.
One thing I like about Hobsbawm is that while he certainly has his (Marxist) biases, but, one they are well known. Two, while he certainly writes from a Marxist viewpoint, he isn’t averse to viewing the left (harshly).
Which is why I’m now on the lookout for his other books.
ZIPS: Milledge: 466 HR, 485 2B, 2282 hits, 278-379-524
by rfloh on Jan 14, 2009 3:02 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez, The Death of WCW (nonfiction)
I didn’t even realized that he stopped posting here.
by Grant on Jan 14, 2009 5:13 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
2008 was filed with a lot of H.P. Lovecraft. It fit the Giants season well.
I still have some of that leftover to read, but I’ve been reading the Dune novels written by Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson based on the old man’s notes. Dammit, why didn’t Frank live long enough to write them himself? The kids did a much better job of writing the first few Dune stories and prequels, then got really lazy and gave up on depth…
No, really, I have updated my blog this year: http://skaldheim.livejournal.com/tag/baseball
by Skaldheim on Jan 14, 2009 11:41 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
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