Aja on 2/1/2011 at 21:05
Quote Posted by Kolya
So you read 200 books Sypha? Did you get any?
I'm wondering this myself... it's an impressive list, but in only one year it includes more novels than I read in my entire undergrad degree.
so anyway, my list this year includes Ulysses, by James Joyce.
Aja on 2/1/2011 at 22:22
read the letters last year, actually
Xorak on 2/1/2011 at 22:29
I thought that the excerpt was pretty good. The absurdity of the guy's life all linked together in bizarre circumstances really does (in my opinion) set a tone for the rest of the story. It's sad though that many of the references are (increasingly) obscure. Yet, they have the same feel as the characters in the Iliad who are mentioned only once and then are gone. It's that same mythological timelessness and attachment to saga.
However, I think it could be edited better into a readable state, because it might be too rambling, with too many digressions and too much ambiguity. It might be too much for any reader to handle. However, if the rest of the novel isn't quite like that, this rambling portion by itself might be distinct and interesting. It has a Zaphod Beeblebrox-on-acid style. Sypha, if you're ever looking for additional beta-readers for various stories, you can PM if you want.
Jason Moyer on 2/1/2011 at 23:01
Piling-on-with-criticism-of-the-dude's-writing-like-a-roman-playground-orgy aside, you guys consider 200 books a year to be a lot?
Aja on 2/1/2011 at 23:15
A book every two days? Yes that does seem like an awful lot. Even if I read a few hours each day (which I don't) a book a week would be about all I'd manage.
Thor on 2/1/2011 at 23:27
well congrats that you can read fast, but I'd rather you read when you actually want to not force your self because of some silly promise/ego boost. Optimize and read what's important/suits you personally. Then again, if all of that big list does, very well.
Aka recognize the important, leave the rest alone.
demagogue on 2/1/2011 at 23:32
I wouldn't read Joyce without the (
http://www.robotwisdom.com/jaj/ulysses/notes01.html) walkthrough.
I could blitz read a book in a day or two back in the day. These days I read books in bits -- a few chapters then I move to the next book, in cycles so books come and go in blocs. I reread books a lot too, which goes much faster.
Edit: @Thor, people have different purposes for reading. If you're doing it for pleasure or entertainment, it makes sense to take your time to enjoy it and focus on what you like. But if you're doing it to feel connected to that world, then I think you'd want to put your feet to the fire and push yourself in a disciplined way. It's like any activity -- music, reading, movies, art, sports -- you can prefer the past-time version or the disciplined version. (In my thinking, though, 2 days is a bit fast to really "struggle" with a book, but I'm not one to leisurely drift through it slowly either. Not that this means anything to anyone else anyway, since everybody has their own style they like. I can't really imagine the point of attacking anyone else's past-time habits.)
Aja on 2/1/2011 at 23:40
I read it without a walkthrough, though I did consult wikipedia every so often because a few major plot points were still rather obscurely described. But otherwise, I don't think getting every reference is the key to enjoying Joyce. And the whole Odyssey-schema aspect can be pretty safely ignored.
demagogue on 2/1/2011 at 23:51
Well in that sense books and games differ in that you don't really have to fully understand what's going on in the book to make progress. You just keep reading. (Of course it might not be such a bad thing if some games were like that too, but that's another debate.) I like it sometimes too and shouldn't have expressed like I'd *never* read a hard book without guidance. I just liked having it for that one.
