Rug Burn Junky on 31/12/2010 at 01:48
You should follow up with People are Unappealing: Even Me, by Sara Barron, a former hostess at Batali's Otto. The twatwaffle story alone is worth the price.
(Just read The Big Short, by Michael Lewis myself, finally. About to dive into re-reading Infinite Jest after reading it the first time in 1997. Of course, back then I had an hour commute, which is now 8 miinutes. But the kindle is still easier to carry than that brick of a book)
Thief13x on 31/12/2010 at 02:31
by Tracy Kidder
An oldie but a goodie
Volitions Advocate on 31/12/2010 at 05:05
I always took Fight Club in the same vein as 2001. You need to see the movie AND read the book to get the full story.
Aja on 31/12/2010 at 08:38
hey rbj I have infinite jest too, I'll race you
pwyll on 31/12/2010 at 10:24
Life As We Do Not Know It by Peter Ward. A non-fiction book about the possibility of life on other planets
Angel Dust on 31/12/2010 at 10:50
Quote Posted by Rug Burn Junky
About to dive into re-reading
Infinite Jest after reading it the first time in 1997.
I only read it for the first time a few months ago and have a surprisingly strong urge to re-read it. I think it says a lot for the book that after 1080 pages of it, I still wanted more and that wasn't due to the nature of the ending either.
Anyway I just finished off
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson and while I liked it more than
Neuromancer (the only other Gibson I've read) I'm starting to think that Gibson isn't quite for me. I might give him one more shot, since they are easy enough reads, so bearing in mind that I liked this one better than
Neuromancer: do any Gibson fans have a recommendation for what to tackle next?
Up next is either
Kafka On The Shore or
The Brothers Karamazov, which has been staring down at me from its position on the shelf since last Christmas.
june gloom on 31/12/2010 at 11:17
If you liked Pattern Recognition more than Neuromancer then we're going to have a problem.
But read Count Zero (Neuromancer sequel) and Spook Country (Pattern Recognition sequel) before you make any further judgments.
Tocky on 31/12/2010 at 21:03
I sympathize about Neuromancer. I take a lot of recommendations here and am often pleasantly surprised. This I got halfway through and realized I didn't care to finish. I'll just say I hope his penchant for jumping startlingly from unexplained scene to illdescribed one and onto the next jagged in the wind peak while flashing technology like a forgetaboutit magic wand has changed and is just not my cup of Tron, though neither was godawful Tron.
I recommend A WALK IN THE WOODS by Bill Bryson. Not because it is touted by pretentious NPR (though unlike thier music choices the books are more hit than miss) but because it is funny and very real in an intimately described way. I have often thought of hiking the length of the Appalacian Trail myself and through the bits of trail I have gotten under me in the Smokies I hear the clear ring of truth in his tale. This is what it is like for anyone who might throw caution to the wind and actually do it. He is hilariously observant and entertaining. I just wish there were pictures.
demagogue on 16/7/2011 at 02:28
Reading
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild.
Part of my tradition of studying areas of the world I don't know much about... This history is way too interesting to not be more common knowledge, and is told very well here.
Quote:
The story chronicles the efforts of King Leopold II of Belgium to make the Congo into a colonial empire. With a complex scheme of political intrigue, corruption and propaganda, he wins the assistance of one of the best-known explorers of the time, Henry Morton Stanley, as well as that of public opinion and of powerful states to create a philanthropic colony devoted to ending the slavery trade in Africa. Through the Berlin Conference and other diplomatic efforts, he finally obtains international recognition for his colony. He then establishes a system of forced labour that keeps the people of the Congo basin in a condition of slavery, killing millions in the process. The book places King Leopold among the great tyrants of history.
Much of it is profiling the personalities involved in the story, all of them interesting characters, King Leopold, Stanley the explorer, butcher & newspaper darling, Sanford the diplomat selling the case for the colony, Joseph Conrad & the roots of Heart of Darkness, the missionaries journalists and diplomats that wrote about the atrocities in the Congo, making it the first cause célèbre in the modern world of mass communication.
This is the poster child of the ridiculous double standards of the colonial age, and has to be one of the more gallingly cynical ploys in diplomatic history (the part about selling your colony as strictly a philanthropic venture to end slavery as a front for a brutal regime built entirely on slavery for the profit of one man.)
It's also very good story telling.
Volitions Advocate on 16/7/2011 at 12:45
I've been reading through all of the Dune prequel books written by Brian Herbert. So far I've found them quite good despite people telling me they're awful. You can tell how much he loves the universe created by his father. the help of Kevin Anderson is evident too, as he's an author who is accustomed to writing within the bounds of canon other than his own.
right now I'm in the middle of House Corrino.
This will be a nice reading vacation before the new semester in September starts and I end up having to read my textbooks plus the added books I require for my research that the University is Funding. I'll be onto topics like Discrete Mathematics and Audio Synthesis. Lots of learning ahead of me. Good thing I have a little free time right now.
