Sorry, I had to.Originally Posted by dethtoll
Anyway, I finished On the Road. Great stuff, though IMO it started a bit slow. Granted, most of my favorite books do as well. Great last 1/4, and I won't spoil it. It should be required reading in any Am. Lit. course worth its salt. The character development is excellent, as were the descriptors. I really felt like I was there in the room with an old friend.
Also finished the Buk book in my last post. I have read it several times, so whatever. It was just something to pass time on the bus on my way downtown.
Up next, a book that I have only seen the mostly excellent (and it even has Ol' Blue Eyes in it!) movie adaptation of:
THIS I think this may be my favourite Gibson book of all time, let alone just the Sprawl trilogy. Mona Lisa Overdrive is very nearly as good, but as a pure reading experience, nothing tops that first read of Neuromancer, even if the other books in the trilogy are technically better.
The annotated 20,000 leagues under the sea Contains a corrected translation and a reconciliation of Verne's science compared to current knowledge.
Good stuff.
"Dirty White Boys" by Stephen Hunter. It starts off with some nasty prison violence and a jailbreak, so I'm well entertained so far.
The Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury. I always forget that the man can write, and then get a pleasant surprise when I pick up one of his books. And much of the book is not science-fiction, it's people-fiction.
This paragraph from "The Fog Horn" makes me wish I that owned a lighthouse, just so I could put it on a brass plaque next to the front door:
We need a voice to call across the water, to warn ships; I'll make one. I'll make a voice like all of time and all of the fog that ever was; I'll make a voice that is like an empty bed beside you all night long, and like an empty house when you open the door, and like trees in autumn with no leaves. A sound like the birds flying south, crying, and a sound like November wind and the sea on the hard, cold shore. I'll make a sound that's so alone that no one can miss it, that whoever hears it will weep in their souls, and hearths will seem warmer, and being inside will seem better to all who hear it in the distant towns. I'll make me a sound and an apparatus and they'll call it a Fog Horn and whoever hears it will know the sadness of eternity and the briefness of life.
Wow... I think I'll remember that image every time I ever hear a fog horn at sea again.
I'm reading --
Archives of the Universe: A Treasury of Astronomy's Historic Works of Discovery, by Marcia Bartusiak
I like historical anthologies as a way to get into a field. Then you get all the foibles and drama and little revelations that bring it all to a human level. And you get to understand the concepts more by the messy, realistic road it took to get there rather than the pristine, artificial road that was built much later in retrospect. Also, there's just something special about reading a discovery from the actual person that first discovered it, in their own words, catching their excitement of the moment of realization, and especially pre-1940s papers had a raw edge, when the field wasn't as professional as it is now. A textbook just can quite catch the same spirit of those original papers.
Last edited by demagogue; 18th Oct 2009 at 03:05.
Ray Bradbury is the most talented writer ever.
As a short story writer he has no equal.
Calling Mexico.
Enough said
October Game is a good Bradbury short to read this time of year but then most of his are. That fog horn reminded me of his train whistle:
"The wails of a lifetime were gathered in it from other nights in other slumbering years; the howl of moon-dreamed dogs, the seep of river-cold winds through January porch screens, which stopped the blood, a thousand fire sirens weeping, or worse! The outgone shreds of breath, the protests of a billion people dead or dying, not wanting to be dead, their groans, their sighs, burst over the Earth."
Most recently I read Going Postal by Pratchet who I didn't think I liked as I'm not one for golems and dwarves and such. This was a story of redemption with style by a charlatan who doesn't understand himself and never would were he not given a task he would never accept had he a choice. He reminds me of a cross between Cary Grant and Errol Flyn somehow. Not a deep story but good fun.
finally reading Ulysses
Found my old copy of Arthur C Clarke's 'Islands in the Sky' over the weekend so I'm giving that another run through.
Thanks to my literature classes, I've finally been forced to read Huckleberry Finn. It's not that I hate reading, I just get so antsy just sitting or lying around, staring at one thing for so long.
7 habits of highly effective people
I'm sorry.finally reading Ulysses
I couldn't agree more.
As for longer work, even though the recent novels have been a bit muddled, his earlier work is brilliant. The opening few paragraphs of Fahrenheit 451 are chillingly good--the simplicity of "It was a pleasure to burn" is one of the greatest opening lines of all time.
FWIW, a friend of mine - who is also a fine author and, in my opinion, a good judge of media - lists Ulysses as one of his favorite books (in the sense that he really enjoys it, not in an e-penis sense).finally reading Ulysses
Mind you, the first thing he said when I'd informed him that I had finished Gravity's Rainbow was "When are you going to read it again?"
I've found it tremendously helpful to re-read some of my more challenging novels. Often, these books are almost better the second time 'round—you already know the gists, so you can focus on the details.
As for Joyce, I love the man, I just sometimes get confused with his references. Flipping to the notes section every time he mentions an Irish street or pub or politician is not the best way to learn; I feel as though I need a history lesson going into to this stuff.
Rolling a fat J(oyce) as well, reading Dubliners. I read Ulysses several years back and I'm afraid not much stuck, so I'm reading his other stuff first before I give it another shot. I quite liked A Portrait...
Off to get the new Discworld tomorrow. Can't wait, and worried it may be the last...
I assume it's an Unseen University one?
Currently reading Garth Nix's excellent YA fantasy Sabriel series.
I just finished Dubliners, and I'll say it definitely had a few knockouts. "Araby," "A Little Cloud," and "The Dead" are all brilliant.
Have you seen the John Huston film of The Dead? I thought it was fantastic but I have not read the story so I have no idea how well it compares. The general consensus seems to be that is was a worthy adaptation.
I'm currently reading Devils by Dostoevsky and am enjoying it a lot, even if I am having to do the 'flip to the notes' thing every few pages. Previously I had read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, a surprisingly comic tale of a young woman's struggle with depression, and 100 Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which was one hell of a book and contained some of the most downright beautiful writing I've ever read. The ending in particular was breathtaking and it beautifully balances both the whimsical and the darker stuff. Anyone have recommendations of what to read next from "Gabo"?
Been reading Jonathan Maberry's Patient Zero. Puts an interesting twist on zombie stuff by tying it in to Islamic terrorism, though there seems to be your typical ZombCorp behind it all.
It's subtitled "A Joe Ledger Novel" which tells me there's probably going to be a number of books with the main character (aptly named Joe Ledger.)
Not a bad book, all in all. Glad I picked it up on a whim.
"The Falconer's Tale" by Gordon Kent.
Not as good as earlier works.
I just got through reading House of Leaves. Let me tell you, my opinion is rather conflicted. When the novel focused on Johnny Truant, it felt a little flat. When the Zampano character launches into a huge pages long tirade on the properties of echoes or some other inane subject, usually interrupting an interesting part of the book while he's at it, things would go straight up boring. But when it focused on The Navidson Records, it was a riveting read.
I'm gonna settle and say it was a good book. I'd recommend it, though with reservations in tow.
All about football, (soccer) and the UU.
I thought it had a slightly different style, the speech seemed more natural (more disjointed) which I guess is due to being dictated.
Apparently there's another Tiffany Aching due from him soon.
Terry Pratchetts are the only books I buy in hardback.
Bulfinch's Mythology.
The Diamon Age by Neal Stephenson. Borrowed it fro a friend as part of my latest obsession with -punk books. It's very interesting and has some intriguing characters. The nanotech is pretty cool and I like the re-emerging cultures they have in it.
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