Read any good books lately

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awellhungboi: Y'know, rrrrrr, I read 'Modern Times' and really enjoyed it. So, if Ms. Rossi's writing is similar I'm sure I'd like it. I'll check out her site--what's the url? Have you ever read any of Otto Friedrich's books? Very wide-ranging, eclectic, and witty.

I'm a big fan of early Stephen King. The Stand, The Shining, Salem's Lot. I agree that The Mist is great. And Apt Pupil is fantastic! As a writer, I've got to say Misery is my favorite of his, though.

Never got into Anne Rice, though. She just sort of slipped under my radar somehow. I like atmospheric horror. Can't beat the classic pulp writers: Lovecraft, etc. for chills and thrills!

 

[Pecker]

I kept my summer reading light this year - The Scent of a Man by Jim Nasium, French Cooking by Sue Flay, and I continued my quest to finish The Life of Leo Tolstoy by Warren Peace.

Very short books I keep in a rack for bathroom reading include A Guide to Arab Democracies, (the author promises a revised edition soon), Amelia Earhardt's Guide to the Pacific Ocean and Al Gore - The Wild Years.

Pecker

(I'm So Miserable Without You It's Almost Like Having You Here)

 

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hawl: Thanks for the kind words in the "Cast your FAIR Votes!" thread, Monstro. I would add emilywee, missvelvet03, and FunGirl to the "Missing In Action" list, but then I'm perhaps overly partial to all the xx's. For all I know, there was some "Private Message" catfight I know nothing about (though I'd rent the video!). About Otto Friedrich, I haven't read him. I'll look him up on the web. To get to Ms. Rossi's site-www.armchairdiplomat.com/ She's younger, American, and more mainstream than Paul Johnson. Underneath his casual charm, he is a "pro-life" Catholic and would be considered "right-wing" by many, though these labels are confusing when Pat Buchanan and George Will are more skeptical about our involvement in Iraq than many Democrats. Besides Johnson and Rossi both being journalists, they seem to share a fear of letting things lag, of writing a boring sentence. I think they're both funny, which is why I recommend them especially to people who don't usually follow "current events" etc.. Through their irreverence, they probably reach and teach more people more basic information than their maybe more knowledgeable but predictable, pedantic competition on both the left and right.

 

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Longhornjok: I read LORD OF THE BARNYARD by Tristan Egolf earlier this summer and loved that. It's a very colorful and inventive story, and owes a big debt to John Kennedy Toole's A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES, which is one of my all-time faves.

 

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aj2181: I love historical biography myself.

John Adams by David McCullough is one of my favorites.

It really rehabilitates his image. He was the most "human" of the founders.

There is also one other that I loved about Adams, can't think of it.

Master of the Senate is long but good. It's about Lyndon Johnson.

others I've read this summer were, Alexander Hamilton: American, The Wars of the Roses, The Princes in the Tower, a prequal to the Wars..., and I started but havn't finnshed Theodore Rex, about Theodore Roosevelt.

Oh almost forgot I also read the philisophical works of the Roman Emporer Marcus Aurelius.

I'm a book worm ;D

 

[Max]

[quote author=Monstro link=board=99;num=1062441477;start=0#5 date=09/01/03 at 12:25:17]Oh, cool, Max!  Are you reading the new Penguin translation?  I'm dying to see that.  (Not available on this side of the Atlantic yet, though.)  The Walk by Swann's Place (Swann's Way) is one of my favorite books! [/quote]

Monstro,

The translation I have is the Moncrieff/Kilmartin edition (revised by Enright). It reads pretty well.

I suppose I should follow Radu and read it in French ... I used to have to read French documents at work, so I ought to be able to cope with the aid of a dictionary ... but it seemed too much like hard work. Even using a translation, I am now only half way through Vol 2 ... wish me luck!

I ought to add to the list my favourite modern author: Vikram Seth, simply because he writes with such grace.

P.S. Thanks Monstro for the honourable mention

 

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Javierdude22: [quote author=aj2181 link=board=99;num=1062441477;start=20#24 date=09/01/03 at 21:22:05]I love historical biography myself.
[/quote]

I like historical biographies mostly as well. Just a historyfreak i guess.

But, in all honesty, that is when i dó finally push myself to read a book cover to cover. With fiction not reading it cover to cover would be quite impossible. With non-fiction it is thank God.

I guess i only read about 6 books a year. And especially now that i'm reading my ass of for my thesis I can hardly find the time. The last few books were Shadow (Bob Woodward), Founding Brothers (Ellis) -yeah, i took an American Politics class and love it ever since- Stupid White Men (Michael Moore) and the Glass Palace (Amitav Gosh).

But when i do find myself reading a book, it feels good. It's quite calming, and oftentimes proves to be brainfood.

 

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inquiringmind: Javierdude,

OT, what is the subject of your thesis and what is your area of concentration? I can remember going crazy trying to work, take care of an elder, and study for my comps at the same time. My hat is off to you! There truly is light at the end of the tunnel!

Inquiring mind

 

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wvalady1968: [quote author=Pecker link=board=99;num=1062441477;start=20#21 date=09/01/03 at 20:03:04]I kept my summer reading light this year - The Scent of a Man by Jim Nasium, French Cooking by Sue Flay, and I continued my quest to finish The Life of Leo Tolstoy by Warren Peace.

Very short books I keep in a rack for bathroom reading include A Guide to Arab Democracies, (the author promises a revised edition soon), Amelia Earhardt's Guide to the Pacific Ocean and Al Gore - The Wild Years.

Pecker

[/quote]

OMG! You are one funny guy!!

You prolly listen to Click and Clack! You humor is like theirs.

[still laughing]

 

[B_DoubleMeatWhopper]

[quote author=inquiringmind link=board=99;num=1062441477;start=0#18 date=09/01/03 at 17:34:52]
Armand was a young adult. I guess I was thinking an Antonio Bandaras from about 15 years ago.   [/quote]

Armand was seventeen years old, red-haired, sexually ambiguous, with the face of a Caravaggio angel and a heart of pure evil. I like Antonio Banderas, but he was not Armand by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[B_DoubleMeatWhopper]

I taught Shakespeare to high school students in summer school earlier ths season, so of course I was reading some excellent literature. Did my students get it? Sadly, I doubt most of them did
Other than that, I read La Reine Margot by Alexandre Dumas, père.

 

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aj2181: [quote author=Javierdude23 link=board=99;num=1062441477;start=20#26 date=09/02/03 at 11:58:11]

I like historical biographies mostly as well. Just a historyfreak i guess.

The last few books were Shadow (Bob Woodward), Founding Brothers (Ellis) -yeah, i took an American Politics class and love it ever since- Stupid White Men (Michael Moore) and the Glass Palace (Amitav Gosh).
[/quote]

Hey it's ok to be a history freak!

I loved Founding Brothers rarely is a book that brief that good. I also liked the American Sphinx and the book I couldn't think of earlier, Passionate Sage about John Adams. I want to read Stupid White Men, is it good? Another book I would recomend is Patriarch, about George Washingtons terms as President. Truman by McCullough was also long but good.

As I'm sure you can tell I'm a John Adams Freak! I also read the complete corespondence of him and Jefferson.

I love Shakespeare DWM, had I been in your class you could have at least said one student got it My favorite of his works is Titus Andronicus. I also like his Sonnets.

For somone who likes erotic poetry look for Ovid: The Erotic Poems. The name says it all, it's in the classics section. Other classics I like are The Twelve Caesars by Seutonius, The Divine Comedy by Dante, The Prince by Machievelli, The Reign of Augustus by Cassius Dio, Aristotle's Metaphysics, Ethics, and Poetics. Virgil's The Aeneid, and others. They are admittedly dry reading.

The most moving book I've ever read was Night by Elie Wiesel. It's about his experience in the holocost. It's the only book that has almost made me cry its so intense. I highly recomend it.

Of Mice and Men is short but sweet.

I'll stop I could rattle on forever

 

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7x6andchg: My favorite Shakespeare is always his comedies. I especially liked A Midsummer Night's Dream, Love's Labo(u)rs Lost, and Taming of the Shrew.

Another HS book I can still pick up and enjoy is A Separate Peace by John Knowles. Moves me somehow.

7x6&C

 

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inquiringmind: Thanks Double,

I read the book. I have my own vision. I think I felt that way based not on  the book specifically related to Armand's life but by one of the earlier references that described him as tender and world weary. That invoked Bandaras' face to me. So I guess my imagination must be a rather flexible one. Besides I am seeing tall, dark and handsome, not Koppelesque. Think outside the box Double, think outside the box!!!  

( no insult to Redheads!)

Inquiring yet flexible mind  

 

[Ralexx]

[quote author=aj2181 link=board=99;num=1062441477;start=20#31 date=09/02/03 at 16:17:27]
The most moving book I've ever read was Night by Elie Wiesel. It's about his experience in the holocost. It's the only book that has almost made me cry its so intense. I highly recomend it. [/quote]

In the first pages, Wiesel - Nobel Prize winner for Peace in 1986 - describes the life in his native town, Sighet (Roumania), if I correctly recall ? I'm born there. The synagogue still exists, but after the 1944 deportations, there are only 9 Jews in the town.

I met several times Elie Wiesel (1994, 1999 and last year too, in July 2002, when I was at home and he came there to see his former childhood home turned into a museum). Later that day, during an official banquet (the President of Roumania, the US ambassador, etc.) we talked (chatted) about the differences between Christianism and Judaism, about Forgive and Forget in both religions, about Europe's horrendous sin called Shoah. Later, I asked him about François Mitterrand, the former French President (1981-1995) ; they used to be very good friends (I am completely fascinated by Mitterrand's personality and, well, I couldn't resist). I found out that... in the last days of Mitterrand's life (last week of December 1995, first week of January 1996), Wiesel was visiting him often in his apartment on rue Frédéric Le Play (next to the Eiffel Tower) and he was reading him fragments of his book "Night"...

 

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Javierdude22: [quote author=aj2181 link=board=99;num=1062441477;start=20#31 date=09/02/03 at 16:17:27]

Hey it's ok to be a history freak!

I want to read Stupid White Men, is it good[/quote]

Well, after getting some feedback on here, i looked a bit differently at Michael Moore. He might have, well, obscured some of the data he provides. But, i believe that the real issue is the point he is trying to make. That some things are fucked up in the US (as they are anywhere else, but he discusses the US of course). And he uses great humour to get his point across, so i loved it.

The most moving book I've ever read was Night by Elie Wiesel. It's about his experience in the holocost. It's the only book that has almost made me cry its so intense. I highly recomend it.

Hm, i'm gonna remember that one. Especially with what Raal mentioned.

Inquiringmind - Thanx for asking . I'm studying Environment and Sustainable Development. I'm gonna do research on a UN program called The Local Agenda 21, which was installed from 1992 onwards to improve the environment in cities around the world, but especially in developing countries. Not too many (developing) countries actually installed it, for a lack of money, and oftentimes also a lack of will. One of them, Peru, has the most successfull program out of three, and I will analyze what made it work there, where in other countries it did not work. So from January till May i hope to (be able to) post from Peru.

Anyone have a cheap laptop for sale?!  ;D

 

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Dantesco: Im currently in the middle of "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco. After watching and enjoying the movie many times I thought it was about time I read the book. The book is better than the movie, but isnt that always the case? Earlier this summer I reread Douglas R. Hofstadters "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid". Every time I read it I feel less like a dumb jock!

 

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awellhungboi: Well, definitely good luck with the Proust, Max! I can't claim to have finished it--got to the fourth book. But I plan to complete it one of these days. What I have read (in English) was very richly rewarding, however. I greatly enjoyed reading In the Shade of Blooming Young Girls. We'll expect your entry in the Summarize Proust Competition when you finish.

I see a couple of people have mentioned David McCullough. My favorite book of his is the book he wrote (one of his first) about the Great Johnstown Flood. Recommended to anyone interested in Americana and history.

There's so many tributaries that have spawned in this thread, and so many I want to address, but maybe I'll do it later, when I'm not so tired and depressed. But, I would say, Dantesco, that if you've read "Godel, Escher, Bach," more than once that would place you in the very smart jock category. Although it's been many years since I read it, it introduced me, as a young man, to both Kurt Godel, and M.C. Escher. Although, I must say, my intense admiration and awe at the genius of J.S. Bach had developed earlier and independently.

 

[Ralexx]

Monstro, may I suggest a book treating Marcel Proust from a very personal point of view, but always mentioned by the critique as excellent in what concerns Marcel Proust. It's written by the same Princess Marthe Bibesco : « Au bal avec Marcel Proust » (1927) (I think it can be translated as At the Ball with Marcel Proust in English, I'm not sure though if that is 100% correct.) It's a great book (well, ;D, as every book written by Marthe !!!)

 

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awellhungboi: Thank you, Raal, I'll look for that. I would definitely be interested. I only really know a few, possibly apocryphal, stories about Proust, very little about his actual life. I know the tale that, after his parent's death, he supposedly gave their furniture to a male bordello. Also the charming story of his one meeting with James Joyce, in which the two modernist masters of their respective languages spent the entire time comparing symptoms. "My poor asthma." "Ach, my eyes!"