What are you reading right now?

Trollheart · 01-21-2017, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

Quit being a dumbass and go (re)read Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers.

Read them both. Bored. I just don't like his style. Give me Asimov or Bradbury or Clarke any day.

Zer0 · 01-21-2017, 02:32 PM

Reading this for the second time. For the unenlightened, this book is a collection of interviews with the artists mentioned on the cover, as well as short stories, poetry, photographs and art. Topics of conversation range from the state of popular culture (as it was at the time during the 80's when the interviews were conducted), the failings of humanity, taboo subjects, and the artists' own musical history and outlook.

JiggleMonster · 01-21-2017, 06:33 PM

It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy
-Michael Abrashoff

Trollheart · 01-21-2017, 07:22 PM

Re: The Godfather again: now on Book VI (you guessed it: one more chapter!) and I have to say the stuff in the last chapter I read, focussing on an operation to repair the woman's pelvic floor, was both creepy and I believe unnecessary, to say nothing of being far too detailed. TMI? You bet. Not what I expected to read in a classic gangster novel. Urgh.

**Janszoon** · 01-24-2017, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janszoon

I'm reading...

War & Peace
I'm about half way through, and a lot of it is a little on the boring side honestly, but I'm still glad to be finally seeing what this monstrous "greatest novel ever written" is all about.

Finally finished this yesterday. It definitely got better toward the end, but then it had two interminable epilogues. Bottom line: it's an okay book. It's obviously heavily researched and everything, but I really think Tolstoy needed a good editor—too much rambling about aristocratic balls and the philosophy of history and whatnot.

**Goofle** · 01-25-2017, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goofle

I'm about half way through this audiobook, and it's basically what I expected. Billed as a Libertarian classic, it's easy to understand why. Freedom and independence is a major theme, limiting or overthrowing the government, rational inquiry and some objectivist ideas. My issue is that the story has been rather underwhelming so far, focussing too much on the political ideals being promoted.

I have moved on from this before finishing. I'll probably return at some point, but it became increasingly boring.

I've started getting quite interested in philosophy and psychology, and this seemed to pop up more often than others. So here goes.

Ol’ Qwerty Bastard · 01-25-2017, 07:56 AM

^

nice, interested to hear your thoughts on it. i've been reading Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo for school and have been finding it pretty interesting.

Mr. Charlie · 01-25-2017, 08:18 AM

A book of Zen poetry. Surprise surprise.

innerspaceboy · 01-28-2017, 03:01 PM

Presently reading John Higgs’ Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century. This is, I believe the first time I’ve teared up at a work of non-fiction.

The except I’ve just read describes the United States' reaction to the publication of Joyce's Ulysses in 1933:

Quote:

Joyce intended his work to be difficult. We can see this in his reaction to the obscenity trial that resulted from an attempt to publish Ulysses in Prohibition-era America.Ulysses was originally serialised in a New York magazine called the Little Review, alongside the poetry of Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. The baroness’s poems may now seem more overtly sexual, but it was Joyce’s work which was singled out for obscenity.

A later trial, United States Vs. One Book Called Ulysses, in 1933, ultimately decided that the work did have serious intent and that it was not pornographic (for, as Judge John Woolsey pointed out, ‘In respect of the recurrent emergence of the theme of sex in the minds of [Joyce’s] characters, it must always be remembered that his locale was Celtic and his season Spring.’) In order to argue for the serious nature of the work, however, Joyce was called on to explain it, and in particular the way its structure echoed the ancient Greek myth it was named after. Joyce was extremely unhappy with this prospect. As he said, ‘If I gave it all up [the explanations] immediately, I’d lose my immortality. I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of ensuring one’s immortality.’

Joyce wanted to be studied. As he said in an interview with Harper’s magazine, ‘The demand that I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole life to reading my works.’ In this respect there is a touch of tragedy in his dying words: ‘Does nobody understand?’

The Batlord · 01-28-2017, 03:06 PM

How much does it have to suck to be that judge and be forced to read and interpret Ulysses without the benefit of a college-level English course holding his hand?

01-21-2017, 02:32 PM	#5742 (permalink)
Zer0 ∞ Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Ireland Posts: 3,792	Reading this for the second time. For the unenlightened, this book is a collection of interviews with the artists mentioned on the cover, as well as short stories, poetry, photographs and art. Topics of conversation range from the state of popular culture (as it was at the time during the 80's when the interviews were conducted), the failings of humanity, taboo subjects, and the artists' own musical history and outlook. __________________ Last FM \| RYM \| The Final Sound

01-21-2017, 07:22 PM	#5744 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Re: The Godfather again: now on Book VI (you guessed it: one more chapter!) and I have to say the stuff in the last chapter I read, focussing on an operation to repair the woman's pelvic floor, was both creepy and I believe unnecessary, to say nothing of being far too detailed. TMI? You bet. Not what I expected to read in a classic gangster novel. Urgh. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

01-21-2017, 06:33 PM	#5743 (permalink)
JiggleMonster GoochTickler Join Date: Jan 2017 Posts: 249	It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy -Michael Abrashoff

01-25-2017, 08:18 AM	#5748 (permalink)
Mr. Charlie Shoo Thoughts Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: These Mountains Posts: 2,308	A book of Zen poetry. Surprise surprise.