Chula Vista

Great Apocalyptic novel.

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

TrapManiac

I just started Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.
I like stories about kings & queens , and this won "Man Booker" and "National Book Critics Circle" awards.

innerspaceboy

Just picked up HOW MUSIC GOT FREE: The End of an Industry, The Turn of the Century, and the Patient Zero of Piracy by Stephen Witt. Read it cover to cover in one sitting and damn it was fascinating.

My book review here.

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grindy

I've read Dracula recently and holy crap was it annoying.
Starts of really cool and interesting, but then it gets so sappy and the pace is bad.
The whole letters and diary entries shtick gets on one's nerves after a while as well.
And Van Helsing's frickin accent. Ugh.
And it's not that I have a problem with older literature, I've read and enjoyed plenty of books from that time and before that.

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

Golden Lights

Decided to go through the classics! The sun also rises by Hemingway.
Anyone else?

innerspaceboy

I couldn't be happier - this week I firmly decided that I want to really immerse myself into the dark-humored linguistic labyrinth that is Finnegans Wake. Not just superficially - read-aloud gatherings are jovial exercises in social theater where attendees discover more about the reader than of the text. Instead, I've secured gorgeous hardcover editions of Joseph Campbell's A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake and McHugh's similar Annotations to Finnegans Wake. These are the two most exhaustive analytical and scholarly texts on Joyce's masterwork.


I want to explore the world's least-read great novel and develop a concrete appreciation of Joyce's sharp wit and of the novel's legendary morphemic acrobatics.

This is an exercise I aim to lose myself within. I've an addiction to cerebral projects and find myself ever-searching for the next big challenge. It is in part escapism from the "dumbed-down" mass-culture I so actively avoid. Independent academic ventures are a realm of safety where all knowledge shines brightly and wisdom is the ultimate virtue. But it is also an activity which simply appeals to my core values - my love of learning, challenges, and discovery. I am, as Cage once said, "a student from the school from which we'll never graduate."


riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs...

[EDIT] A side note to fellow readers - Annotations is considered an academic text and as such commands an $85 price from all sellers. Astonishingly, if you visit the John Hopkins University Press website, you can purchase a new copy of the 648pp Hardback for 71% OFF - only $25! (LESS than the price of the paperback!) Today is my lucky day.

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Frownland

I've tried and failed to read Finnegan's Wake all the way through. These days I just flip to a page and read it aloud. The rest of Joyce's books are great as well.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

The Batlord

I can't figure out whether or not this is sarcastic.

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Frownland

It's not that I disliked Finnegan's Wake, I just didn't have the follow through on this one. If you could tell from my post I'm actually still reading it.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

The Batlord

So basically, you're too pretentious to admit defeat?

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