The Book Thread

[Molly]

I am just tempted to read my favourite book again while my flatmate is - and it's not a dostoyevsky for sure - it's The Time-Traveller's Wife. And I don't care what anyone thinks.

Just seen this; I read it while I was travelling and although I may have been high on passion or drugs at the time, I enjoyed it too

 

I also have that one on the bedside table, along with The God of Small Things. But it's gonna be tricky, I'm currently reading My Name Is Red (truly fantastic, by the way), and intend on reading Dune 2 & 3 after that and after those 2, I plan on re-reading Neuromancer

I read Life of Pi about 5 years ago I think, thought it was remarkable; I want to read it again to see how I feel about it now. With regards to Dune, I've been told I have to read them, I need to really.

[navarre]

I finished Animal Farm yesterday. Probably one of the best books I've had the fortune of reading. I love how it transforms from 'All animals are equal' at first to 'all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others' at the end. Forget historical accounts, this book tells the tale of a Communist dictatorship (especially Stalin's USSR) better than anthing else out there, and does so in a gripping manner.

[chairdriver]

I just read Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.

 

Somebody please restrain me from burning down a church.

 

Somebody please sedate me next time I hear of a British person being patriotic.

 

 

So many emotionally poignant moments, all built up into one lethal attack upon my emotional stability.

 

 

Probably the best book I've ever read.

 

10/10

[Mundi]

Just finished reading trough The Prince and now I know the ins and outs of being a successful ruler :Þ

Had a bit of a trouble reading some parts as it is written in old boggled english but I got trough it pretty well.

Also reading this and comparing it to Hitler in terms of some acts he has committed to what is suggested in this novel is pretty interesting.

 

Started on 2001: A Space Oddysey, just 70 pages in so I can´t comment much on that

[Chris the great]

six sacred stones

 

the sequal to seven anchient wonders, a book which contined the imortal lines "jack west jr was coming, and he was pissed as hell,". needless to say, the book is not of an overly serious nature. over a year has passed since the events of 7 ancient wanders (world saved by ancient magic, brought about during the climactic battle atop the great pryamid at giza) and turns out, the world aint out the shit yet. jack west jr, an aussie super soilder with a robotic arm is forced to once again lead his small team of international super agents in a desperate bid to save the world.

 

personal highlites of the book involve jack wresteling a crocodile under water, and winning, and a desperate race up a train dangeling over a cliff. i dont think i need to explain that jack west jr is quiet possibly the single greatest character in any book, film, play, program or any thing else, or that the book will leave you in fits of laughter at its cheesyness, followed by general awe of how awsome it is.

 

1,000,000,000/10

 

for the record, my favorite line in the book was "alby was black and deaf with thick glasses, but could still rumble with the best of em"

[Wesley]

This last two weeks I read Brave New World, The Giver, Fight Club and Fahrenheit 451. I'd recommend all apart from The Giver (it's a shallow kids' book).

[Dan_Dare]

Brave New World is bloody brilliant.

[dan-likes-trees]

This last two weeks I read Brave New World, The Giver, Fight Club and Fahrenheit 451. I'd recommend all apart from The Giver (it's a shallow kids' book).

 

Fight Club's a cracker... never finished Brave New World for some reason, I need to...

 

I'm planning on having a massive summer of reading once my exams finish, so that I don't end up at uni doing English having barely read anything... Gonna aim for 20ish books, t'will be a challange!

 

In Fact

 

 

On the Road - Jack Kerouac

 

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee

 

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

 

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

 

Atonement - Ian McEwan

 

Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe

 

Emma - Jane Austen

 

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

 

Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

 

The Call of the Wild - Jack London

 

Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

 

The Wind Up Bird Chronicles - Murakami

 

Books I have and Haven't started

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest - Ken Kesey

 

Sons and Lovers - D.H. Lawrence

 

Neuromancer - William Gibson

 

Ubik - Philip K Dick

 

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

 

Ghostwritten - David Mitchell

 

Edited May 29, 2009 by dan-likes-trees

[Dan_Dare]

Don't read robinson crusoe. It'll make you want to kill yourself it's so shit.

[jayseven]

I would've said the same about Jude the Obscure. But then, I hate thomas hardy. 100 Years of Solitude is one of my favourite books 20 books in a summer is easy. I read over 10 in a 3 week holiday to australia.

[Supergrunch]

Atonement - Ian McEwan

 

The Wind Up Bird Chronicles - Murakami

 

Ghostwritten - David Mitchell

Very big fan of these three, especially the third. You have to read it multiple times to get a proper impression of it, but it's really good the first time all the same. Atonement starts out utterly brilliant, and tails off a bit as it goes on, but is still very much worthwhile. And Wind up Bird is just... insane, but in a good way.

Edited May 29, 2009 by Supergrunch

[dan-likes-trees]

Don't read robinson crusoe. It'll make you want to kill yourself it's so shit.

 

I would've said the same about Jude the Obscure. But then, I hate thomas hardy. 100 Years of Solitude is one of my favourite books 20 books in a summer is easy. I read over 10 in a 3 week holiday to australia.

 

Haha, might take your word(s) for it... what didn't you like about em, out of interest?

And yeh should be farly easy. Similarly on a one and a half holiday to Greece I got through five so a similar rate. And yeah Im looking forward to 100 years of Solitude ^.^

 

Very big fan of these three, especially the third. You have to read it multiple times to get a proper impression of it, but it's really good the first time all the same. Atonement starts out utterly brilliant, and tails off a bit as it goes on, but is still very much worthwhile. And Wind up Bird is just... insane, but in a good way.

 

Yeah, I'm actually halfway through Ghostwritten, it's really good... only problem is that because of the structure, what with the 9 short stories, they're far too good stopping points... got distracted by the Petersburg story and haven't gone back to it yet, really should. And haha yeah I've read a few Murakamis, if it's anything like those it should be pretty mad

[Dan_Dare]

Haha, might take your word(s) for it... what didn't you like about em, out of interest?

 

 

on crusoe:

 

total lack of narrative, pace or characterization. Next to no plot, worthwhile prose or literary skill. It's basically a long, boring list of things he does on an island for hundreds of shitty fucking pages.

 

Terrible.

[jayseven]

I would say with Crusoe that it hasn't really aged well. The subject matter's been done on multiple formats over the years and in more interesting ways. The (... what're they called, travel journals? or something) genre was pretty much launched with Crusoe, and you have to think that the contemporary readers were stunned by this alien scenario...

 

With Thomas Hardy I just find he waffles on, and on, and motherfucking on, with an average page count of something like 600, his books are too leisurely and puffy. I'm not really too keen on many books pre-1900, because I just don't have the days of dawdling of an 18th century housewife. Ok, maybe I do BUT I have far more distractions :P

 

You say you're starting uni after the summer? Are you doing an english course? If so, I'm sure a list of books can be thrown together for you. Your list is very excellent, mind you! When I get back to brighton I'll compose my own summer schedule for comparison

[dan-likes-trees]

With Thomas Hardy I just find he waffles on, and on, and motherfucking on, with an average page count of something like 600, his books are too leisurely and puffy. I'm not really too keen on many books pre-1900, because I just don't have the days of dawdling of an 18th century housewife. Ok, maybe I do BUT I have far more distractions :P

 

You say you're starting uni after the summer? Are you doing an english course? If so, I'm sure a list of books can be thrown together for you. Your list is very excellent, mind you! When I get back to brighton I'll compose my own summer schedule for comparison

 

Haha yeah I agree, I much prefer post 1900 writing... which perhaps isn't ideal for someone doing English lit but Leeds has a huge choice of modules so should be able to lean toward more modern stuff..

 

So yeah doing English lit at Leeds, any book recommendations would be great! Thanks I only threw together my list this morning to avoid revision so it's definitely open to suggestions.

[jayseven]

Have you any idea what the modules you're covering yet? I know that the Leeds Uni library is very good, so you've got that to look forward to. In your first year you won't have too much diversity. My course focused heavily on the origin of the novel, and the three year course pretty much covered the growth of the novel chronologically, from epistolar things like Pamela (shudder) up to the post-industial and post-ww2, post-colonial, postmodern and other post- nonsense... I'll give my 'library' an overview and try to recommend you a few good books that have stood out over the years as seminal works.

[Chuck]

Don't read robinson crusoe. It'll make you want to kill yourself it's so shit.

 

I have it on my phone/ipod. I will read it.

[Naomi]

Haven't heard of some of these books...I need to catch up.

Well we just finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee in class.

Even though its mandatory reading I probably would of read it on my own.

 

Loved it to death. Southern Gothic is now one of my favorite genres.

[jayseven]

have. Would have.

 

I have to make this post at least once a month.

[Ashley]

You don't have to

 

Recently I have finally finished Hell's Angels and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

 

HA was good, insightful into a group I didn't really know a great deal about and wouldn't mind exploring more Thompson (outside of F&L) at some point. Although it suprised me he had a wife and child.

 

WITAWITAR (lol say that out loud) was better than I expected. I had no plans to buy it as I figured it was just a running...log. But its actually a mix between that, a travel diary and at times autobiographical. Not bad for £4.

 

So now I need to decide what reading material to take on holiday. I still have Murakami's Wind Up Bird Chronicles and Hard Boiled Wonderland and the Edge of the World to read, but part of me wants to read Norweigan Wood again, its such a comforting read for me.

 

Or I did recently find my old copy of Battle Royale I never got round to reading. Hmm.

[Naomi]

have. Would have.

 

I have to make this post at least once a month.

 

 

wow? really.

I didn't know grammatical errors really mattered in a online world filled with Lol's and Tttyl's

[Paj!]

wow? really.

I didn't know grammatical errors really mattered in a online world filled with Lol's and Tttyl's

 

I think people consider a meme (is that what those are called?) and the use thereof acceptable in normal language, but more often than not, people here speak "normally".

 

Lord, "speak". Type.

 

Plus "would of" grates on the surface of my brain when spelt out.

[Supergrunch]

I think people consider a meme (is that what those are called?) and the use thereof acceptable in normal language, but more often than not, people here speak "normally".

 

Lord, "speak". Type.

 

Plus "would of" grates on the surface of my brain when spelt out.

A meme in it's original sense (from The Selfish Gene) is more like an idea of sorts, that is capable of transferring from one mind to another, but in the modern internet 4chan sense the term refers basically to a kind of in-joke that spreads through the internet. So 4chan memes are a proper subset of traditional memes I suppose, but anyhoo.

 

"Could of" isn't a meme but a variant way of writing "could've," that was initially just misinterpretation of the contraction, but is becoming so widespread that it arguably isn't really an error any more, but it still annoys lots of people when you use it. And of course it's still wrong when typing in standard written English. I guess people here generally use a pretty informal version of that, unless you're ReZ or something.

[jayseven]

If it is arguably acceptable, then it is also arguable unacceptable.

 

It's not a grammar nazi thing! If I spell/misuse a word I'd hope someone would point it out to me, For Great Justice.

[Supergrunch]

If it is arguably acceptable, then it is also arguably unacceptable.

 

It's not a grammar nazi thing! If I spell/misuse a word I'd hope someone would point it out to me, For Great Justice.

For Great Justice. :wink: