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The Reading Room
moniker
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm still working my way through Caro's The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York City. It's a really interesting read and kind of unsettling because I can see too much of myself in a young Bob Moses. Granted I haven't gotten to the really corrupt bits yet, but still. I should probably stop letting it sit for days while I blitz through non-fiction and such...
What are you reading?
What are you reading?
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On the upside, 'connections' is spelt 'connexions' in it, which is old-school and awesome.
Recently read On Beauty by Zadie Smith and enjoyed it. Not currently reading anything because I'm leaving in four days and not ready to go at all.
Most influential and motivational book I have ever read in my life.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
By influential do you mean in the thinking or growing rich sense?
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
they don't it be like it is but it do
Well, this is a drum I beat a lot, but if Zadie Smith and Salman Rushdie are your idea of plane reading you should definitely grab some David Mitchell. Cloud Atlas and Black Swan Green are his best, but Ghostwritten and number9dream are fabulous too. He's quickly becoming my favorite modern literary voice.
Waiting On A Dance With Dragons ( I hate you George R. R. Martin)
Sweet, thanks for the suggestion. I'll swing by the bookstore tomorrow.
Now I feel dumb.
Apology accepted.
The book doesn't talk about material riches exclusively. It's main message is that if you really put your mind to something, and persist at it, you can do anything. It gives examples of successful people persevering in the face of great hardship and accomplishing great tasks.
It's been a long time since I've read it, but Equal Rites didn't tickle my fancy as much as some of the other Discworld books. Have you read anything else without Rincewind and Twoflower? If you haven't read any of the Night Watch books I highly recommend them.
You need to shake the book while you read it. That makes things more interesting and action packed.
There's no reason for this to have made me laugh as hard as it did.
they don't it be like it is but it do
History of Rome by Michael Grant.
It's honestly a terrifically interesting book, but it will put you to sleep on a plane by force of the sheer density of information. You need time to digest that stuff.
But yes, anyway, I read that one for fun, mostly to impress people and cultivate my "I'm so much better than you all" image, but I actually stuck with it because it's engaging and well written and such a dramatic subject. Those Romans, they sure did some crazy stuff.
Seriously, I had to read that title a few times.
Has anyone read it?
Also, Power Broker is a really good book that I should pick up again someday soon.
Right after I power through Truman. Fucking McCullough. I understand he wants to go back a bit and give context to Truman's life and childhood, but the first chapter practically begins with "40 million year ago, dinosaurs roamed the Earth."
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
I'm skipping Market Forces because it sucks.
As much as I enjoyed Altered Carbon, really none of his stuff has matched up. Depending on how it strikes you Thirteen will either be his best or most annoying work.
To be fair though, I think Woken Furies has my favorite moment in a non-serious book (spoiler for late in the book)
The first time I've ever been reading for fun and legitimately said "Oh shit" out loud.
Just finished Gridlinked by Neal Asher, which continues my trend of reading books that are pretty good to start with and then fall apart at the end. In this one it reads as if he just didn't bother to proofread the last quarter of the book, because the dialogue and writing just completely fall apart.
Next on the list is The Professor and the Madman, about the creation of the Oxford dictionary.
I'm holding out for a couple more chapters but if it keeps up like that fuck it.
Shit's good, but squicky.
Yes, and I loved it. Ondaatje is one of my two favourite writers, and I love everything he's written.
But I did like Anil's Ghost more my second time through. The first time I was a little thrown by how traditional the writing was, using proper paragraphs and quotation marks for dialogue and everything. It wasn't what I had come to expect from him. But the second time through I focused more on the poetry of the language and how skillfully the whole thing was put together and I really enjoyed it.
XBL |Steam | PSN | last.fm
Now I'm tearing through The Courage to Stand Alone: Letters from Prison and Other Writings by Wei Jingsheng. His letters to the CCP leadership are pretty entertaining in that he used a lot of communist rhetoric to support his argument against them while at the same time using quotes from Lenin and Mao to back up his argument for democracy.
I'm now starting Fluke by Christopher Moore. The girlfriend read a couple of his books, and thought I might get a kick out of them. We shall see.
I decided to drive forty minutes to the nearest Library with Crooked Little Vein checked in. I was going to actually buy it, but it was $20 at borders for a tiny, tiny book.
I just finished chapter four.
Godamnit.
I'm not sure why I wasn't expecting this, Warren Ellis and whatnot. But seriously, what the fuck?
You have awesome taste, Seal. You could try some James Thurber or Vonnegut for light reading, Nabokov for something denser. I assume you've read Catch 22.
edit: Oh yeah - Irvine Welsh is good. Try Trainspotting or Glue.
Lamb is a fucking gold mine of enjoyment.
Even if I forgot everything I read, thats not the point.
That is a hell of a page turner.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
Almost as much as Great Gatsby