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Summer Reading Series

SpeakerSpeaker Registered User regular
edited May 2008 in Debate and/or Discourse
You guys want to do a little book discussion over the summer? I'm thinking three or four books of an author or a theme strung out with deadlines for having them read between now and september.

Suggestions? Anyone have an author they want to learn about and discuss?

Speaker on
«13

Posts

  • Charles KinboteCharles Kinbote Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Well I have to read On The Origin of Species and Metamorphosis for school anyway, so I'll throw those out as potentials why not.

    Charles Kinbote on
  • AegisAegis Fear My Dance Overshot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I've picked up The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier recently, though haven't started reading it due to finals. If you go with an economic/political theme I wouldn't mind giving that a shot.

    Aegis on
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  • OhtheVogonityOhtheVogonity Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I'm game.

    I've got Ulysses and Foucault's Pendulum gathering dust on my shelf.

    OhtheVogonity on
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  • lunasealunasea Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I've been meaning to read The Brothers Karamazov, does that count?

    lunasea on
  • OhtheVogonityOhtheVogonity Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I'm feeling like this would be more likely to work with books that don't rank among the most difficult to read.

    So I withdraw my nomination for Ulysses.

    OhtheVogonity on
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  • Charles KinboteCharles Kinbote Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I'd be down for some Dostoevsky, but I've already read the Brother Karamazov, so I personally would favor another one (Notes from the Underground?). However, if a lot of people want to read that, that's fine, as it's been a little while.

    Charles Kinbote on
  • MalkorMalkor Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    How 'bout The Master and Margarita? We could do a Russian theme.

    Malkor on
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  • Mike DangerMike Danger "Diane..." a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I'll second Foucault's Pendulum.

    Heck, toss in Name of the Rose, too. I probably missed half the Deep Significant Bits of that, anyhow.

    Or, Book of the New Sun. I would eagerly welcome some discussion on that.

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  • JacobkoshJacobkosh Gamble a stamp. I can show you how to be a real man!Moderator mod
    edited April 2008
    Or, Book of the New Sun. I would eagerly welcome some discussion on that.

    We should really do just a straight-up Book of the New Sun thread, there seems to be a sufficient critical mass of people on D&D who've either read it or are wanting to read it. And it would be a good place to post definitions of the difficult words, explanations of the more obscure passages, theories about the plot, etc.

    Jacobkosh on
  • Ethan SmithEthan Smith Origin name: Beart4to Arlington, VARegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    theme-Drug novels

    -Requiem for a dream
    -Trainspotting
    -Fear and Loathing
    -A Scanner Darkly
    -other things?

    Ethan Smith on
  • DozingDragonDozingDragon Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I'd be down for a Book of the New Sun run, or some Hesse and Nabakov.

    DozingDragon on
  • HachfaceHachface Not the Minister Farrakhan you're thinking of Dammit, Shepard!Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I nominate Cormac McCarthy. He's easy to read, he's literary, and I'm certain most PAers would enjoy him.

    Hachface on
  • OboroOboro __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2008
    I'd read any Russian author that isn't Dostoevsky. His prose is just too, too dense for me to parse and actually enjoy myself in the process.

    Oboro on
    words
  • ThanatosThanatos Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    The hell is Book of the New Sun?

    I could join in on this, if the books were decent.

    Thanatos on
  • saggiosaggio Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I need some easy to read prose to offset the dense philosophy I have to read this summer.

    So. I'm in if there are some decent selections.

    saggio on
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  • JacobkoshJacobkosh Gamble a stamp. I can show you how to be a real man!Moderator mod
    edited April 2008
    Thanatos wrote: »
    The hell is Book of the New Sun?

    Dude, it gets mentioned like every five posts in the book thread. But here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Wolfe

    Jacobkosh on
  • Charles KinboteCharles Kinbote Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Philip K. Dick is pretty light reading and is pretty good

    of course I'm just crazy for Philip, Orwell, Huxley, Burgess, Vonnegut, etc etc

    Charles Kinbote on
  • ThanatosThanatos Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    jacobkosh wrote: »
    Thanatos wrote: »
    The hell is Book of the New Sun?

    Dude, it gets mentioned like every five posts in the book thread. But here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Wolfe
    Oh, that's the guy who wrote Latro in the Mist.

    Thanatos on
  • werehippywerehippy Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I'd be on board with this, though it was my burning hatred of Stiglitz that killed the econ version of this last summer. I swear that if I find someone a douchebag this time around, I'll be more moderate in my unceasing condemnation of them.

    werehippy on
  • BobCescaBobCesca Is a girl Birmingham, UKRegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I'd be up for this. I'm not really fussy with the choice of books, though it'd be good to have a mix of past and present authors, different countries would be good too.

    BobCesca on
  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator Mod Emeritus
    edited April 2008
    jacobkosh wrote: »
    Or, Book of the New Sun. I would eagerly welcome some discussion on that.

    We should really do just a straight-up Book of the New Sun thread, there seems to be a sufficient critical mass of people on D&D who've either read it or are wanting to read it. And it would be a good place to post definitions of the difficult words, explanations of the more obscure passages, theories about the plot, etc.

    So up for this. It's been a good long while since I re-read them. Would we include Urth of the New Sun?

    Those of us who also have The Castle of the Otter can be all smug and knowledgeable about the obscure words.

    Bogart on
  • lunasealunasea Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    theme-Drug novels

    -Requiem for a dream
    -Trainspotting
    -Fear and Loathing
    -A Scanner Darkly
    -other things?

    Oh man, not the same but in the same vein:
    Football Factory
    Doors of Perception (I love Huxley)
    Last Exit to Brooklyn (Another great Hubert Shelby book)

    lunasea on
  • TarantioTarantio Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Um, I still haven't gotten around to reading Dune.

    What else would go with that?

    Tarantio on
  • SpeakerSpeaker Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I'm kind of interested in Caesar Chavez.

    Speaker on
  • PodlyPodly you unzipped me! it's all coming back! i don't like it!Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Well I'm going to be reading The Recognitions and Infinite Jest, but if you all want to read Ulysses I'd be game for that too, seeing that it is my fucking signature and it is the best book ever written.

    Podly on
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  • CauldCauld Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I'm down for some reading, I've been meaning to get back into it. That said I'd prefer something I could enjoy, nothing too dense (I'm looking at you Dostoevsky)

    Cauld on
  • CheezyCheezy Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I'd be down for this. I've been meaning to read Ulysses, Foucault's Pendulum, and The Master and Margarita, so I'll throw in my hat for any of those those.

    Cheezy on
  • MahnmutMahnmut Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I'll play. Maybe some non-fiction could be fit in, too? I have been meaning to read Cradle to Cradle, for example.

    Mahnmut on
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  • nexuscrawlernexuscrawler Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Pods how many times you read the infinite Jest now :p

    35?

    nexuscrawler on
  • nuclearalchemistnuclearalchemist Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I've been thinking that I should reread Catch-22, although I wouldn't be opposed to some other books, either fiction, science fiction and fantasy (hardcord, not crappy stuff), maybe non-fiction.

    nuclearalchemist on
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  • Torso BoyTorso Boy Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Well I have to read On The Origin of Species and Metamorphosis for school anyway, so I'll throw those out as potentials why not.
    Fuck that. I'm all about the appreciation and analysis, but no matter how many times I read it I can't help but think of it as meandering crap.

    I'm currently digging into Hunter S. Thompson and Robertson Davies.

    And I have to complete Ulysses someday, just to say I did, so I'd be all for that. I think the only way I could get through is in a discussion-based setting...if I was alone, I might just hang myself.
    The first page of Finnegan's Wake made me feel illiterate and sent me spiraling into a depression that lasted weeks. I have not gone back.

    Torso Boy on
  • PodlyPodly you unzipped me! it's all coming back! i don't like it!Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Torso Boy wrote: »
    [
    The first page of Finnegan's Wake made me feel illiterate and sent me spiraling into a depression that lasted weeks. I have not gone back.

    It's virtually impossible to even read Finnegans Wake (no apostrophe) without having read Ulysses. The Wake is basically Ulysses on the most amazing steroids ever. I'm starting to piece it together -- I've read one whole section :P -- and I've read Ulysses four times.

    I'd feel confident being kind of the discussion guide for Ulysses, both in terms of pointing out what is actually happening in the novel -- the plot is actually quite engaging once you learn how to extricate it -- and hilight the motifs if you guys want.

    Podly on
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  • Torso BoyTorso Boy Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Podly wrote: »
    Torso Boy wrote: »
    [
    The first page of Finnegan's Wake made me feel illiterate and sent me spiraling into a depression that lasted weeks. I have not gone back.

    It's virtually impossible to even read Finnegans Wake (no apostrophe) without having read Ulysses. The Wake is basically Ulysses on the most amazing steroids ever. I'm starting to piece it together -- I've read one whole section :P -- and I've read Ulysses four times.

    I'd feel confident being kind of the discussion guide for Ulysses, both in terms of pointing out what is actually happening in the novel -- the plot is actually quite engaging once you learn how to extricate it -- and hilight the motifs if you guys want.
    I think this is a fantastic idea.

    Torso Boy on
  • Mike DangerMike Danger "Diane..." a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Bogart wrote: »
    jacobkosh wrote: »
    Or, Book of the New Sun. I would eagerly welcome some discussion on that.

    We should really do just a straight-up Book of the New Sun thread, there seems to be a sufficient critical mass of people on D&D who've either read it or are wanting to read it. And it would be a good place to post definitions of the difficult words, explanations of the more obscure passages, theories about the plot, etc.

    So up for this. It's been a good long while since I re-read them. Would we include Urth of the New Sun?

    Those of us who also have The Castle of the Otter can be all smug and knowledgeable about the obscure words.

    I finally found Urth of the New Sun at a used bookstore. I've not been so lucky with the Gormenghast trilogy, but that's another story.

    I would probably kill a hobo to have a copy of Castle of the Otter.

    Mike Danger on
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  • TarantioTarantio Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    I've been thinking that I should reread Catch-22, although I wouldn't be opposed to some other books, either fiction, science fiction and fantasy (hardcord, not crappy stuff), maybe non-fiction.

    I read Slaughterhouse 5 in close succession with Catch-22. If you're going to read one humorous post-modern book about a misfit in WW2 that has a number in the title, you may as well read the other one.

    Tarantio on
  • JacobkoshJacobkosh Gamble a stamp. I can show you how to be a real man!Moderator mod
    edited April 2008
    I would probably kill a hobo to have a copy of Castle of the Otter.

    It's included in the collection Castle of Days, which is considerably easier to get hold of.

    Jacobkosh on
  • Mike DangerMike Danger "Diane..." a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    jacobkosh wrote: »
    I would probably kill a hobo to have a copy of Castle of the Otter.

    It's included in the collection Castle of Days, which is considerably easier to get hold of.

    Duly noted. Thanks.

    Mike Danger on
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  • MahnmutMahnmut Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    If less august and more recent fiction is possibly on the list, I'd like to put in a word for John Crowley--probably Little, Big, though the Aegypt Cycle is more capable of sustaining discussion (it's also long). I hear his other stuff is good too, and I don't doubt it.

    Mahnmut on
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  • OhtheVogonityOhtheVogonity Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Torso Boy wrote: »
    Podly wrote: »
    Torso Boy wrote: »
    [
    The first page of Finnegan's Wake made me feel illiterate and sent me spiraling into a depression that lasted weeks. I have not gone back.

    It's virtually impossible to even read Finnegans Wake (no apostrophe) without having read Ulysses. The Wake is basically Ulysses on the most amazing steroids ever. I'm starting to piece it together -- I've read one whole section :P -- and I've read Ulysses four times.

    I'd feel confident being kind of the discussion guide for Ulysses, both in terms of pointing out what is actually happening in the novel -- the plot is actually quite engaging once you learn how to extricate it -- and hilight the motifs if you guys want.
    I think this is a fantastic idea.

    Also, my grandfather told me I'd never truly be a man until I finished it.

    OhtheVogonity on
    Oh freddled gruntbuggly...thy micturations are to me/ As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee
  • CheeriosCheerios Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    lunasea wrote: »
    theme-Drug novels

    -Requiem for a dream
    -Trainspotting
    -Fear and Loathing
    -A Scanner Darkly
    -other things?

    Oh man, not the same but in the same vein:
    Football Factory
    Doors of Perception (I love Huxley)
    Last Exit to Brooklyn (Another great Hubert Shelby book)

    Don't forget Junkie and Naked Lunch.

    Cheerios on
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