Books

[Brother Ragnarok]

About 2/3 through The Misplaced Legion by Harry Turtledove.  Part 1 of 4 of his "Videssos Cycle".  Good story, well-rounded characters, and plenty of action to keep the pace moving.  Recommended for any fans of historical fantasy/science fiction.

[Killer Bees]

I have a huge Jones for John Connolly right now (can a woman "get a Jones" about something?)

Right now it's Every Dead Thing.  I just love the way this guy writes.  Simple, fast moving and no navel gazing by the characters or verbosity.  So far it seems to be a serial killer story but I wouldn't be surprised if it had a supernatural element to it.

Will post more when I'm done.

[flackbait]

I just got done reading Of Mice and Men for history 112. Damn! it is depressing at the end. Pardon me while i go try to cheer my self up!

That book was excellent, you're right about the ending though, it was very depressing.

Let me guess had to read it for highschool?

Yessir, however I intend to one of these days read it of my own free will.

Nice to take the iniative.

I can't believe the school system in this country.  In high school, I had to read, among other things, Romeo and Juliet, Z For Zachariah, The Endless Steppe, Quokka Island, A Tale of Two Cities and other tripe I don't care to remember.

That was between the years 1979-1983.  And now my son is high school and he has to read the exact same trash!!  I didn't understand the relevance then and I don't now.  It's easy for anything to become a classic.  You just have to get enough people to say it and the literary wankers will jump on the bandwagon.

I think they might have at least toned it down in my area,  because the only classics I was ever forced to read in highschool were, A load of Shakespere and The Oddessey. I couldn't get why shakespere was taught to a bunch of highschoolers who had to have the teacher translate every verse.  I personally wanted to scream every time I saw shakespere on the schedule! The oddessey on the other hand really is a classic. It's probably the only book I've ever been assigned that i would read again.

[ToyMan]

if i was a teacher, after reading the odyssey, we'd watch "o brother, where art thou?".

[flackbait]

if i was a teacher, after reading the odyssey, we'd watch "o brother, where art thou?".

Actually my teacher did just that!

[Patient7]

if i was a teacher, after reading the odyssey, we'd watch "o brother, where art thou?".

Actually my teacher did just that!

Yeah, mine did that last year.  What I really hate about these classics is that the plot doesn't move AT ALL!  That's why I actually like books from the now-time, it actually points out a main idea and I can finish it without saying, "Why am I reading this trash?"  I'll admit, Dickens is one of the greatest literary minds ever, but he wrote in HIS time, therefore I, a person from a different era, am not suited to his style in which 20 pages are dedicated to a judge telling a guy what he has allegedly done.

[flackbait]

if i was a teacher, after reading the odyssey, we'd watch "o brother, where art thou?".

Actually my teacher did just that!

Yeah, mine did that last year.  What I really hate about these classics is that the plot doesn't move AT ALL!  That's why I actually like books from the now-time, it actually points out a main idea and I can finish it without saying, "Why am I reading this trash?"  I'll admit, Dickens is one of the greatest literary minds ever, but he wrote in HIS time, therefore I, a person from a different era, am not suited to his style in which 20 pages are dedicated to a judge telling a guy what he has allegedly done.

I get your point. But I gotta ask, did you read the Oddessey in the poetry format or the novel format?

[Patient7]

if i was a teacher, after reading the odyssey, we'd watch "o brother, where art thou?".

Actually my teacher did just that!

Yeah, mine did that last year.  What I really hate about these classics is that the plot doesn't move AT ALL!  That's why I actually like books from the now-time, it actually points out a main idea and I can finish it without saying, "Why am I reading this trash?"  I'll admit, Dickens is one of the greatest literary minds ever, but he wrote in HIS time, therefore I, a person from a different era, am not suited to his style in which 20 pages are dedicated to a judge telling a guy what he has allegedly done.

I get your point. But I gotta ask, did you read the Oddessey in the poetry format or the novel format?

Poetry, but I feel that either way, the only interesting scene is when Odysseus comes home and kicks the living s@#$ out of everybody.

[flackbait]

if i was a teacher, after reading the odyssey, we'd watch "o brother, where art thou?".

Actually my teacher did just that!

Yeah, mine did that last year.  What I really hate about these classics is that the plot doesn't move AT ALL!  That's why I actually like books from the now-time, it actually points out a main idea and I can finish it without saying, "Why am I reading this trash?"  I'll admit, Dickens is one of the greatest literary minds ever, but he wrote in HIS time, therefore I, a person from a different era, am not suited to his style in which 20 pages are dedicated to a judge telling a guy what he has allegedly done.

I get your point. But I gotta ask, did you read the Oddessey in the poetry format or the novel format?

Poetry, but I feel that either way, the only interesting scene is when Odysseus comes home and kicks the living s@#$ out of everybody.

The novel version was much easier to read for me. You might have liked it better that way. But that is definitly the best part!

[asimpson2006]

Well I finished the novelization of the Star Wars Episode IV on Tuesday.  Started Starship Troopers later that night, and I have read about half of the book so far.  I hope to finish it by either Friday night (which is really pushing it), or Saturday.

[ToyMan]

downloaded a pdf of philip jose farmer's jesus on mars. looking forward to reading it soon.

[asimpson2006]

Finished Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire on Tuesday, and started reading Lord of the Flies Tuesday night.

[Pilgermann]

if i was a teacher, after reading the odyssey, we'd watch "o brother, where art thou?".

Actually my teacher did just that!

Yeah, mine did that last year.  What I really hate about these classics is that the plot doesn't move AT ALL!  That's why I actually like books from the now-time, it actually points out a main idea and I can finish it without saying, "Why am I reading this trash?"  I'll admit, Dickens is one of the greatest literary minds ever, but he wrote in HIS time, therefore I, a person from a different era, am not suited to his style in which 20 pages are dedicated to a judge telling a guy what he has allegedly done.

Oh dear, I'm going to have to refer to a quote from one of my favorite books, Pilgermann (guess where I got my username!), by Russell Hoban:  "A story is what remains when you leave out most of the action." 

I think it's wrong that you should think that you can't appreciate something that isn't from "your time".  That's a foolish mistake.  I don't want to be too critical, but the era shouldn't matter, it's just that you don't care for Dickens' style (I think I once tried to read A Christmas Carol and I was beyond bored).

Oh yeah, I'm currently reading The Toynbee Convector by Ray Bradbury.  I was reading The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany, but I kept getting distracted.  I'll finish it eventually...

[Hammock Rider]

I like Shakespeare and Dickens as well as modern stuff.  But I'm like that, I can find the good in almost any written material. Even well written cook books can entertain as well as inform. But I can also see why Shakespeare and some of the other so called "Moldy Oldies" turn people off. In some ways they are not relevant to modern readers, and even when they are relevent translating words from 400 years ago is so onerus that it ruins the immediacy of the experience. You can't enjoy snappy patter so much when you have to wade through it like waist deep mud. That material was topical and relevant in it's time. Asking most people to "get" Shakespeare today is kind of like accessing an Elizabethan somehow and asking them to "get" Seinfeld. Sure there are some universal human truths in both, but topicality and language impede the way.

As for a fun recommendation try anything by Tim Dorsey. Reading his stuff is like reading Carl Hiaasen or Elmore Leonard while riding backwords on a roller coaster with your hair on fire.

[Patient7]

people seem to be misreading me, I'm just saying that there are some points in old literature that are pure symbolism and really add nothing to the plot.  The main reason I don't like shakespear is probably that my teachers have us read it out loud and some people don't know how to pronounce some "complicated" words.  For instance meager, it's not pronounced me-ay-ger, or determined not det-er-mine-d.  Yes, people can't read.