Books

[[BTF] Reflex]

 


Been a good few months for books round here...

   Painted House - by John Grisham
                                   
        Liked this one,  I've read 3 or 4 books by him,  and own a bunch more yet to go thru.
      Takes place in the 30's on a cotton farm..  not the usual setting for his books.


   Eyes of Darkness - by Dean koontz

       Liked this one,  till the last dozen pages.   Knew there was too short a time for a believable wrap up.
      was a reprint of one of his earlier books under a seudonym.   

   Brother Odd - by Dean Koontz

        a more recent work by koonts,  and really top notch,  lol every ten pages or so.  Book 3 in a series,
      prolly going to hate the first 2 now.

   First to Die -  by god knows who...   (Google) - James Patterson

        Standard killer suspense csi serial mureder thingy they even made a tv show out of...  was ok

   Playing for Pizza - by John Grisham

         another book of his not involving a jury or lawyer or courtroom,   failed NFL Qb tries his only option to
       stay in the game,  playing in Italy.   Good read,  and intro to italian food/culture thru his eyes    
        Come to think of it,  there is a judge.....

   Working on Einstein Intersection

       just started it,  about 150 pages..  1967 sci-fi and REALLY weird,  having a hard time picturing it.
     think the guy was on a few things,   but it won the Nebula award so can't be all bad can it?

  lol   " It is sometimes titled A Fabulous, Formless Darkness, the author's intended title for the work."

[myamagical]

Currently reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold... seems like a good book so far.

It's narrated by a little girl brutally raped and murdered.

[|iR|Focalor]

I'm almost exclusively a classics reader. I despise most of the modern authors. And contrary to what some might believe, yes, I even loathe Anne Rice.

Candide - Voltaire
I love Voltaire's writing style. He always focused more on the subject and the events pertaining to the story rather than waxing eloquent with lengthy descriptions of the scene that really don't mean dick and only serve to waste perfectly good ink and paper. He covers a HELL of a lot of ground in one story that could easily be read in it's entirety within a few hours. I'd highly recommend this one to anyone even if they are not particularly a fan of "classics". Very entertaining while weaving in liberal amounts of Voltaire's philosophical views. I'd definitely recommend finding a copy including extensive footnotes which explain how Voltaire used many of the characters to parody political figures of the day. I have to wonder if this was ever made into a feature length movie, it sure would make for one hell of a screenplay.

Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead
Another heavily philosophical classic. The story of a young architect who defies conventional thought processes and seeks his own vision of simplistic functionality in architecture rather than bending in acquiescence and regurgitating the same popular standards of beauty that everyone tries to force upon him. A story that champions the unrelenting ego of the individualist and masterfully demonstrates Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism.

[winstonw]

Speaking of Ayn Rand books:

* Anthem - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthem_%28novella%29 -- free audiobook and ebook at your fingertips
* Atlas Shrugged

I also enjoyed the Giver, and some other books by the same author such as "Gathering Blue."

[QwazyWabbit]

Ayn Rand was brilliant, but a complete nut job. She, more than anyone is responsible for influencing Alan Greenspan, the father of the devastated American and world economy. Laissez faire is and was a failed concept that led to the first depression and now this one. The bankers and "the market" cannot be trusted to act rationally. Wall Street was a den of thieves when this country was founded and it continues to be greedy and dangerous.

Read: Alan Greenspan The Oracle Behind the Curtain by E. Ray Canterbery (rather dated now, but prescient given today's economy)

Then watch: Frontline "Breaking the Bank" and "The Warning" on www.pbs.org/frontline

[|iR|Focalor]

* Anthem - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthem_%28novella%29 -- free audiobook and ebook at your fingertips

Anthem was a good one, pretty short too. You could probably read it in one evening.

Ayn Rand was brilliant, but a complete nut job. She, more than anyone is responsible for influencing Alan Greenspan, the father of the devastated American and world economy.

So by proxy, Ayn Rand is responsible for the recession? YOU sound like the nutjob to me. Her philosophy was anti-altruism/anti-collectivism, which would definitely be dead set against concepts like welfare and other social programs to the undeserving and extending credit to those who do not qualify, which is the root cause of the recession. If you want to hate Alan Greenspan, go for it, but blaming Ayn Rand for Alan Greenspan and/or the recession is like blaming the video game Doom and iD Software for the Columbine High School massacre. What a fucking leap.

[QwazyWabbit]

* Anthem - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthem_%28novella%29 -- free audiobook and ebook at your fingertips

Anthem was a good one, pretty short too. You could probably read it in one evening.

Ayn Rand was brilliant, but a complete nut job. She, more than anyone is responsible for influencing Alan Greenspan, the father of the devastated American and world economy.

So by proxy, Ayn Rand is responsible for the recession? YOU sound like the nutjob to me. Her philosophy was anti-altruism/anti-collectivism, which would definitely be dead set against concepts like welfare and other social programs to the undeserving and extending credit to those who do not qualify, which is the root cause of the recession. If you want to hate Alan Greenspan, go for it, but blaming Ayn Rand for Alan Greenspan and/or the recession is like blaming the video game Doom and iD Software for the Columbine High School massacre. What a fucking leap.

Not a leap at all. Read the wiki about the influence she had on him in his bio there. It ought to still be there, it's a well-documented fact. He's even admitted it in his writings. He used to hang out with her and her friends. Originally a Keynesian, he became a laissez faire conservative as a result of her influence. He even attended her funeral in 1982. His main fear as Fed chairman was inflation, but he let bubble after bubble occur on Wall Street and actually prevented any federal action on the problem of the hedge funds and the interlocking bets on the banks part. This has ultimately led to inflation in equities based on no "real" value. The result was unbridled speculation in credit default swaps and LBOs without transparency and oversight. Setting the stage for what has to be the worst market burnout in history. But again, the history of stock markets in genral is all about bubbles, speculation and panic crashes. This is why the Fed was invented in the first place.

Remember, "Atlas Shrugged" is a fiction and in a fictional world any silly philosophy you can invent works with perfect outcome. Even Karl Marx knew that.

Remember her background as well, born in 1905 in Russia, 12 at the time of the revolution, father's business confiscated by the Soviets, she was a devout anti-statist. Her anti-socialist views are as extreme and opposite as those of the communists.

[The Dreaming Dragon]

I recently finished Flowers for Algenon,a classic sci fi novel about a retarded adult who gain super intelligence from an experimental operation,and just recently discovered it was made into a movie called Charly. The star of it,Cliff Robertson ,passed away just recently and it won him an Oscar. So here's the link to the movie on YouTube...definately worth seeing...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AeSf5QDEmQ

[[BTF]Sigma]

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

 I love it so much. I must have read it 4 or 5 times already.

Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson (again)

 Meant to be the spiritual successor to Snow Crash. I'm finding it a little less engaging than its predecessor.

Fionavar Tapestry - Guy Gavriel Kay

 A trilogy of fantasy books. I got more drawn in to this than I did the LOTR books, but only after the first book. The opening setting for the book is kinda cheesy.

[Er!c@]

I recently finished Flowers for Algenon,a classic sci fi novel about a retarded adult who gain super intelligence from an experimental operation,and just recently discovered it was made into a movie called Charly. The star of it,Cliff Robertson ,passed away just recently and it won him an Oscar. So here's the link to the movie on YouTube...definately worth seeing...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AeSf5QDEmQ

this was a required reading for my highschool, being a 9th grader at the time i didnt actually read it until my senior year... but yes very interestingly good book.

[peewee_RotA]

I don't often read anymore, but I did delve into World War Z

It was awesome, I highly recommend it to all zombie fans. Funny thing though, by the end of the book you realize that every person telling the story sounds the same. I think the author just got tired of the in character constant narration required.

[Whirlingdervish]

I got a Kindle for Christmas and threw some books on there to read when I'm out to lunch.

so far this year I've read these:

Stephen King - It
Orwell - 1984
Orwell - Animal Farm
Brian Greene - The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, hidden dimensions and the quest for the ultimate theory
Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange
Christopher Paolini - Inheritance (Eragon book 4)
Oriah - The Dance
Cormac McCarthy - The Road