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On January 09 2014 11:02 dmnum wrote:
have you read anna karenina? it's better imo
edit: not that war and peace is bad, it's among the best things I've ever read, but anna karenina is the best novel ever written, followed closely only by the brothers karamazov
yeah i read it a bit latter, was ineed a bit better, the death of ivan illich is amazing too. any advice on something else to pick up from tolstoy ?
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On January 09 2014 12:01 sAsImre wrote:Show nested quote +On January 09 2014 11:02 dmnum wrote:
have you read anna karenina? it's better imo
edit: not that war and peace is bad, it's among the best things I've ever read, but anna karenina is the best novel ever written, followed closely only by the brothers karamazov yeah i read it a bit latter, was ineed a bit better, the death of ivan illich is amazing too. any advice on something else to pick up from tolstoy ?
i want to research about his "christian anarchism"
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On January 09 2014 12:01 sAsImre wrote:Show nested quote +On January 09 2014 11:02 dmnum wrote:
have you read anna karenina? it's better imo
edit: not that war and peace is bad, it's among the best things I've ever read, but anna karenina is the best novel ever written, followed closely only by the brothers karamazov yeah i read it a bit latter, was ineed a bit better, the death of ivan illich is amazing too. any advice on something else to pick up from tolstoy ?
Hadji Murat, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Kreutzer Sonata, Resurrection. Keep in mind that they're all very different from War and Peace and Anna Karenina, since those works were written after his spiritual awakening.
From earlier Tolstoy the only work I've read besides Anna Karenina and War and Peace is family happiness, which is great. It's hard for me to pinpoint the exact work of his you should read because they're mostly even in quality. The only ones that stand above the others are Karenina, Ilyich and War and Peace. After that anything you read by him will be good, but you should pick the one you're most interested in.
I cannot comment on The Kingdom of God is Within You as I have not read it, but Resurrection and The Kreutzer Sonata have some Christian Anarchism ideas expressed in them.
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On January 09 2014 11:13 packrat386 wrote:
short stories?.
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1a/Sixty-stories.jpg)
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On January 09 2014 12:15 dmnum wrote:Show nested quote +On January 09 2014 12:01 sAsImre wrote:On January 09 2014 11:02 dmnum wrote:
have you read anna karenina? it's better imo
edit: not that war and peace is bad, it's among the best things I've ever read, but anna karenina is the best novel ever written, followed closely only by the brothers karamazov yeah i read it a bit latter, was ineed a bit better, the death of ivan illich is amazing too. any advice on something else to pick up from tolstoy ? Hadji Murat, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Kreutzer Sonata, Resurrection. Keep in mind that they're all very different from War and Peace and Anna Karenina, since those works were written after his spiritual awakening. From earlier Tolstoy the only work I've read besides Anna Karenina and War and Peace is family happiness, which is great. It's hard for me to pinpoint the exact work of his you should read because they're mostly even in quality. The only ones that stand above the others are Karenina, Ilyich and War and Peace. After that anything you read by him will be good, but you should pick the one you're most interested in. I cannot comment on The Kingdom of God is Within You as I have not read it, but Resurrection and The Kreutzer Sonata have some Christian Anarchism ideas expressed in them.
ok i'll just pick up something in the local library, thanks for the advice
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On January 09 2014 11:13 packrat386 wrote:
The Stranger is so good. I'm going to finish it today.
Any recommendations for a good collection of short stories? I've been reading not fun things for too long.
La Chute by Camus.
Death of Ivan Ilyich was good. I read it with Kafka's The Trial in the same week. Some interesting connections there.
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Book Log
+ Show Spoiler +And my first book for this year, Love and Math: ![[image loading]](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/11/19/science/19SCIB/19SCIB-popup.jpg) This was a birthday gift from my parents and I’m halfway in. It’s partly a biography of a young mathematician overcoming discrimination and finding his passion in soviet Russia. The other part is a sort of an explanation as to why he enjoys math so much. I find the biographical element really interesting, but so far the math has not been terribly engaging. I understand that he’s trying to avoid the kind of nitty gritty detail that makes people hate math in school, but it often leaves me feeling like it hasn’t really been explained. We’ll see how the rest goes. Happy New Year Folks! Finished: Love and MathThis book could have been 2 books, one of which I would gladly read, and one of which I would gladly leave on the shelf. The far more interesting part of this book was the biography of the author, who beat the odds and anti-semitism of his home country (soviet russia) to become a mathemetician. His story of working on mathematical discoveries as a side job and sneaking into the best university to read papers and attend lectures, was compelling and interesting. On the other had his presentation of mathematics was largely boring. I get what feels like a real sense of the passion that he has for math, but I find that his descriptions are too general for me to feel like they've been really explained. Part of my distaste may also stem from the fact that I don't find discussion of these sorts of concepts that interesting to begin with, so it would take a lot for the author to win me over. I would recommend the book to someone who really enjoys abstract math, but otherwise just get a good biography instead. Next I'm going to read The Stranger![[image loading]](http://www.hihimag.com/hi/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Camus.jpg) Since a lot of people on here seem to like it (I'm looking at you corumjhaelen). Should be good!
Finished: The Stranger
Excellent book. I had read a little bit of existentialism before this, so I wasn't unprepared for the content. That said the presentation was great. I really loved the descriptions of the protagonist just experiencing life in the moment. I don't think I need to give a detailed review of this book since half of the people here seem to have read it but, 5/5 would binge read again.
I've decided to pick up Sixty Stories
At the recommendation of sam. Should be good!
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You are missing out on La Chute.
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The Stranger was quite the read. I think I appreciated it a lot more than I enjoyed it... if that makes any sense. I think the scene where he + Show Spoiler +shoots the Arab has to be one of the most powerful scenes I've read in a novel. It was just the oddest mix of the absurdity of the scene, and the rational in the protagonist's mind.
Because of the praise for W&P I'm definitely going to start now. Wish me luck haha
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![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/JoyceUlysses2.jpg)
Starting this to take a break from nonfiction.
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i read a lot of books over the last month and a bit. Mostly boring stuff like globalization.
Fun books i read were: 'early socratic dialogues', by Plato. And 'The Histories' by Herodotus. Sam!zdat you will be pleased to hear that i have finished volume 1 of David Harveys companion to Capital. I might need to read it again some time.
my reading list keeps growing 
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Kindle is amazing, but is so easy to get books that I read like 100 pages from a book and move to another. I need to stop doing that. I'm on the way from The Castle, Kafka; Atonement, Ian McEwan; Dubliners, Joyce; Brothers Karamazov (just like 300 pages left); The Book of Disquiet, Fernando Pessoa aaaand Invisible Cities from Italo Calvino.
I'm find Atonement really good, McEwan seems very good at developing character, I'm at when + Show Spoiler +the little girl finds out what is on the letter
The Castle I already read like 1/3 of the book a year ago but dropped because I had to study, I'm still rereading these pages. IMO seems the best work from Kafka.
Dubliners is so beautiful, nothing more to say, simple and beautiful.
TBK is so long, omg. I loved Crime and Punishement but I'm reading Brother's for like 3/4 months always stopping and starting from the beginning. Meanwhile I find out Dostoiesvki a genius for his character (who wouldn't?) after + Show Spoiler + I lost motivation to finish, the story seems pretty boring.
Book of Disquiet from Pessoa is ahn.. Alright I guess, I don't know, I usually like this deep "I want to be a philosopher" books like Kundera and Mussil, but I couldn't get this, maybe just too much sadness for me, I don't really know.
Invisible Cities I just started yesterday, seems promiser, I already read Italo's Traveler, I think I will get a little disappoint in the end, but if I wouldn't it will be marvelous.
Also itkovian, I reread The Stranger yesterday too haha
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I'm reading The Black Prism by Brent Weeks, halfway through and enjoying it so far :D
It is kinda similar to a book by Brandon Sanderon, but I'm cool with that because I loved that one too xd
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This is by far the best existential novel I have read. It was even better than The Myth of Sisyphus.
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/ThePlague.jpg)
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Baa?21243 Posts
The Plague is amazing I need to read it again at some point.
Though my personal favorite Camus is, I think, The Fall.
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The First Man is the best one. The most depressing thing he has written, though, are his notebooks. the last few years... christ.
Anyway, I read Super Sad True Love Story. It sucked.
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On January 09 2014 18:47 stroggozzz wrote:
Sam!zdat you will be pleased to hear that i have finished volume 1 of David Harveys companion to Capital
<3
![[image loading]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RdCMhzx6M-M/TZHxRJOGrcI/AAAAAAAAAPE/1xhBUeX-QtQ/s400/The%252BSocial%252BLife%252Bof%252BThings.jpg)
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Just read "Veronica decides to die" by Paolo Cuelho. Worse than expected.
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Book Log
+ Show Spoiler +And my first book for this year, Love and Math: This was a birthday gift from my parents and I’m halfway in. It’s partly a biography of a young mathematician overcoming discrimination and finding his passion in soviet Russia. The other part is a sort of an explanation as to why he enjoys math so much. I find the biographical element really interesting, but so far the math has not been terribly engaging. I understand that he’s trying to avoid the kind of nitty gritty detail that makes people hate math in school, but it often leaves me feeling like it hasn’t really been explained. We’ll see how the rest goes. Happy New Year Folks! Finished: Love and MathThis book could have been 2 books, one of which I would gladly read, and one of which I would gladly leave on the shelf. The far more interesting part of this book was the biography of the author, who beat the odds and anti-semitism of his home country (soviet russia) to become a mathemetician. His story of working on mathematical discoveries as a side job and sneaking into the best university to read papers and attend lectures, was compelling and interesting. On the other had his presentation of mathematics was largely boring. I get what feels like a real sense of the passion that he has for math, but I find that his descriptions are too general for me to feel like they've been really explained. Part of my distaste may also stem from the fact that I don't find discussion of these sorts of concepts that interesting to begin with, so it would take a lot for the author to win me over. I would recommend the book to someone who really enjoys abstract math, but otherwise just get a good biography instead. Next I'm going to read The StrangerSince a lot of people on here seem to like it (I'm looking at you corumjhaelen). Should be good! Finished: The StrangerExcellent book. I had read a little bit of existentialism before this, so I wasn't unprepared for the content. That said the presentation was great. I really loved the descriptions of the protagonist just experiencing life in the moment. I don't think I need to give a detailed review of this book since half of the people here seem to have read it but, 5/5 would binge read again.
I ditched sixty stories because it didn't look very good in the library (sorry sam). Instead I picked up This Side of Paradise
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/04/This_Side_of_Paradise_dust_jacket.gif)
I've heard from some that it is actually better than gatsby. Should be good.
At the recommendation of sam. Should be good!
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EPT
