EPTCurrently reading Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins. Tackles themes of art and violence in the middle east, with his characteristic wit and zest for sentence structure. This book also makes me horny and has great descriptions and even some philosophy.
What Are You Reading 2018 - Page 10
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imgbaby
158 Posts
Currently reading Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins. Tackles themes of art and violence in the middle east, with his characteristic wit and zest for sentence structure. This book also makes me horny and has great descriptions and even some philosophy. | ||
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IgnE
United States7681 Posts
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123Gurke
France154 Posts
On February 27 2018 22:54 Plansix wrote: So will Hemingway make a mid life crisis better or worse? I don't know. I still have some years to go until mid life crisis. But I can already relate better to many things he writes. I can maybe tell you in a few years if this thread is still around. On February 28 2018 05:08 Silvanel wrote: It looks like US Politics Mega-thread is leaking. What did You guys read recently? I agree. If you want to behave like this, there are plenty of places to do so. Just keep this out of this thread please. Thanks! | ||
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Jerubaal
United States7684 Posts
On February 28 2018 05:25 Plansix wrote: Quite good for a biography, which is one of the major short falls of most mass market history writers. Compared to the John Adams biography by David McCullough, it moves at a reasonable clip and does not become bogged less than compelling details that do little to serve reader. Speaking of good non-fiction, Mexico: A Biography of Power by Enrique Krauze was a great crash course in Mexican history. | ||
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Dan HH
Romania9129 Posts
http://www.southerncrossreview.org/49/mann.htm I don't know anything about this site, it's the one place I found the full text on in English with some quick googling. + Show Spoiler + The subject of how difficult it is sometimes to not take what you don't actually desire is something that interested me ever since reading The Fall, where the narrating character brings it up. One of Mann's main early influences is Nietzsche, especially when it comes to mocking idealism, you can see that here without any subtlety. | ||
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Jerubaal
United States7684 Posts
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Plansix
United States60190 Posts
On March 01 2018 05:15 Jerubaal wrote: Speaking of good non-fiction, Mexico: A Biography of Power by Enrique Krauze was a great crash course in Mexican history. Interesting. I've put it on my used book watch list for when I am done with Hamilton. My Mexican history is thoroughly tilted towards the US, so that would be a good read. If you know any good books for the history of China, I am always looking for something that isn't some half assed translation. | ||
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Jerubaal
United States7684 Posts
What do you think? | ||
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imgbaby
158 Posts
On March 14 2018 03:12 Jerubaal wrote: What do yo u guys think about your conscious writing style? It's one thing to analyze different authors or even to imitate them, especially in contrast, but one's own style seems a bit out of reach to totally control. Obviously there are some irritating conventions you can avoid, but the basic conceit seems like something that was decided by the zeitgeist. I feel like, to a greater or lesser degree, the prevailing style in almost every book I read is a sort of soft realism with frequent intense description or metaphorical description. Now you can look at a writer and say he has done this poorly (the worst problem I see is over floridness or clumsy metaphor) or well, but the rule seems to be the same. What do you think? I agree that prose styles are leaning towards realist style, which is most often concise and simple. I don't actually find that many metaphors with realism. I'm not sure what authors you are reading though. I like Tom Robbins and his prose style is very poetic and he describes with broad brush strokes. Not much of a realist but more of an imaginative fiction writer. | ||
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Gorgonoth
United States468 Posts
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Jerubaal
United States7684 Posts
I tried to teach it two years, but it's not a student favorite. | ||
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Gorgonoth
United States468 Posts
On March 16 2018 08:40 Jerubaal wrote: It's not about censorship. It's about a society that doesn't read. I tried to teach it two years, but it's not a student favorite. You are right, it's not about Government censorship. However In several interviews he says that the society that dosent read leads to censoring because its an extension of what we want. People only wanting to hear what they want and disregarding the rest. Like people who exclusively intake books, media, ideas that they agree with. In the back of the 50th anniversary book he gives examples about how Berkley and other colleges wanted him to edit his writings because they didn't have enough female or ethnic roles, mention of God or moral absolutes etc.He even says "There's more than one way to burn a book." So I think to say its not about censorship is incorrect. He isn't warning about totalitarian regimes, but becoming a society of ultimate appeasement and unversalism ie one that wants out of its own free will to burn books because they have something in them that will offend a minority( or majority) and upset the apple cart(many, many quotes to back this up), rather than having discourse about these issues. | ||
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{CC}StealthBlue
United States41117 Posts
![[image loading]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51s7l21SuAL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) | ||
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Jerubaal
United States7684 Posts
On March 16 2018 09:02 Gorgonoth wrote: You are right, it's not about Government censorship. However In several interviews he says that the society that dosent read leads to censoring because its an extension of what we want. People only wanting to hear what they want and disregarding the rest. Like people who exclusively intake books, media, ideas that they agree with. In the back of the 50th anniversary book he gives examples about how Berkley and other colleges wanted him to edit his writings because they didn't have enough female or ethnic roles, mention of God or moral absolutes etc.He even says "There's more than one way to burn a book." So I think to say its not about censorship is incorrect. He isn't warning about totalitarian regimes, but becoming a society of ultimate appeasement and unversalism ie one that wants out of its own free will to burn books because they have something in them that will offend a minority( or majority) and upset the apple cart(many, many quotes to back this up), rather than having discourse about these issues. A lot of your analysis is correct, but this is like arguing that a suicide is a murder. Bradbury's point was not that ideas would be suppressed by force but that society would do it to itself. These are radically different phenomena, despite whatever similar effects they have. | ||
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123Gurke
France154 Posts
![[image loading]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41JH9XYazdL._SX279_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) I found this honestly not as magical as her short stories. Still a very good book that treats questions that are often not treated in SF. One issue for me is that she messed up the whole gender thing. I guess it is very hard to write on androgynous characters in english since there are only two pronouns and those are gendered. But in the short story on the same aliens that I read before it works out far better. Nevertheless, definitely recommended. I have the impression that I will get more out of it when reading it again, so I will do so at some point. Having read this, I decided to start a new reading project for the year 2018 (yeah, maybe I am a little late...): I will dedicate this year to the SF classics. I have always read a lot of SF, but I have somewhat neglected it over the last few years. So this will be going back to the roots to me. I will mostly focus on the classics, so nothing after, say, the 70s. I will start this off with Heinlein. He is the one of the big three I know the least. I have only read Starship Troopers roughly 20 years ago, so I think there is much to explore. I was mainly considering two books: Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Hard Mistress since those seem to be his most well known books. Any recommendations which one I should start with? After Heinlein I will see how I will continue. Maybe rereading some Bradbury,A Canticle for Leibowitz, The Forever War, The Dispossessed, ... Any recommendations? | ||
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Nyxisto
Germany6287 Posts
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Flicky
England2663 Posts
To note: I read it in Italian. Italian is not my native language and I'm not really at the level to truly read this book in Italian. So it was a very slow read and more educational, than pleasurable. I liked the parts I could understand fluently and it has some lovely sections with beautiful writing. I look forward to reading it again when I'm better at the language. | ||
Carnivorous Sheep
Baa?21243 Posts
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Meepman
Canada610 Posts
Anybody have any thoughts on this one? Salinger's really hit and miss for me. When he gets it right, he nails it ("Franny and Zooey" really resonated with me), but a lot of his other work is meh at best. | ||
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The_Red_Viper
19533 Posts
![[image loading]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/53/Cormac_McCarthy_NoCountryForOldMen.jpg/220px-Cormac_McCarthy_NoCountryForOldMen.jpg) No country for old men The plot is very simple, a drug deal goes wrong, some guy coincidentally finds the dead bodies and a lot of money and tries to get away with it. A psychopathic killer and some cartell men are trying to get him though. All of that happens during the 80s close to the american-mexican border and our main character, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell leads the case. The writing style is very dry and simple, but it creates this special atmosphere of dread and an enormous intensitity. The themes of an everchanging society, human condition, guilt, morality, etc are worked out quite nicely. I liked "The road" a bit more, it was a stronger book emotionally, but i still enjoyed this one quite a bit and will read all of his work for sure. | ||
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