A novelization of metadata, literary criticism and theories disguised as a novel and memoir, intellectual diary of an amateur Flaubert enthusiast. I love it, although it is taking me a very long time to read. Every chapter is like a separate work, so I have to set the book down and think every fifteen pages or so.
I still haven't read Flaubert. I'm not sure I can, that I want to. The New Yorker has filled up my quota of adultery stories for the year, and I fear to read of deeply romantic sensibilities when I've resolved that I can't believe them. Instead, with Flaubert's Parrot, I can back into the room and hold up a mirror to see what is behind me.
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A friend recommended it to me, but it was checked out at my school library so I got it after I finished Childhood's End. It seems pretty good thus far...
Just started this novel based on the numerious recommendations on the back by authors such as Neil Gaiman, China Mieville, Iain M. Banks, Alastair Reynolds, etc. It was also the winner of the James Tiptree Jr. Award.
I had just finished re-reading Ringworld by Larry Niven....had been many, many, many, many years since I had read that particular book.
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A nice social commentary / satire regarding the current 'elite' class, Bourgeois (sp?) Bohemians (hence, Bobos). There are some interesting concepts, but mostly looking at how not to become one I suppose.
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The Choice, Gobal Domination or Global Leadership, by Zbigniew Brzezinski. It is an interesting counterbalance to the "neocon" unilateral foreign policy being espoused by the current administration.
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C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, just starting a reread of Bradbury's Dandelion Wine and working through Isaiah in the Bible.
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After reading Cat's Cradle a short while back, I decided i like Vonnegut's style, so I started Sirens of Titan which was standing on my bookshelf for some 20 years. I am enjoying it so far. I need to finish it quickly, cause I just got the first 2 books of Martin's series from Amazon. They'd better be worth it.
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As supplementary reading, I am rereading Homecoming #5 by OSC, and my Entertainment Weekly that I love far more than I'd like to admit.
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For school? Jean Baudrillard. Next week: Michel Foucault.
For pleasure? Hunting Party by Elizabeth Moon. Space opera is back, and Elizabeth Moon writes it. I just finished Ilium by Dan Simmons, and I have to read something.Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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Thailand: A Short History by David K Wyatt, and I'm finally getting around to reading the latest Alvin Maker book. Left both of them at work though, so unless I make a trip into the office tonight or tomorrow I'll have to come up with something else to read until I go back on Friday.
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Rage of a Demon King by Raymond Feist, which is pretty much crap, even by Feist's standards. I'm reading it as part of my crusade to become conversant in popular fantasy. Some parts of the überseries are actually entertaining and good reads. This series, and this book in particular, are just tedious, though.
I am also reading The Hollow Man by Dan Simmons. Simmons is a fantastic writer and I love most of his writing. So far, though, I am finding this book a bit cynical for my tastes. Certainly the in-depth (and inaccurate) slam of Disney didn't help. Still, it's hard to put down. We'll see what happens . . .
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Do you recommend anything else by Dan Simmons? I'm almost done with Parrot, and I'll need something new before returning to Diskworld in a book or two.
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Folk of the Fringe by OSC. I have only a few books left until I read all of OSC full length fantasy/sci-fi/horror books (except for collections of short stories). I have Hart's Hope and the last few Alvin Maker books left.
I'm also reading Scientific American.
Textbooks of course.
Endymion by Simmons is great. Its beautiful.
[ November 10, 2004, 04:32 PM: Message edited by: Jacob Porter ]
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At present, only a several-month-old issue of Harper's and some of my favourite Calvin and Hobbes stuff. I have a stack of novels to choose from and I'm feeling strangely indecisive.
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I'm ashamed to say that I am just now reading The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower. Ashamed because it's been in stores for such a long time. Still, at $50 Canadian I sure as hell wasn't going to buy it, and the library took its sweet time in getting any copies.
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That reminds me. Is it acceptable to read the revised edition of the first volume, as someone who has not read the unrevised edition? I can't seem to find the unrevised edition anywhere and I was thinking of starting to read those books.
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The entire Hyperion series, but that's a bit obvious.
He had an interesting one that looked at gender-relationships, but I can't remember the title off of the top of my head. I'll look when I have time at home.
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quote: Endymion by Simmons is great. Its beautiful.
Yeah, it's a good book, but you'll probably want to read Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion first, as they are the first two books in a quatrain of which Endymion is the third book.
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I'm rereading Prentice Alvin. My friend was laughing at me when she saw me reading it yesterday though because all she could see was that there was a very buff guy with no shirt on the front cover. Now she's questioning my choice of reading material.
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No, Simmons is very different. After reading Cryptonomicon, I was kind of disappointed by Stephenson's earlier work.
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I thought Ilium by Simmons was pretty good. I had gotten tired of Simmons after reading all the Hyperion books, and so I was pleasantly surprised at how readable Ilium was.
Now I suppose I'll have to read Proust. Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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quote: That reminds me. Is it acceptable to read the revised edition of the first volume, as someone who has not read the unrevised edition? I can't seem to find the unrevised edition anywhere and I was thinking of starting to read those books.
Are you talking about the Dark Tower series? If you are, then I didn't even know there was a revised edition of the first volume. I bought the first volume right around the time that the fourth volume came out. In any case, I don't think it would really matter if it was a revised edition.
If you were talking about some other series, feel free to disregard this post.
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quote:This series, and this book in particular, are just tedious, though.
I'm coming to realize that I am far, far less picky about what I read than what I watch, at least for fiction. I quite liked that particular series. In fact, in some ways I think it was my favorite of all of the Midkemia books that Feist wrote.
I'm currently reading The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. I'm finding it absolutely riveting. In the queue are Maps in a Mirror, and Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury.
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how odd, I am actually reading the text in my reply for this thread on hatrack. Of course I am to lazy to link to the thread (like you did) but people will just have to pretend that I inserted a link.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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I'm finishing up A Game of Thrones for the first time.
I'm also a little over halfway through The Alien Years by Silverberg, it's fairly standard Silverberg, not amazing but interesting enough to keep my attention. I'm very disappointed, though, because the back of the book promised me aliens that ignore humans, and these aliens aren't.
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quote:Are you talking about the Dark Tower series? If you are, then I didn't even know there was a revised edition of the first volume. I bought the first volume right around the time that the fourth volume came out. In any case, I don't think it would really matter if it was a revised edition.
Yeah, I meant the Dark Tower. I keep hearing it's good so I figure I'll read it at some stage, but there was some discussion here when the revised edition of the first volume came out as to which was better.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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The Ideology of the Aesthetic by Terry Eagleton.
But I'm thinking of dropping it. I knew Eagleton would be looking at aethetics -- Kant, Schiller, Adorno, Walter Benjamin, post-structuralism, etc. -- from a Marixst viewpoint, but frankly, this viewpoint is more annoying than in some of his other works plus the prose is rather boring.
I need to find a good history of aesthetics -- anybody have suggestions?
Also: I just finished Pratchett's _Thief of Time_. Fabulous. One of my favorite Discworld novels so far.
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I just finished reading Good Omens again. Currently reading The Art and Science of Digital Compositing . Fun times.
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Now she's questioning my choice of reading material.
