Author Topic: books to read  (Read 431316 times)

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abudabi

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2340 on: September 07, 2015, 06:18:10 PM »
ah fuck it, im bored atm so might as well.
is doors of perception cool? thats the huxley one im more interested in.

oyolar

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2341 on: September 08, 2015, 04:46:13 PM »
is brave new world worth reading if youve read 1984?

Definitely.  They're very different and they both present interesting discussions on how to control people/society.

Evil Kraken from the Arctic Sea

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2342 on: September 10, 2015, 02:10:55 AM »
Meant to read this for a long time, finally came through to tackling it. Surprisingly light, witty and funny read:

« Last Edit: September 11, 2015, 01:21:44 AM by Evil Kraken from the Arctic Sea »
I'll go frontside on some tranny for you.

handsclapanin

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2343 on: September 11, 2015, 12:20:44 PM »
is brave new world worth reading if youve read 1984?

Sure, why not. Brave New World, 1984, Ham on Rye and Catcher in the Rye are the only books I've read more than once in my life.
Reading & skating are very similar in that way for me. Always on the hunt for new spots. And rarely revisit old ones.

oyolar

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2344 on: October 26, 2015, 03:45:04 PM »
That's a pretty heavy reading list right there. I've only heard good things about the Kahneman book.


It's not a bad book, but it gets pretty repetitive pretty quickly.  It kind of reminds me of when I read The Design of Everyday Things.  Kahneman gives some great insights and foundations for thinking/understand and is really good at supporting his points, seeing the flaws in his own ideas, and providing some insights into why these are new ideas.  But a lot of chapters just become variations on a single theme and don't really need an extra chapter to describe one or two small differences.

EDIT: I hate when I do this, but I'm at that point where I'm basically reading Thinking, Fast and Slow specifically to finish it and start this:



which I lucked out and was able to pick up a few days early from O'Hare's bookstore on my way back to Florida.
« Last Edit: October 26, 2015, 03:49:46 PM by oyolar »

Rusty_Berrings

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2345 on: October 28, 2015, 01:14:23 AM »
I just got a copy of "The American Boy's Handbook" for 3 bucks off ebay. It has "Merry Christmas Joseph from Grandma and Grandpa" inside the cover. Fuckin' yep. Also thinkin about collecting some DK Eyewitness joints. "The Way Things Work" seems like it'll be cool again too.

cookieboy

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2346 on: November 01, 2015, 12:50:52 PM »
Just got a kindle and I'm looking to load it up with some books.

So what's everyone's top 5 books?

AnotherHardDayAtTheOffice

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2347 on: November 01, 2015, 01:12:39 PM »
Nice! Personally, I prefer actual hard copies, but I'm aware a kindle will make a lot of things easier...

Well, what are you into? Fiction or non-fiction? Poetry or prose? Historical novels?

I haven't thought about favorite books in a while... I'm not sure about top 5, but these two books stand out to me:

1) Roberto Bolano The Savage Detectives
2) Roberto Bolano Distant Star

cookieboy

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2348 on: November 01, 2015, 01:21:27 PM »
Nice! Personally, I prefer actual hard copies, but I'm aware a kindle will make a lot of things easier...

Well, what are you into? Fiction or non-fiction? Poetry or prose? Historical novels?

I haven't thought about favorite books in a while... I'm not sure about top 5, but these two books stand out to me:

1) Roberto Bolano The Savage Detectives
2) Roberto Bolano Distant Star


I'm down with fiction, non-fiction, poetry, sci-fi, music, horror,philosophy, memoirs, and open to anything.

Thanks for the two recommendations, I remember some pals talking about Roberto Bolano

shark tits

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2349 on: November 01, 2015, 02:31:15 PM »
just started 'how soon is never?' so far i'm diggin it. i fucks w/ all them contemporary authors who name drop alternative bands and such like homegirl Cody Diablo. never read Juno but 'Candygirl' was wicked tit.
i'll do a book report on HSIN? when i get done.

sametelt

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2350 on: November 02, 2015, 12:23:13 AM »

aleksander

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2351 on: November 02, 2015, 05:29:33 AM »
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anybody read anything by Celine? any good?
[close]

I read Journey to the End of the Night a couple of years ago. Celine was the major influence on a lot of "tough male misanthropist" kind of authors (such as Bukowski). He pretty much revolutionized that style of writing. If you're into that stuff, give Celine a go! He has a very intense voice and his book will have you on the edge of your seat. It's interesting and well-crafted, but I still wasn't into it too much (which has a lot to do with me not being into that style of writing in general). Overall, I can recommend Journey to the End of the Night though!
[close]
im not sure im into that style. i dont like bukowski. is raymond chandler in that category? hes the writer who convinced me books could actually be cool.
[close]

Chandler is definitely in that category, haha. In fact, he'd be the second name on that list. I'd recommend you just give Celine a try! If you don't like it, there's no punishment for putting the book down after a while.

I wish I had learned that this was okay (for all books) years ago. So many times I'd trudge through a book someone had recommended or what I thought I had to read to be considered smart. Interest wanes and you read 5 pages a day, then you don't read anything for weeks on end because it's become such a chore. If something's not working for you, fucking heave it and read something that you want to read.
"Let's just do something stupid and ridiculous and just be as fucking regular as we possibly can."

shark tits

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2352 on: November 02, 2015, 10:34:22 AM »
Expand Quote
Expand Quote
Expand Quote
Expand Quote
anybody read anything by Celine? any good?
[close]

I read Journey to the End of the Night a couple of years ago. Celine was the major influence on a lot of "tough male misanthropist" kind of authors (such as Bukowski). He pretty much revolutionized that style of writing. If you're into that stuff, give Celine a go! He has a very intense voice and his book will have you on the edge of your seat. It's interesting and well-crafted, but I still wasn't into it too much (which has a lot to do with me not being into that style of writing in general). Overall, I can recommend Journey to the End of the Night though!
[close]
im not sure im into that style. i dont like bukowski. is raymond chandler in that category? hes the writer who convinced me books could actually be cool.
[close]

Chandler is definitely in that category, haha. In fact, he'd be the second name on that list. I'd recommend you just give Celine a try! If you don't like it, there's no punishment for putting the book down after a while.
[close]

I wish I had learned that this was okay (for all books) years ago. So many times I'd trudge through a book someone had recommended or what I thought I had to read to be considered smart. Interest wanes and you read 5 pages a day, then you don't read anything for weeks on end because it's become such a chore. If something's not working for you, fucking heave it and read something that you want to read.
the same gene that makes you struggle through books because you've started them is the reason you can't put the booze down once you've thrown back a few.
like the sickle cell gene protects from malaria there is a silver lining to the see it through and damn the costs gene.

abudabi

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2353 on: November 02, 2015, 10:55:38 AM »
Just got a kindle and I'm looking to load it up with some books.

So what's everyone's top 5 books?
cannery row by john steinbeck is so good, people were talking about it in here when i mentioned i was reading it.
it's short too so it's not a drag.

brycickle

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2354 on: November 02, 2015, 11:20:10 AM »
I went on a huge downloading binge when I go my kindle. I got complete bibliographies of a bunch of different authors. I've bee steadily working my way through the Dark Tower series though. I probably won't have a lot of time for personal reading for about a year coming up though if things work out for me career wise. Gotta at least try and get through the series before that.

 You and the D00D have turned this thread into a horrible head-on-collision between a short bus full of regular kids and a van full of paraplegics.



Lenny the Fatface

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2355 on: November 04, 2015, 07:54:32 PM »
Just got a kindle and I'm looking to load it up with some books.

So what's everyone's top 5 books?

In no order

Frederick Douglass' Auto Biography (Book gets me hype, his points of view on how slavery and racism is used to mask classism between whites is amazing, also the first documents to call out all of the rapes that were going on in plantations)
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki - Haruki Murakami (Murakami purists are mixed, but in my opinion its his best work).
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
The Wizard of Odds: How Jack Molinas Almost Destroyed the Game of Basketball - Charley Rosen (If I had the money, I'd make this a movie)
The Hobbit - Tolkein

« Last Edit: November 04, 2015, 07:58:47 PM by Lenny the Fatface »

Yushin Okami

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2356 on: November 05, 2015, 09:48:36 AM »
Just got a kindle and I'm looking to load it up with some books.

So what's everyone's top 5 books?

In no particular order...

Freedom - Jonathan Franzen
The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris
The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

Those are the first 5 that came to my mind of books I have really enjoyed and would read again
We all know you have two sexy anthropomorphic wolves who buttfuck each other on the bottom of your board.

ChronicBluntSlider

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2357 on: November 06, 2015, 02:58:27 PM »


Novel set in contemporary India about a guy from a lower caste trying to achieve upward mobility in the new and highly corrupt democratic/capitalist society. Really funny first person narrator and learned some shit about a different culture/place which I always enjoy in a novel.



Talks about the false dichotomy of regulation vs. small government distracting people from the fact that small government/free market is used as a euphemism for regulation that favors the wealthy. The concentration of wealth leads to political power for the wealthy, which leads to greater concentrations of wealth, which leads to even more political power, etc. He was secretary of labor under Clinton but is very critical of him and talks about how campaign finance rules have left both democrats and republicans subservient to the wealthy, and corporations love when we argue over social issues to distract us from economic ones. Uses data to document the decline of the middle class that began around 1980 and concludes that every other time similar circumstances had occurred in America we have altered policy by taxing the wealthy, increasing collective bargaining power, etc. to save capitalism opposed to trying to destroy it and replace it with communism or something, and that we're overdue for similar changes again.

cookieboy

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2358 on: November 06, 2015, 03:37:57 PM »
Thank you all for the recommendations. I plan on getting every single one and reading through each. I'll let you know what I think of them. Right now I just started reading one hundred years of solitude and I dig it so far.

Yushin Okami

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2359 on: November 06, 2015, 04:56:43 PM »
Thank you all for the recommendations. I plan on getting every single one and reading through each. I'll let you know what I think of them. Right now I just started reading one hundred years of solitude and I dig it so far.

Great start
We all know you have two sexy anthropomorphic wolves who buttfuck each other on the bottom of your board.

Watt

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2360 on: November 13, 2015, 07:01:05 AM »



Many call it feminist science fiction, but I think it's just a science fiction classic written by a woman. She orginally puplished as U.K. LeGuin so that science fiction dweebs would give her books a chance. She's a masterful writer.

slappies

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2361 on: November 13, 2015, 07:04:02 AM »


Just finished this one, I recommend it if you're a fan of Westerns at all. Easy read, good story, can't go wrong with it.
CRACK RAIDER RAZOR

Rusty Shackleford

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2362 on: November 13, 2015, 09:24:31 AM »

botefdunn

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2363 on: November 16, 2015, 03:49:44 PM »
Strictly for the Dungeons & Dragons crowd. I am, and I liked it.


tura

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2364 on: November 17, 2015, 11:28:16 AM »
Infinite Jest. Fucking journey right there, holy shit

WoW the Palindrome.

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2365 on: November 17, 2015, 06:46:05 PM »
Wisdom's Maw by Todd Brendan Fahey. Loosely based on Ken Kesey's life, the book poses a conspiracy theory based on MK-Ultra and the Government in the 1960's. It's definitely worth it, especially considering how easy of a read it is.

Also, first post... Hoorah.

handsclapanin

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2366 on: January 08, 2016, 11:24:53 AM »
2 months without any posts in this thread? What's happening Slap?
Since my last post in this thread, here is what I've been reading (wow, it took me 10 months to read 7 books).
First, it was some Dickens. Oliver Twist and then Great Expectations. It seems like everyone reads these in school. But I didn't. I think I read Christmas Carol and that is it. They were alright. Kind of slow going for me. You know how when you have a good book and you look forward to reading it? These were the opposite. I'd read only a few pages at a time, it seemed.
Next up, a couple more by Nabokov (thanks again oyolar): Pnin (funny, silly) and The Defense. I really liked The Defense and would recommend it. My favorite of the 4 novels by him I've read to date. Makes you question which is better: to live a life with a passion, even if that passion drives you insane. Or a boring, sane life. Being pretty obsessed with skating, I know which I choose.
After that I read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Holy shit, slavery was fucked. Crazy to think it wasn't even that long ago. Really shows the natural instinct of man is to learn and continue to better oneself. And he mostly credits it to reading. And just look at how few people read nowadays. I don't have any friends in real life to talk to about books. Just this thread.
I picked up The Wayward Bus by Steinbeck next. Really enjoyed this one. He is such a great writer. I know we had to read a couple of his books in high school. But I don't think I've read any since. That will definitely change from now on. I plan to check out all his writing.
Then, I'm currently about 2/3 of the way through The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon. At first I felt really lost in it. Now it's starting to all come together. I noticed some link to notes about this posted a couple pages back in this thread. I'll probably check that out after I finish the book and see what I missed.
Happy 2016 y'all.

AnotherHardDayAtTheOffice

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2367 on: January 08, 2016, 11:55:01 AM »
2 months without any posts in this thread? What's happening Slap?
Since my last post in this thread, here is what I've been reading (wow, it took me 10 months to read 7 books).
First, it was some Dickens. Oliver Twist and then Great Expectations. It seems like everyone reads these in school. But I didn't. I think I read Christmas Carol and that is it. They were alright. Kind of slow going for me. You know how when you have a good book and you look forward to reading it? These were the opposite. I'd read only a few pages at a time, it seemed.

You're not the only one, dude. I had a very similar experience with Oliver Twist when I read it for a college class. Honestly, I can't see why it's such a canonical book. I thought the characters were flat and stereotypical, the plot predictable, and the appraised "social realism" a Victorian version of Walt Disney. I'm not sure if I missed something though...

I'm glad you brought this thread back from the dead by the way!

I just finished reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. If you like dystopian novels such as 1984 or Brave New World, you might want to pick this one up at some point. It's about a Christian dictatorship in future America that suppresses women. Pretty tough, but also really interesting!



Right now I'm reading this book about the current mass migration to Germany. It's definitely pro-refugees (so am I), well-researched, and includes contributions from different authors. Like any other anthology, some articles are better than others, but overall I'm learning a lot of new stuff. Which is cool I guess.


shark tits

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2368 on: January 08, 2016, 12:49:44 PM »
been on the autobiography kick lately. carrie brownstein's memoir 'hunger makes me a modern girl' wasn't as riot grrrl interesting as i wanted it to be but as someone who's always had a crush on her for almost 20 yrs i had to read it.
rusty's dad sent me his old books and i'd already read 'hawk: occupation skate boner' so i started in on 'mutt: how to skate and not kill yourself' by sir rodney mullen. it was dece. kind of boring and his dad was jerky but it's sort of important to know [not really but if we're a society then we should know boring history a bit].
now i'm onto 'hosoi: the shiek of tweak!'
that's not the actual name but asides him being cockier than a rooster there's some unintentional humor. like he marries his girl from jail and declares 'i'm gonna be faithful to you' like it's hard to do when you're serving a decade. shtoops!
and also he declares not to masturbate during his ten yr bid. fuck outta here you lying sack!
'sex usedta be a chance for me to feel like a wild stallion but now i saw it could be sensual and soulful too.'
haha, 50 shades of stoke, this guy!
i was interested to find out that he got his dad into smoking ice and not the other way as that documentary implied.
i found it comical also when he's doing serious time for sneaking meth onto a plane and he's scolding his parents 'do you wanna go to hell for eternity ma? no, so take jesus into your life ma!'
like take it down a notch guy. you shouldn't be telling anyone how to live their life, shitbird!
i'm almost done so anyone wants to borrow them soon, lemme know, ya know?
[edit] i read and enjoyed the handmaid's tale long ago. thought it was curious how the subterfuge behind which that society had given up it's rights was a muslim terror campaign. just because it was written so long ago [i believe] i thought it was interesting that we were currently dealing w/ the same thing [patriot act] but i spose all those dystopian books have parallels to the modern world, whichever one you're currently reading.
« Last Edit: January 08, 2016, 02:12:12 PM by I sniff my own butthole all the time »

rideflannel

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Re: books to read
« Reply #2369 on: January 08, 2016, 01:01:18 PM »
Just finished "A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail" by Bill Bryson and am about a third of the way through "On the Road" by Kerouac. Anyone have any other good travel reads?