books to read

[Gnarfunkell]

Camus is brilliant and inspiring. I'd definitely recommend this to someone shopping for a new book to read.

[Greg Ostertag]

Long story, but I've been on a Norwegian literature kick as of late.

This guy Karl Ove Knausgaard is a big deal in his native Norway. He wrote a series of painfully honest and revealing books about him and his family in a kind of rediculously detail-oriented, "Proustian" style... And named it after the magnum opus of our pal, Adolf Hitler.
Good read if you are socially awkward and have father issues. I am both.


Tor Ulven was a Norwegian poet who killed himself. From the back cover-

"Replacement, his only novel, published two years before Ulven?s suicide, is a miniature symphony, wherein the perspectives of fifteen unrelated characters are united into what seems a single narrative voice: each personality, having reached a point of stasis in their lives, directing the book in turn. These people reminisce, dream, reflect, observe, and talk to themselves; each stuck in their respective traps, each fantasizing about how their lives might have turned out differently. A masterpiece of compression and confession, Replacement dramatizes the tension between the concrete realities we think we cannot alter, and our interior lives, where we feel anything might still be possible."

It's a book about sweet, sweet isolation.


Starting this behemoth today: (not a literary product of Norway)

[Ripped Laces]

Got a plane to catch tomorrow and am fiending to read a book.

Preferably non-fiction or sociology...
Any recommendations?

If you have a good fiction, mmmaaaayyyybeeee I'll try it.
Beggars can't be choosers.

[oyolar]

Goffman, Gary Allan Fine, or Hochschild.  Anything except The Outsourced Self from Hochschild should be good.

[SUCKS]

too lazy to look through this whole thing. but this book is amazing.

[Cockaigne]

Got a plane to catch tomorrow and am fiending to read a book.

Preferably non-fiction or sociology...
Any recommendations?

If you have a good fiction, mmmaaaayyyybeeee I'll try it.
Beggars can't be choosers.

Modernity & Identity by Anthony Giddens, if you haven't already...

[Beer Keg Peg Leg]

Got a plane to catch tomorrow and am fiending to read a book.

Preferably non-fiction or sociology...
Any recommendations?

If you have a good fiction, mmmaaaayyyybeeee I'll try it.
Beggars can't be choosers.

[Merked]

Got a plane to catch tomorrow and am fiending to read a book.

Preferably non-fiction or sociology...
Any recommendations?

If you have a good fiction, mmmaaaayyyybeeee I'll try it.
Beggars can't be choosers.

Funny/Interesting non-fiction that I read.  Ironically, found these recommendations in this thread.  They were both amazing.

[HyperBeam]

not being able to read proust in the original french is one of my life's greatest disappointments.

[Nosferatu]

not being able to read proust in the original french is one of my life's greatest disappointments.

your gost/blind?

[NergTurtleson]

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The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz. It's an adventure book that is very similar to Endurance by Alfred Lansing, about the will power to survive.

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. One of those books I have been told to read for years but always shrugged off. Once I finally picked it up I was fully blown away. Really recommend.

[close]

You read it and didn't like it? Pretty long book to power through unhappily.

[oyolar]

Rand discussion's aren't that fun.  She's so polemic that they never go anywhere.

Shooting myself in the foot, I haven't read a complete piece by Rand, but I read a section of The Fountainhead at the urging of my friend and although I barely remember what she wrote, I do remember thinking that she wasn't a good writer.  I've been told her plots are good, but she can't really do much with them.

[NergTurtleson]

Rand discussion's aren't that fun.  She's so polemic that they never go anywhere.

Shooting myself in the foot, I haven't read a complete piece by Rand, but I read a section of The Fountainhead at the urging of my friend and although I barely remember what she wrote, I do remember thinking that she wasn't a good writer.  I've been told her plots are good, but she can't really do much with them.

Try the full book. It takes a minute to get into but I think it's well worth the time. I found her to be a very good writer, though not until a fair way through.

And yes, I can see what you mean my Rand's discussions being not very fun, being about altruism vs. selfishness. But once you get enough into the book and see character development and how the plot line is actually starting to build it is really intriguing. The book itself is broken up into different sub-books. Maybe try to pick it up again starting at Gail Wynand (merely to see the writing structure). The first couple chapters of that section are quite good and don't give away from the actual plot.

[Beer Keg Peg Leg]

rand is disgusting and so is her writing.

[NergTurtleson]

rand is disgusting and so is her writing.

Ok. But will you at least explain yourself. I understand a difference of opinions in literary preference, but can you be more articulate in your argument. Merely curious.

[ChronicBluntSlider]

Rand discussion's aren't that fun.  She's so polemic that they never go anywhere.

Shooting myself in the foot, I haven't read a complete piece by Rand, but I read a section of The Fountainhead at the urging of my friend and although I barely remember what she wrote, I do remember thinking that she wasn't a good writer.  I've been told her plots are good, but she can't really do much with them.

I found this interesting. Modern Library compiled two lists of the 100 greatest english language novels of the past 100 years, one by a panel of experts, the second by the public. Her or L. Ron Hubbard don't appear on the panel's list, but make up 7 of the top 10 of the public's. Obviously this doesn't reflect the size of their fan base or quality of work, but the fanaticism of their fans. Not saying Nerg is one, but people who like them definitely tend to over blow their literary value.

http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/

[NergTurtleson]

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Rand discussion's aren't that fun.  She's so polemic that they never go anywhere.

Shooting myself in the foot, I haven't read a complete piece by Rand, but I read a section of The Fountainhead at the urging of my friend and although I barely remember what she wrote, I do remember thinking that she wasn't a good writer.  I've been told her plots are good, but she can't really do much with them.

[close]

I found this interesting. Modern Library compiled two lists of the 100 greatest english language novels of the past 100 years, one by a panel of experts, the second by the public. Her or L. Ron Hubbard don't appear on the panel's list, but make up 7 of the top 10 of the public's. Obviously this doesn't reflect the size of their fan base or quality of work, but the fanaticism of their fans. Not saying Nerg is one, but people who like them definitely tend to over blow their literary value.

http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/

Damn dude. Getting put in my place by being compared to a Scientologist. That's fucking rough.

[oyolar]

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rand is disgusting and so is her writing.

[close]

Ok. But will you at least explain yourself. I understand a difference of opinions in literary preference, but can you be more articulate in your argument. Merely curious.

Again, haven't read her significantly, but here's my problems with her as a person: her homophobia, support of discrimination, misogyny, a poorly designed and thought out philosophy that scholars have called not only illogical and inconsistent, but also acts as a monument to her personal ego (she claims it sprung completely from her with a little Aristotle, but that's not true), and her hypocrisy with taking government aid to pay for her cancer treatment under a fake name (although she would argue that this wasn't hypocritical regardless of what other people say).

[NergTurtleson]

Again, haven't read her significantly, but here's my problems with her as a person: her homophobia, support of discrimination, misogyny, a poorly designed and thought out philosophy that scholars have called not only illogical and inconsistent, but also acts as a monument to her personal ego (she claims it sprung completely from her with a little Aristotle, but that's not true), and her hypocrisy with taking government aid to pay for her cancer treatment under a fake name (although she would argue that this wasn't hypocritical regardless of what other people say).
[/quote]

Wow. I know nothing about her, other then the one book I read. But yeah, everything you said above makes her to be a shitty person.

[Chris Hansen is back]

Rand is cool when you're 16 and going through that "fuck the government" stage when you get taxed 7 bucks on your Burger King pay check.

[Merked]

Just finished reading this.  I loved it.  Depicts the raw passion present in the NYC Graffiti Scene.  Also, it is a rare example of why fiction is the absolute shit.  I highly recommend this novel.

[ChronicBluntSlider]

Read these recently. Finishing The Things they Carried right now. All of them are fantastic. Was reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist during the whole Boston bombing shit storm, which made it more poignant. Its about an American educated Pakistani who becomes an Islamic fundamentalist after 9/11.

[ConnyMas]

Reading Straw Dogs.  It's the first really intellectual read I've done in a long time, and I am kind of struggling with it, having to read passages multiple times for understanding, etc.  That being said it's been very enjoyable, and John Gray brings up some very interesting points about humanity. 

[Chris Hansen is back]

Reading Straw Dogs.  It's the first really intellectual read I've done in a long time, and I am kind of struggling with it, having to read passages multiple times for understanding, etc.  That being said it's been very enjoyable, and John Gray brings up some very interesting points about humanity. 

My boy Terry is right:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/sep/07/highereducation.news2

[jerrys_kids]

Great book, it's all about how capitalism is a pyramid scheme and it discusses the how all the different parts of society function to serve those at the top of the pyramid.

[sametelt]

Reading Straw Dogs.  It's the first really intellectual read I've done in a long time, and I am kind of struggling with it, having to read passages multiple times for understanding, etc.  That being said it's been very enjoyable, and John Gray brings up some very interesting points about humanity.  

Weird, I just started reading Black Mass. He's a huge influence on one of my favorite professors, so I've been meaning to check him out.

[sametelt]

My boy Terry is right:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/sep/07/highereducation.news2

Damn, harsh. Haha.

[via]

I found this book on the ground a few weeks ago. It's pretty fucking crazy. The author basically had a longstanding work/personal relationship with Ted Bundy at a suicide hot line center, while she was also working with the police looking for the person commenting all these heinous murders, who obviously turned out to be Ted Bundy. They were friends for years, going to each other christmas parties, talking about his failed relationships, ect. He confided in her about "the one that got away", eventually coming to light that the woman he loved and was left by was the catalyst to all of his murders. Most of his victims resembled her.

I was about halfway through, then I came home a few nights ago and my dog had eaten it.

Bummer.

[Greg Ostertag]

I found this book on the ground a few weeks ago. It's pretty fucking crazy. The author basically had a longstanding work/personal relationship with Ted Bundy at a suicide hot line center, while she was also working with the police looking for the person commenting all these heinous murders, who obviously turned out to be Ted Bundy. They were friends for years, going to each other christmas parties, talking about his failed relationships, ect. He confided in her about "the one that got away", eventually coming to light that the woman he loved and was left by was the catalyst to all of his murders. Most of his victims resembled her.

I was about halfway through, then I came home a few nights ago and my dog had eaten it.

Bummer.

Man, that book paid its dues.

[ConnyMas]

Expand Quote

My boy Terry is right:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/sep/07/highereducation.news2

[close]

Damn, harsh. Haha.

For real.  I'm still enjoying it, though.  I want to check out Black Mass next, let me know if you like it.