Book: What Book Are You Reading?

[masamuneehs]

Hedley Bull's:

The Anarchical Society (translated from English into Italian, being read by an American)

yay for political science texts

[gr3atfull]

Finished reading those books I posted before. Any suggestions ?

[masamuneehs]

you read ALL those already?

damn you're something...

If you haven't I recommend Joseph Heller's "Catch-22". It's my favorite of all time...
I also know lots of people say "Way of the Peaceful Warrior" is a book that can have an impact on how you live life.

My sister also recommended a book called 'Blindness'. unfortunately I'm still stuck in political science readings... (which, if you're ever interested in the first part of Hobbes' "Leviathan" has some very interesting thoughts on humanity and philosophy kinda stuff. I believe that part of the book is titled 'Of Man')

[gr3atfull]

Thanks for the recommendation (sp?).

I have already read Blindness in french (l'aveuglement), it was good.

I will go to the library tomorrow if they have Catch-22. They better have it.

[Rakuen]

Reading The Odyssey for English. I don't really like it.

On my own, I'm reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame (or, Notre Dame of Paris, if you wanna be accurate). Some parts are really interesting and I get absorbed in reading it, but other parts (coughBookIIIcough) nearly bore me to tears. Oh well. I like it overall, anyhow.

After Notre-Dame, I'm probably going to read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest or Crime and Punishment. Cuckoo's Nest was on my teacher's list of recommended reading and he said it was a good book. Besides, the title's pretty interesting. My sister had to read Crime and Punishment for her English class, and she said she liked it.

Of course, I might also relapse and go back to reading books by Diana Wynne Jones for a while, instead of reading classics like I should be. XD

[Xollence]

I just finished reading Heart of Darkness and a book about Thomas Edison's inventions. I started reading Heart of a Dog, a very funny Russian book. I have to finish reading that and Man of the People by next week.

[drims]

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown... You just get glued to the pages of this book and want to find out what is going to happen next. And no, Brown definitely did not copy this from another author

[gr3atfull]

@masamuneehs:
Damn library didnt have that book. Only have olds books, so I had to borrow another book called Life of Pi.

[masamuneehs]

gr3atfull that makes 0 sense. Catch-22 was published in 1961
Life of Pi was like 2001...

stupid idiots are probably just discriminating because Heller is an American author and for the longest time no European would admit that 'modern' American authors (like Hemingway and after) were worth reading... how wrong they were!

i don't care what it takes, you need to find that book! (life of pi was pretty good, way too preachy in the way that it presented some of its philosophy about how to live life though)

[XanBcoo]

This comment probably doesn't belong here, but I've seen the movie adaptation of Catch-22. I didn't like it all that much mostly because it did in fact seem quite preachy. It's method of getting its message across was to use a lot of pretty unplausible events (unless military life is really like that), and that just didn't win me over. For anyone who's seen the movie and read the book, are the two very different? I'd consider reading the book anyway though, as it probably deals with the issues much more deeply than a ~2 hour film.

[Augury]

Jumping in a bit late here, and from another thread. In "The Bitching Thread" four days ago:

my present commanders are all assholes who aren't qualified to go back home with the weapon, and they still think that they can patronize me by saying that if I don't clean my rifle better than it won't shoot if I happen to meet a terrorist on my home.

not to mention thier dusting obsession, I slept a few nights inside a tank, a bit of dust on the floor won't kill me.

I thought this was pretty interesting, having recently read the book Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War by Evan Wright. Wright is a reporter who sits down in a hummer with the First Recon Marines when they spearhead the United State's ground attack in Iraq in March 2003. Basically the First Recon's job is to ride through towns ahead of the main force and spring ambushes. Kinda sucks when they have to travel in hummers, and only one is armored. The book is a non-fiction about Wright's experiences. The subtitle of Iceman and Captain America actually are aliases for two of the subcommanders of this unit since Wright pokes fun at some characters, and a couple of them seemed extremely unqualified.

This was actually required reading for a history course, but it turned out to be an entertaining read for me. I wouldn't recommend it for people not interested in the subject, although if you think seeing a perspective from the point of view of the "grunts" of this invasion force is cool, then you'd like the book. As a warning, there is some graphic dialogue and violence.

[xDarkMaster]

Right now I'm rereading all the Michael Crichton books. Currently reading Sphere.


Creepy...

[gr3atfull]

gr3atfull that makes 0 sense. Catch-22 was published in 1961
Life of Pi was like 2001...

stupid idiots are probably just discriminating because Heller is an American author and for the longest time no European would admit that 'modern' American authors (like Hemingway and after) were worth reading... how wrong they were!

i don't care what it takes, you need to find that book! (life of pi was pretty good, way too preachy in the way that it presented some of its philosophy about how to live life though)

Still didnt find it . Im gonna buy it in 3 weeks when Im gonna more money

[masamuneehs]

Catch-22 the movie has about half of the characters in it, resulting in the director making some other characters say lines and experience events attributed to other characters.

The book's timeline is totally out of order, so they mess around with it a good bit in the movie also (sometimes failing. Where oh where is Nately's Whore???).

What I really like is the style of writing Heller had that just can't come across in a movie. You felt like you weren't just reading some war novel, but an absolutely insane satire/black comedy set in a war.

Movie is OK, but the book is infinitely better.

[gr3atfull]

I will try to find it at my public library (the towns or municipal library) when I am going to get some books on communism and fascist (history project). I am sure they have catch-22.....

[darkmetal505]

I started reading Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Its actually pretty good.

[drims]

The Dirty Joke Book. By Mr."K"

This is literally the funniest joke book ever. I recommend it completely. Its so hilarious, and offensive that it banned in many countries. He recieved so many death threats he could not continue to allow his name to be seen, hence Mr."K". Buy this book and you will have hours of laughing, "my abs hurt from laughing so much". Warning though this book is very offensive. It insults blacks, whites, jews, hispanics, women, men, politics, society, poor, rich, and all types of people. But hey if you can take a joke then buy the book.

Some reviews of it.
"Shocking, simply shocking! Even the cover of this book offended me!"
- Miss Henrietta Primm of Oatmeal, Nebraska.

"Here's the book that was banned in Bosnia, Upper Volta, Lower Slobovia, and six other countries whose names we can't pronounce."

As the cover says "Guaranteed Highly Offensive"...and rolling on the floor laughing!!!

[gr3atfull]

A stranger is watching you by Mary Higgins Clark

[Honoko]

I think this thread's worth reviving... only because I finally found this title at my local BN ever since it was published last year (yeah, not ordering online is the epitome of laziness) and I'm super excited about the fact that it's finally in my hands!

The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde

But honestly, I think *everyone* should first read The Eyre Affair, his first book of a (so-far) 4-part series. I'm hoping a fifth book continuing the adventures of Thursday Next will come out soon. In general, I think it's more enjoyable than Harry Potter. One critic described these books as Harry Potter and Monty Python rolled into one and I sort of agree with him. It's smart, funny, with great characters-- both heroes and villains alike. Heck, even the side characters are worth reading-- and the wacko world (alternate world in the 1980s, all based in the UK area...mostly) is really engaging and fun.

With that said, The Big Over Easy is actually a kind of side story based on what was "created" in the Thursday Next novels. Can't tell you how it is because I haven't read it yet but all I know is that it's a mystery crime novel using nursery rhyme characters and since it's Fforde, there's gonna be a lot of underhanded literary jokes and satire littered all over the place. So any literature and English majors, I can guarantee that you'll get a kick out of them. As for me, I didn't read all the books Fforde satires and references but I still enjoyed them a LOT.

So if you're looking for an idle read that's not your usual cheap-thriller-airplane-ride fare, I strongly recommend Fforde. STRONGLY recommend him. Okay?

[xDarkMaster]

Seize the Night by Dean Koontz

Christopher Snow, the protagonist of Fear Nothing, returns and is on the trail of missing children. The police cannot be trusted to solve the mystery, because in Moonlight Bay the purpose of the police is often to conceal the crime. The disappearances have something to do with clandestine scientific experiments at a nearby abandoned military base, Fort Wyvern.

Superb book, like most of Koontz's. It has a little bit of everything; suspense, action, romance, horror, and humor. If you like to read but have never heard if Dean Koontz (which I find hard to believe), definitely look into his books. He is one of my favorite authors along with Michael Crichton and Clive Cussler.