What Are You Reading

[Orgetorix]

Getting through Casino Royale quite slowly. The first part of it was a bit boring for me.

What a coincidence--I watched the first part of the movie last night, and there are far more punches and explosions than lines of dialogue.

 

[beaucaillou]

About 50 pages into Ralph Ellison's 'Invisible Man.'
It's incredible.

 

[jake431]

Jake, you might also like The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific by Gananath Obeyesekere. It is an interesting exploration of the whole theory put forth by Marshall Sahlins that Cook had been recognized by the Hawaiin Islanders as the god Lono...and killed accordingly.

I'll add it to my amazon wish list, see if I can't get it into the book rotation.

My eternal book recommendation is: Crytponomicon, by Neal Stephenson. I tell everyone to read that book.

Thanks,
-Jake

 

[Jovan]

What a coincidence--I watched the first part of the movie last night, and there are far more punches and explosions than lines of dialogue.

In the movie, I can see how they wanted to make it more exciting. They did a great job, at that. Nothing seemed overly forced in the action sequences. (Unlike a certain Bond movie that came before *coughsurfingtidalwavecough*) They still kept the spy mystery stuff intact for the most part, but some of it in the book can be a bit pedantic.

 

[vonwotan]

I know I liked these fora. I like all of Neal Stephenson's novels, but thought Cryptonomicon was truly outstanding!

I'll add it to my amazon wish list, see if I can't get it into the book rotation.

My eternal book recommendation is: Crytponomicon, by Neal Stephenson. I tell everyone to read that book.

Thanks,
-Jake

 

[Dr Doran]

In the movie, I can see how they wanted to make it more exciting. They did a great job, at that. Nothing seemed overly forced in the action sequences. (Unlike a certain Bond movie that came before *coughsurfingtidalwavecough*) They still kept the spy mystery stuff intact for the most part, but some of it in the book can be a bit pedantic.

I dug the film. The only Fleming book I have read, though, was Dr No, and I didn't think too much of parts of it. The long arduous escape sequence seemed to fulfil the rumor about Fleming, that he was a sadist. The stuff bond goes through was a little icky. Aside from that I thought Fleming wrote it well enough. BTW Jovan I like your new avatar.

 

[Mojave Jack]

About 50 pages into Ralph Ellison's 'Invisible Man.'
It's incredible.

I haven't read that book for years, but it has had a lasting impression on me. After reading that I read Richard Wright's Black Boy and John Howard Griffin's Black Like Me. Both were enlightening, yet distrubing, non-fiction accounts of the sorts of things Ellison describes. I liked Invisible Man because as fiction it allowed Ellison to meld many experiences into a single character, and explore a lot more of the black experience in the 1950s. Powerful stuff, and it's a shame that Ellison didn't have the chance to finish his re-writes that he was working on right up until his death.

 

[beaucaillou]

I haven't read that book for years, but it has had a lasting impression on me. After reading that I read Richard Wright's Black Boy and John Howard Griffin's Black Like Me. Both were enlightening, yet distrubing, non-fiction accounts of the sorts of things Ellison describes. I liked Invisible Man because as fiction it allowed Ellison to meld many experiences into a single character, and explore a lot more of the black experience in the 1950s. Powerful stuff, and it's a shame that Ellison didn't have the chance to finish his re-writes that he was working on right up until his death.

This is the first time I've spent with Ellison. As a writer, I'm so careful about what I read because I know, a) it will effect my own voice and b) there are so many books, and so little reading time.

So far, it's riveting; beyond impressive. I love it when a book/writer explodes my whole world and way of thinking within 50 pages, which is what 'Invisible Man,' has done. I get nervous that the mid & finish won't be as good as the start, but I look forward to finding out.

 

[HadleyH]

I don't know, I have several books that look promising... but I think my next one will be - "Picasso, The Real Family Story - by Olivier Widmaier Picasso (his grandson). It's suppose to be an intimate portrait, where he describes Picasso relationships with the women in his life, his views on love,sex, etc... Yep, it sounds good to me!

 

[Rosie]

About 50 pages into Ralph Ellison's 'Invisible Man.'
It's incredible.

FANTASTIC book. I read this for the first time when I was about 13 and have read it every so often since then. There are parts where I literally cry.

 

[Dr Doran]

I liked Invisible Man when I read it many years, but I had a hard time understanding it until I read The Stranger by Camus. I think the hard time I had was the surreal and absurdist quality in Invisible Man. After reading The Stranger, I felt I 'got' that aspect of Ellison's novel better. But what the hell do I know.

 

[Rockapin-up]

Well I'm currently reading Petals in the Wind by V.C. Andrews......I know I know that's so high School, but I always wanted to read them. I also got this book on Gil Elvgren and all of his pin-ups. There's a little biagraphy in the beginning and the rest of it is all Pin-up.

 

[ShooShooBaby]

rocka, i used to sneak VC Andrews books when i was in jr. high - my mom wouldn't let me read them! sooooo trashy and guilty pleasure!!

since it's spring, i've been pouring over all my gardening and permaculture books - growing vegetables west of the cascades, gaia's garden, and food not lawns are three of them!

 

[Rockapin-up]

I know what you mean. Kinda makes you wonder how the author came up with this kind of stuff.

I have so many gardening books it's pathetic. I need to start reading them so I can put some of that knowledge to good use.

 

[ShooShooBaby]

I know what you mean. Kinda makes you wonder how the author came up with this kind of stuff.

I have so many gardening books it's pathetic. I need to start reading them so I can put some of that knowledge to good use.

my favorite of the series was always the Dawn series. i THRIVED on drama as a child/teen and i was into singing, so that one really fit the bill!

fftopic: my problem is that i learn all these gardening techniques by reading, but then i freeze up when i actually try to put it into practice. i need to take a hands-on course and put the books away!

 

[Rockapin-up]

Me too, When ever I start a project in the yard, I get lazy and don't follow through.


I'm gonna start reading the DaVinci code next.

 

[beaucaillou]

FANTASTIC book. I read this for the first time when I was about 13 and have read it every so often since then. There are parts where I literally cry.

Rosie, I'm sure I'll have some more thoughts once I'm completed. So far I'm just agog at the storytelling.

 

[Paratrooper]

Just strated re-reading Dune going to try to read the whole series, whell not the new Dune books, heasrd that they are not so good.

 

[SFSEAN]

A Great Book

I just started "Freedom From Fear" by David M. Kennedy, It's a history of the US from the depression to the end of WWII. The book is about five inches thick so it'll be awhile before it's finished.

I read this book several years ago. It won the Pulitzer Prize and the author is a Professor at Stanford. It's on my to-do list to sit in on one of his classes to see if he speaks as well as he writes. I've passed this book on to a couple of my friends and they both liked it very much. A movie that I saw shortly afterward and the book, Cinderella Man, is about James Braddock also dealt with the Depression and how working people lived was excellent as well. Since the folks here are into vintage suits, check out the men in this movie for a primer on dressing in 1930's New York. Notice that the men attending the boxing match wore suits, not tee shirts and fake gold chains that we see these days.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Just finished a revisit to "The City Boy," a 1948 novel by Herman Wouk that I first read and fell in love with in junior high school. It's the engaging, humorous story of Herbie Bookbinder, a fat and unathletic eighth-grader growing up in the Bronx in the late 1920s, and his surprising adventures at a prison-like summer camp. It's one of those books you can enjoy as a kid, from a kid's perspective -- and then rediscover it decades later and find it every bit as delightful!

If you only know Wouk for ponderous historical novels, this cheerful book will be a revelation.