What are you reading?

[AndrewRogers]

The President's Last Love by Andrey Kurkov

 

[denimdestroyedmylife]

Originally Posted by robbie

so i know you aren't supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I keep seeing the albert camus novels and want to read them solely because of the well designed covers... the same goes for 90% of the penguin classics I see at old bookstores when I am scrounging around for LIFE and The National Geographic. are 'the stranger' or 'the plague' worth my time. I know he won the nobel prize, but will I enjoy the books... or are they one of those books people are given so they read, or everyone reads just because everyone reads them ???

Originally Posted by Teger

yes camus is very good. i'd start with the stranger. if you don't have a strong background in philosophy/exestentialism you might not enjoy them as much as someone who does, but i think they're some of the best works of the past 100 years
i'm with Teger here. The Stranger is a good start; the Plague is amazing, Camus makes a brief mention of the events in The Stranger (as a clipped out news item)----one can get the sense of an interconnected Camus-niverse. Also, I recommend The Fall; his notion of the Judge-Penitent is one of his more interesting ideas that will reverberate in the reader's mind for years. There is a collection of short stories that may also serve as a good intro to Camus; The Guest may be one of my favorite short stories, ever-----it could be on account of the Merel song of the same name in which the story is read.

Originally Posted by tagutcow

What's that old saying, "Bad philosophy makes for good art."
not sure what you mean here. camus' philosophy may be the most important and relevant philosophy that there is. The Myth of Sisyphus, more than any other written work, has impacted my life in the most crucial way. also, The Rebel, wrestles with another very important subject matter; what other philosopher this side of Nietszche even broaches these subjects? this isn't philosophy for the lecture hall, or armchair, but a socially engaged, and relevant investigation of the most important subject in a humans life: the value of life.

 

[Ludeykrus]

Jack Kerouac - "On the Road"

 

[MJC8719x]

Angler : The Dick Cheney Vice Presidency

Fascinating so far and quite unbiased.

 

[zorglubb]

Stalingrad by Antony Beevor and Independent people by Halldor Laxness

 

[xchen]

Originally Posted by Ludeykrus

Jack Kerouac - "On the Road"

I need to read this still.

 

[MJC8719x]

Originally Posted by zorglubb

Stalingrad by Antony Beevor

Great Book. He has written a few others that are good reads as well.

 

[kwilkinson]

Originally Posted by Homme

The Count Of Monte Cristo. Am loving it.

A favorite of mine.


I'm currently reading Lessons in Service by Charlie Trotter. Very good.

 

[kreativecid]

schopenhauer cure
crossing the chasm
7 habits of highly effective people

 

[gdl203]

My very enjoyable read of the Yiddish Policemen Union was interrupted by my wife strongly suggesting that I don't spend another day without reading this

It's actually pretty interesting

 

[MJC8719x]

Does anyone have any recommendations to a multi-volume world history set.

I was thinking something along the lines of:
http://www.amazon.com/Story-Civiliza.../dp/1567310230

Durant's History of Civilization though I have read a couple things that say parts are over-simplified.

Thanks

 

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Ludeykrus

Jack Kerouac - "On the Road"

Originally Posted by xchen

I need to read this still.

personally I never saw what all the fuss was about with this one

 

[perusingnature]

The Rise of the Creative Class by richard florida

and

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

 

[denimdestroyedmylife]

Originally Posted by m@T

personally I never saw what all the fuss was about with this one
really? i mean, think of the incredible focus (or zen-like no-focus) to write a cohesive work on one continuous roll of paper. composition in which author is played like an aeolian harp: reliant on length of breath; unmediated by critical faculty. for your consideration: \t \t\t\t\t\t\t\tJack Keroauc Essentials for Spontaneous Prose \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t BELIEF & TECHNIQUE FOR MODERN PROSE 1 .Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages,for yr own joy 2. Submissive to everything, open, listening 3. Try to never get drunk outside yr own house 4. Be in love with yr life 5. Something that you feel will find it's own form 6. Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind 7. Blow as deep as you want to blow 8. Write what you want bottomless from the bottom of the mind 9. The unspeakable visions of the individual 10. No time for poetry but but exactly what is 11. Visionary tics shivering in the chest 12. In tranced fixation dreaming upon the object before you 13. Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition 14. Like Proust be an old teahead of time 15. Telling the true story of the world in the interior monolog 16. The jewel of the center of interest is the eye within the eye 17. Write in recollection and amazement of yourself 18. Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea 19. Accept loss forever 20. Believe in the holy contour of life 21. Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact within the mind 22. Dont think of words when you stop but to see the picture better 23. Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in yr morning 24. No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language and knowledge 25. Write for the world to read and see your exact pictures of it 26. Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual American form 27. In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness 28, Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better 29. You're a Genius all the time 30. Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored & Angeled in Heaven

 

[iridium7777]

bought it recently, will read it after i'm done with "my word is my bond" by moore, which is pretty freaking terrible and i can't wait to be done with it. the man is a massive bore.

Originally Posted by Britalian

Gomorrah, by Saviano.