[disco]

I'm reading a book about Helium, I just can't put it down.

[fgcarva1]

QUOTE (Butters 2011 @ Wednesday, Jun 20 2012, 20:10)

QUOTE (RadioIsotope @ Wednesday, Jun 20 2012, 13:31) Anyone who is willing to learn AND enjoy a wonderfully written book should read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. This book will perplex your mind and really make you think about the way the world works today. A beautifully fascinating read that will capture your mind, talk to it, and then tell it to think differently! I've been thinking about reading it, but I want to read 1984 first. The problem is that that political pamphlet in the middle of 1984 is really dull (The reason I don't like reading about Politics), but I don't want to skip it. I went into 1984 thinking I'd get a story about someone's daily life in an oppressive police state, but I got a love story which ponders politics, and only gives passing glances to the actual workings behind the dystopia.

Both Brave New World and 1984 are great. I read the former in school last year and decided to write my IB Extended Essay on it. It was a great experience to analyze it almost nearly word by word. I learned so much, and Huxley's allusions and analogies in the novel are fantastic as well. As for 1984 I actually have started reading it dozens of times, I've seen the movie but never have been able to finish it. I'm currently trying to, just about to start the final part (part III).

But yeah, I think I've already posted my summer reading list a while ago. I've got about 8 books, I've read

The Nazis: A Warning from History by some BBC guy whose name I forgot...

and I'm reading

Political Ideologies by Andrew Heywood which I've been reading out of order since it's just a manual to ideologies
1984 by Orwell of course
The Godfather by Mario Puzo, around the 300th page but haven't had much time to read it lately (E-book)
How to win every argument by some dude I forgot... (E-book)

A Camus double header with two of his philosophical essays (they're actually very difficult reads)
The Rebel and The Myth of Sisyphus

A couple of Brazilian book and...

Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger. Excited to read it but it's about 800 pages and I'll take a while to finish these other books.

[Hell No..]

Does anyone know any fictional books based around Ancient Egypt? Or the Pyramids? I saw one in the shop yesterday but cannot remember the name!

Other that, I started The Hobbit. Thoughts?

[niko bellic half brother]

Currently on chapter 21 of The Shining. So far it's the scariest f*cking thing I've read. So much that the film has left out.

[deepthroatgta6]

I'm reading 'On a pale horse'. Interesting story about a guy who killed his death by mistake.

[Chunkyman]

QUOTE (Hell No.. @ Sunday, Aug 19 2012, 13:01)

Other that, I started The Hobbit. Thoughts?

The Hobbit is way better than the LOTR. It was painfully boring for me and drowned me in too much useless information. Only made it through half of the first LOTR book before I quit.

I just finished reading A Dance With Dragons, the 5th book in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. I cannot wait for The Winds of Winter, I know that it's going to be f*cking epic. The sneak peak chapter GRRM released was very good and I'm eagerly awaiting the upcoming battle between Roose Bolton and Stannis.

Hopefully he doesn't die or take 5 years to write The Winds of Winter.

[universetwisters]

Anyone else read this book? Feels like I'm the only one...

[elanman]

QUOTE (Hell No.. @ Sunday, Aug 19 2012, 13:01)

Does anyone know any fictional books based around Ancient Egypt? Or the Pyramids? I saw one in the shop yesterday but cannot remember the name! Other that, I started The Hobbit. Thoughts?

Finished it a few days ago funnily enough.

An enjoyable tale, and I can clearly see whence Bethesda has gained some of their inspiration.

[zoo3891]

Just jumped back to Piers Anthony's incarnations of immortality series. I had originally only read the first three, but I bought the next two a few months ago. I'm really liking the beginning of Wielding A Red Sword.

Basically the books are about living people who die, and after they die they manage to become the immortal (mostly) incarnation of a certain entity, then they fulfill their jobs, and eventually Satan tries to trick them into doing his/her dirty work, the first three books end in a challenge by Satan, testing the hero's wisdom. Death, time, fate, war, nature, and night were covered so far, including two books covering god/goodness and Satan/evil (which, to my knowledge, are completely immortal, but can be re-elected. according to Wielding A Red Sword satan can be re-elected, and I saw somewhere that god can too.)

The books are more fun than they are well-written, but they're definitely worth a read if you haven't already.

@deepthroatgta6 Noticed your post right after I typed this all up.

This post has been edited by zoo3891 on Wednesday, Sep 12 2012, 19:05

[Attorney General]

I buy my books in bulk and get around to them when I can. Because of this, I have about 30 years worth of novels sitting on my shelf.

I've been relatively inactive lately...but have been itching to get going again. It's going to come down to one of these...

War and Peace
Ulysses
Pride and Prejudice
The Brothers Karamazov
The Three Musketeers
Cat's Cradle
Harlot's Ghost

Any suggestions from you guys? I'm all ears.

[lzw3]

I just bought War And Peace. What should I expect from it?

[Tyler]

Pride and Prejudice is good aristocratic comedy. There's some social depth underneath but it's nothing too deeply existential.

The Brothers Karamazov is an emotionally-driven tale of the various problems mankind has in terms of its relationship with God. I found it very wonderful once I finished but it took me about three weeks of daily-reading to push through it. It's not particularly hard to read but it's a very serious and at times very slow story. Lot of good Russian culture in there, though.

Ulysses is the amalgamation of literature's finest, turned into an extremely symbolic, hilarious and sometimes incoherent description of a day in Dublin. If you're going to tackle this one (which I would wholly recommend), read Homer's epic and become well-acquainted with modernism as a movement. It's a monstrous piece of work if you're unsure of what you're getting, but despite that it's really funny and meant to be read while drinking.

Can't speak for any of the other novels but I'm looking forward to grabbing War and Peace soon, myself.

Anyway, just finished A Farewell to Arms and I'm looking for some books on maritime trade and the earlier Roman empire. Anyone got suggestions meeting that criteria? I'm in the dark on this one.

[Attorney General]

Thanks, Tyler. I appreciate it.

If you haven't already picked up a copy of War and Peace, I hear the Inner Sanctum Edition is as good as it gets on the translation. I have the modern library copy (which, like I said, has been sitting on my shelf for a while), but was loaned this version a few weeks ago and have been told it's the finest English translation there is. May be worth a look.

Also, I hear Ulysses is, at certain points, absolutely agonizing to grind through. That said, both guys who relayed this to me said it's really rewarding when you do finally push through it. Would you say that's accurate?

Anyone else who has an opinion on those books I listed above...please share it. I'd very much like to hear them.

[Fnorg]

QUOTE (Tyler @ Tuesday, Sep 11 2012, 07:15)

earlier Roman empire.

Maybe Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire? But that might be too late set for you. I haven't actually read it myself because I find the empire entirely uninteresting. I, Claudius by Robert Graves is fiction meant to look like the autobiography of Rome's fourth emperor. There's a good bit of history there, but it's really more about the people than their actions. It deals with all emperors until Claudius, as seen from his perspective. It could be a decent way of easing into understanding policies, factions and expansions during that time but it's largely fiction and some things are skewed and some condensed. Take the stuff regarding the people with a grain of salt (Tiberius, Livia and Caligula mainly) and you should be fine.

[Tyler]

Thanks man. I'm mainly looking for insight to the empire's culture so fictional accounts should do fine for a biased viewpoint, anyhow.

Attorney General, of all the books I've gone through so far Ulysses had the toughest halts to handle. I can't remember if it was this novel or Finnegan's Wake, but Joyce began to go blind in his left eye during the writing process and half the manuscript was completely unreadable to his publisher at the time. As I said before, it's extremely incoherent at some points. The grand scale of it makes you appreciate what Joyce was doing, though, and most of the earlier, thought-to-be incoherency has been deciphered as his own wordplay or very random allusions.

QUOTE

If you see kay Tell him he may See you in tea Tell him from me.

The reason I recommend drinking along with Ulysses is because you'll be more inclined to say passages aloud and get the sense of what he was doing.

[Hell No..]

I've heard some good things about World War Z, and having seen Brad Pitt on the set of the upcoming film, I feel like I want to give it a go. Should I venture down this road?

[SIKKS66]

Bought a biography of Oliver Cromwell on a recent trip to York, been thumbing through that. A bit dry but I'm going to persevere. An interesting character.

Other than that, I've just finished GRR Martin's ASOIAF series (to date). Now I need to find something to fill that particular void. Going to give Frank Herbert's Dune saga and Stephen King's Dark Tower series a try.

[Hell No..]

This. Every book he has done has been brilliant.

[methods]

QUOTE (Attorney General @ Tuesday, Sep 11 2012, 05:20)

I buy my books in bulk and get around to them when I can. Because of this, I have about 30 years worth of novels sitting on my shelf. I've been relatively inactive lately...but have been itching to get going again. It's going to come down to one of these... War and Peace Ulysses Pride and Prejudice The Brothers Karamazov The Three Musketeers Cat's Cradle Harlot's Ghost Any suggestions from you guys? I'm all ears.

Definitely Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut is a pretty different writer, very heavy on satire and is full of social commentary. Found that once I started Cat's Cradle I couldn't put it down. I purchased Ulysses recently but don't think I'll start reading that until I've got some time off. Picked up a copy of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and I'm enjoying it quite a bit, also picked up Homer's Odyssey. I think I'm pretty set.

Last book I finished was For Whom The Bells Toll, f*ck Hemmingway is a powerful writer. When Pilar recounts the morning they took over that Mexican village and had all fascists slaughtered. The whole civil war just sounded insane.

This post has been edited by methods on Monday, Oct 1 2012, 10:51

[Slingaa]

Can anyone recommend me any good books on the Roman Empire and Italian history in general?