what are you reading today?

[whizkit]

it's for school, specifically the part on the grotesque body.

[FUCK]

finished the heart is a lonely hunter about an hour ago.

reading a bunch of in our time by hemingway for my contemp lit class.

said i was going to start infinite jest next but i don't know if i feel up to that now that i know my workload, maybe.

[jeepster]

leviathan - thomas hobbes

macbeth and assorted sonnets - william shakespeare

^these are for school, AP gov and honors shakespeare, respectively

on the road - jack kerouac

man without a country - kurt vonnegut

im thinking of reading mien kampf to just understand the thinking behind hitler and nazism. being jewish, its always been something of a curiousity to me, and ive never convinced myself i need to read it, but i feel like its important to understand what his whole manifesto looked like. throughout my jewish education ive had a lot of exposure to his philosophies and thoughts, and as graphic as it all is, i'd like to hear the reasoning behind that crazy motherfucker.

[Corbin Law]

on the road is fucking great. it makes me want to drive down to mexico and shoot shit.

a man without a country is a great read as well.

[Charged]

The Catcher In The Rye. Oh Holden, you are so dreamy. I just want to make love to you.

[FUCK]

lots of respect for the hobbes, class or not.

[viv1984viv]

yesterday: michel foucault - madness and civilisation

today: plato - the republic and the odd wonder woman comic

tomorrow: either richard yates - revolution road or maybe jean-paul sartre - what is literature? for the umpteenth time

i am just starting A HAPPY DEATH by Camus

it feels like THE STRANGER, but less refined.

Sera - please elaborate on The Foucault book, its one of those that amazon seems to think I should read....

ddml - I read crash when I was 16 - brilliant stuff, I keep meaning to go back to his early stuff, I found crash to be very Burroughsy.

oh, happy death, you started it, i got the impression that he wrote that as a trial run for the stranger/outsider but that ultimately he was unhappy with that version so never released it, but rather released wwhat it grew into... mesault is the main geez in though.

I cant remeber what ive read but recently

Bouvard & Pecuchet by Flaubert

Factotum by Chinasky!

Neuromancer by Gibson

Started Spook Country

Started Austerlitz by Sebald

TIP - ( errr thats tweedles, im not just hinting.. ) there a dostoevsky forum, I think its quite interesting to lurk there whilst reading one of his books, Notes is perhaps the most intellectual book of his ( its a kind of parody i think of the political philosphys within chernsy-whatshisnames book "what is to be done" - sorry cant be arsed to check wiki for spellings ) and also the one thats most important to contextualise (sp???) get to know why and when, yknow?

[polishmike]

Viv, Madness and Civilization is a good read. I'm not a big fan of Foucault but I'm very much into discussions and definitions of "insanity" and "mental illness". I would also recommend The Myth of Mental Illness by Thomas Szasz.

[Mattjay]

I'm finally getting into Chuck Palahniuk, one of my city's hometown heros...

[jeepster]

lots of respect for the hobbes, class or not.

like the title, its a beast of a read. the language is somewhat archaic, and it just isn't easily consumed. my gov teacher boiled it down for us, but he said its an important read, so i decided that i should actually go ahead and read it for the sake of knowing and understanding it myself.

sera, you may not like me, but i'm thinking of reading The Republic next, so as to compare philosophies of a later day disciple (Hobbes). its for the same class, and its not required reading, but in the long run, is it good to know it (aside from it being a classic example of amazing rhetoric and philosophical/political theory)..?

corbin, ive been reading Man Without a Country for the better part of 6 months now.. i can't seem to get into it, despite being completely on track with what he's saying. the same happened with slaughterhouse 5, i think i just can't get into his style and voice, but im making my way through it.

i liked The Fall a lot, considering the subtext. The Stranger still seems to be my favorite of camus', but i have yet to read The Outsider or any other of his works

[tweeds]

sera...i've never heard of the satre book, is it really a little essay on literature? my favourite work of that nature has always been em forster's aspects of the novel

viv - will go and look...interesting point about the need to contextualise that work in particular...not really a dostoyevsky fan per se, i can appreciate how his writing is excellent but i don't think i feel for it quite the same way as i do some other writers' work. but it is very very good, yes...and a little sobering after pouring through tens of pages. i actually feel like i need to step back and re-ground myself before i fall into the text.

[dizzhizz]

I'm finally getting into Chuck Palahniuk, one of my city's hometown heros...

Chuck is great stuff but didn't like Choke too much.

[tweeds]

im thinking of reading mien kampf to just understand the thinking behind hitler and nazism. being jewish, its always been something of a curiousity to me, and ive never convinced myself i need to read it, but i feel like its important to understand what his whole manifesto looked like. throughout my jewish education ive had a lot of exposure to his philosophies and thoughts, and as graphic as it all is, i'd like to hear the reasoning behind that crazy motherfucker.

i would pick mein kampf up to read if it wasn't banned here. time to go book-shopping when i'm overseas...

but definitely it's always interesting to read the source material--the thing itself, if you must.

[sistersuzie]

H. P. Lovecraft - Weird Tales (Through the gates of the silver key)

i would pick mein kampf up to read if it wasn't banned here. time to go book-shopping when i'm overseas...

but definitely it's always interesting to read the source material--the thing itself, if you must.

a lot of my friends read Mein Kamf and their thoughts on it were pretty much similar: not that interesting, over-rated and a big ego-trip.

For what they told me, it's not that much of a nazist manifesto, but more a fucked up dude writing what he wants, his hopes and thoughts, etc.

I haven't read it yet though.

[disasterrrrrrrrr]

god is not great by christopher hitchens.

[polishmike]

Mein Kampf is a horrible piece of shit. One of the most erratic, generalized piece of political writing I ever read. Really, don't waste your time or money.

I just ordered this

[sistersuzie]

Mein Kampf is a horrible piece of shit. One of the most erratic, generalized piece of political writing I ever read. Really, don't waste your time or money.

I just ordered this

seems interesting. I studied History and nazism is always a very interesting yet touchy subject to read and talk about.

[polishmike]

seems interesting. I studied History and nazism is always a very interesting yet touchy subject to read and talk about.

I had some kind of fetish with theory of nazism and read tons of books on it when I was a teenager. I only pick up new stuff when I think it will have some new facts or concepts and that book got some solid reviews.

[sistersuzie]

I had some kind of fetish with theory of nazism and read tons of books on it when I was a teenager. I only pick up new stuff when I think it will have some new facts or concepts and that book got some solid reviews.

I haven't really read or hear about "new" theories about the subject in years. It's mostly the same meal that's heated again and again.

[polishmike]

I haven't really read or hear about "new" theories about the subject in years. It's mostly the same meal that's heated again and again.

From what I read the author really gets into the economic practices and creative accounting of Nazi Germany. It's not a popular topic since most of the books just say that Nazis robbed the Jews and leave it at that.

[sistersuzie]

From what I read the author really gets into the economic practices and creative accounting of Nazi Germany. It's not a popular topic since most of the books just say that Nazis robbed the Jews and leave it at that.

I'll have to find the stuff I had about it. We studied some really interesting theories on the political/ economical subject after the WW1 etc.

[polishmike]

I'll have to find the stuff I had about it. We studied some really interesting theories on the political/ economical subject after the WW1 etc.

Where did you study it if you don't mind me asking? I'm really into the economics and political philosophy of the interwar years but that's one of the last things I would expect to discuss on the fashion board.

[Handlethevibe]

I recently finished Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. Wow. Just wow. His writing style and prose is just amazing. Currently I'm reading Moby Dick, which I've been reading on and off for like the past year. Some of the incredibly long chapters in the middle about different species of whales and whatnot are hard to get through.

[DJ2xTech]

William Gibson's Neuromancer. The "stim-sim" parts were an especially good read.

I put that on my library reserve list.

I just finished reading...Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki...

anyone have recommendations for similar kinda books?

[soraanaam]

"how to determine if you're gay"

[viv1984viv]

sera...i've never heard of the satre book, is it really a little essay on literature? my favourite work of that nature has always been em forster's aspects of the novel

viv - will go and look...interesting point about the need to contextualise that work in particular...not really a dostoyevsky fan per se, i can appreciate how his writing is excellent but i don't think i feel for it quite the same way as i do some other writers' work. but it is very very good, yes...and a little sobering after pouring through tens of pages. i actually feel like i need to step back and re-ground myself before i fall into the text.

I really think "notes" is a bad place to start with Dostoevsky, its like starting with Myth of Sisyphus for camus. For a great read that really get you 'into' him maybe try one of his shorter books like the double or the gambler, really good stuff.

Are there any neuromancer fans who can tell me the plot at the end of the book, all the stuff with 3jane, corto, the finn, neuromancer kinda washed over me a bit and I got a bit confused about who was doing what and why etc!?!

I have 2 ryu murakami books in the post, im really looking forward to em. I loved audition so hopefully these two wil be lovely stuff too.

Mein Kampf banned? I find that very very scary, Bradburian..... ironically freedom has been eroded by ourselves since 9/11, unfortunately its given our leaders so much more leverage to control info and be much more nanny state/ totalitarian. Sorry, this is too political..

[superBobo]

Are there any neuromancer fans who can tell me the plot at the end of the book, all the stuff with 3jane, corto, the finn, neuromancer kinda washed over me a bit and I got a bit confused about who was doing what and why etc!?!

quote]

It was quite a while since I read it, so I dont exactly remeber, but SPOILER the main thing is that AIs mesh, wintermute and neuromancer that is. Corto is just wintermutes tool to do it, and has no real personality of his own after the war. This is the purpose of everything they do in the book, and why they have to get to the orbit station. The fusion of the two AIs somehow make them immanent in cyberspace, instead of in it.

.Not sure what, if any, 3 jane got out of it.. Someone fill me in on this..

Be sure to read count zero and mona lisa overdrive.. amazing books, and ties together the loose threads from neuromancer quite nicely.

[viv1984viv]

ah ok, I forgot that wintermute was effectively cortos/amitages puppet master..

The whole 3jane thing and her family and their network still befuddles me though.

Yeah, i plan to do the trilogy.

Thanks man

[whizkit]

The Dialectics of Seeing

Susan Buck-Morss

more heavy reading for my writing.

[RobbertJan]

finally finished underworld, the last 300 approx. pages are mesmerizing, with a blinding epiloque, brilliant stuff, very powerfull. i mean, disfigured fetuses in heinz pickle jars...sick stuff as well!

bought cormac mccarthy's the road and william faulkner's the sound and the fury yesterday so will be reading those this weekend.

and I'm starting on an english literature and creative writing course in London on tuesday, can't wait:)