NoLonger, you keep making posts that I like very much. Keep up the good work, sir.
"Nay, but prithee, with sprinkles 'pon it instead, and frosting of white."
Edit: "Let's sum up: an unknown number of enemies with unknown capabilities, supported by a gang of madmen, packs of attack animals, and superhumanly intelligent pocket change."
Hmmm... I'm not sure if I've read any grrreeaattt books lately... there are some interesting ones, but they're mostly just interesting because of their historical context... medieval Icelandic sagas are fascinating texts to study but horrible if you were reading them for pleasure.
Stardust. I may have suggested this before, but everyone should read Stardust by Neil Gaiman. FUCKING BEAUTIFUL.
If any of you are into R-rated humor and very disturbing and scary stories I would recommend "John Dies at the End" by David Wong, especially with Halloween coming around.
From Publishers Weekly
In this reissue of an Internet phenomenon originally slapped between two covers in 2007 by indie Permutus Press, Wong—Cracked.com editor Jason Pargin's alter ego—adroitly spoofs the horror genre while simultaneously offering up a genuinely horrifying story. The terror is rooted in a substance known as soy sauce, a paranormal psychoactive that opens video store clerk Wong's—and his penis-obsessed friend John's—minds to higher levels of consciousness. Or is it just hell seeping into the unnamed Midwestern town where Wong and the others live? Meat monsters, wig-wearing scorpion aberrations and wingless white flies that burrow into human skin threaten to kill Wong and his crew before infesting the rest of the world. A multidimensional plot unfolds as the unlikely heroes drink lots of beer and battle the paradoxes of time and space, as well as the clichés of first-person-shooter video games and fantasy gore films. Sure to please the Fangoria set while appealing to a wider audience, the book's smart take on fear manages to tap into readers' existential dread on one page, then have them laughing the next.
Well if you're looking for boobs, you should probably try some other sites. You're probably more likely to end up with man-ass if you're looking for porn here.
This thread needs to be brought back. What are people reading these days?
I am currently switching between two books: The first is SuperFreakonomics, the highly criticized sequel to one of my favorite books, Freakonomics. The second book is McMafia: Seriously organized crime, by Misha Glenny. McMafia is an indepth look at organized crime around the world, and how pervasive it is into everyday life. It has a lot of implications for the sudden restructuring of government in a nation and how organized crime quickly surfaces as a viable substitute.
Once I actually get around to it, I found online copies of the Nibelungenlied, the Kalevala, and stuff like that. It would be nicer if I could read them as actual printed books instead of on my computer, but reading them for free is good.
I got a ton of books and not nearly enough time for them! I'm reading "For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto" by Murray N. Rothbard. I have a Compendium of Natural Law sitting on my shelf that I'm dying to get started on. Then, I'm also reading a collection of all of Julio Cortázar's short stories. I kinda want to re-read Lord of the Rings, but in English this time... And I've been meaning to read Don Quixote and Brothers Karamazov for ages now.
This autumn I've read:
An Echo in the Bone (Diana Gabaldon, 7th of series starting with Outlander, LOVE these books, delicious. My highest recommendation!)
Queen of Swords (Sara Donati, 5th of series, is like Outlander but lacks the charm and humour)
I'm digging into Eclipse (Stephanie Meyer, 3rd of series. Took me over a year to read New Moon, but can't have an opinion on it all until I actually read it)
and something called The Last Light of the Sun (Guy Gavriel Kay, am on page 50 and suspect I'll actually finish this book. It's some historical fantasy involving the Norse [???]).
And in the summer I read a bunch of books by Anne Bishop (Black Jewels trilogy and some others, interesting enough to read but very silly, the characters are dim-witted), as well as Time Traveler's Wife, Kite Runner (both good). I am also stuck inside Shelters of Stone (Jean M Auel), as her books are just so DENSE and lacking in candy, I tend to put them down and pick them up later. And I read Stardust and Coraline by Neil Gaiman, who is always interesting enough to be a quick read. Both good, naturally.
This autumn I've read:
Njal's Saga, Egil's Saga, Kormak's Saga, Bjorn's Saga, Gunnlaug's Saga, King Harald's Saga, Saga of the Volsungs, The Saga of Hrolf Kraki, Chaos and Love: the Philosophy of the Icelandic Family Sagas, Thorlak's Saga, The Complete Poems of Elizabeth Bishop, George Herbert's "The Temple," Milton's "Paradise Lost", Vikram Seth's "The Golden Gate," Marilyn Hacker's "Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons," Louise Gluck's "The Wild Iris," and the complete sonnet sequence of Shakespeare.
I am finally getting around to reading The Lord of the Rings, but I'm finding it tough to get through the beginning of Fellowship. All of these hobbits are idiots and there's not enough orc killing.
I haven't read Lord of the Rings since high school, and I suspect I'd have a much easier time with it now... keep in mind that Tolkien was, I think, trying to emulate somewhat the feel of medieval Anglo-Saxon literature to some extent, and their sensibilities of narrative and character development were VERY different from our own. When I finally go back and read them I'm going to be thinking of it very differently than when I read it way back when.
I really should reread Lord of the Rings. I read them when I was nine or ten, so I have no doubt that I missed most details outside of the main plot.
I know that Anglo-Saxon literature served as the main inspiration for his works, along with some Finnish, Greek, and Biblical influences, so I would be surprised if there weren't similarities in the writing style.
Sorry to double post, but I have a question for Andrew. Since you seem well read on Nordic literature, do you have any suggestions on what versions of Poetic and Prose Edda to buy? It seems like on every translation, there's at least one person claiming that they completely mistranslated entire sections or changed it to make it more accessable, ruining the entire work. Is it just that there will always be some people who think that its been translated incorrectly, or are there versions out there that are generally regarded as the closest to the originals?
Hmm... we didn't read either Edda in our class, we just stuck to sagas, but my prof is really knowledgeable. I'll ask her which translations she prefers and get back to you.
My prof has informed me that the best version of the Poetic Edda is edited by Carolyn Larrington and the best Prose Edda is edited by Anthony Faulkes, though it'll probably be expensive since it's apparently in 3 volumes. Hope this helps, and kudos for even knowing what the Eddas are. =D
But to respond to your final question, I think that your own personal preference will probably always play a large part in determining how much you like a translation. Some people feel that form is ultimately more important and so they get silly with their translations to try to maintain that form, while others eschew form and translate meaning strictly but sometimes miss out on the really fascinating linguistic elements of the original. Usually, though, professors have one version they like above all the others. My Icelandic/Old English prof seems to know her stuff really well, though... she can apparently sight read Old Icelandic and I think she can speak Icelandic fluently since she did both her graduate degrees there. So hopefully these work out for you.
Mega necro! I figured it was better than making a whole new book thread...
Recently picked up Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. Admittedly im only about 100 pages in but so far it's excellent and I'd recommend it to those of you that are into steampunk....or zombies....or airships....or reading. I pulled it off the shelf at borders and ended up reading it up until the Barista at the in-house cafe told me to buy something or leave, haha.
I took a chance on Maggie O'Farrell's The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. Some chick picks up a great aunt from the mental hospital and learns about her past. Old people reminiscing, booooring, right?
It was actually a great pageturner that I finished in a weekend. It's suspenseful and intriguing. The title character was committed to a mental hospital as a young lady for ridiculous reasons that were used in the 1930s to do such things to women, but would be unheard of today. Things like taking long walks, not wanting to cut her long hair off, or trying on her mother's clothes in front of the mirror. Sadder yet is the author gleaned these ideas from real life cases.
Highly recommend. I'm curious to read other books by this author now.
1984 was never required reading for me and I never got around to it on my own. I finally bought a copy of it like, 2 months ago along with a few other books and haven't touched it yet. I've read like a total of 20 hours in that time frame. What I've been reading is "How We Decide" by Jonah Lehrer. It's a very interesting book, it's mostly about how our frontal lobe functions.
I liked 1984, but I think Brave New World was better. It seems like a more plausible society, and more frightening, partly because there's a part of me that would like a world like that. I definitely would recommend it.
I liked 1984, but I think Brave New World was better. It seems like a more plausible society, and more frightening, partly because there's a part of me that would like a world like that. I definitely would recommend it.
I liked 1984, but I think Brave New World was better. It seems like a more plausible society, and more frightening, partly because there's a part of me that would like a world like that. I definitely would recommend it.
See it was the exact opposite for me..BNW was definitely excellently written however I got far more engrossed in the world that 1984 had created.
Comments
"Nay, but prithee, with sprinkles 'pon it instead, and frosting of white."
Edit: "Let's sum up: an unknown number of enemies with unknown capabilities, supported by a gang of madmen, packs of attack animals, and superhumanly intelligent pocket change."
Stardust. I may have suggested this before, but everyone should read Stardust by Neil Gaiman. FUCKING BEAUTIFUL.
I was disappointed when I got here.
I am currently switching between two books: The first is SuperFreakonomics, the highly criticized sequel to one of my favorite books, Freakonomics. The second book is McMafia: Seriously organized crime, by Misha Glenny. McMafia is an indepth look at organized crime around the world, and how pervasive it is into everyday life. It has a lot of implications for the sudden restructuring of government in a nation and how organized crime quickly surfaces as a viable substitute.
An Echo in the Bone (Diana Gabaldon, 7th of series starting with Outlander, LOVE these books, delicious. My highest recommendation!)
Queen of Swords (Sara Donati, 5th of series, is like Outlander but lacks the charm and humour)
I'm digging into Eclipse (Stephanie Meyer, 3rd of series. Took me over a year to read New Moon, but can't have an opinion on it all until I actually read it)
and something called The Last Light of the Sun (Guy Gavriel Kay, am on page 50 and suspect I'll actually finish this book. It's some historical fantasy involving the Norse [???]).
And in the summer I read a bunch of books by Anne Bishop (Black Jewels trilogy and some others, interesting enough to read but very silly, the characters are dim-witted), as well as Time Traveler's Wife, Kite Runner (both good). I am also stuck inside Shelters of Stone (Jean M Auel), as her books are just so DENSE and lacking in candy, I tend to put them down and pick them up later. And I read Stardust and Coraline by Neil Gaiman, who is always interesting enough to be a quick read. Both good, naturally.
Njal's Saga, Egil's Saga, Kormak's Saga, Bjorn's Saga, Gunnlaug's Saga, King Harald's Saga, Saga of the Volsungs, The Saga of Hrolf Kraki, Chaos and Love: the Philosophy of the Icelandic Family Sagas, Thorlak's Saga, The Complete Poems of Elizabeth Bishop, George Herbert's "The Temple," Milton's "Paradise Lost", Vikram Seth's "The Golden Gate," Marilyn Hacker's "Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons," Louise Gluck's "The Wild Iris," and the complete sonnet sequence of Shakespeare.
-Superfreakonomics
I know that Anglo-Saxon literature served as the main inspiration for his works, along with some Finnish, Greek, and Biblical influences, so I would be surprised if there weren't similarities in the writing style.
My prof has informed me that the best version of the Poetic Edda is edited by Carolyn Larrington and the best Prose Edda is edited by Anthony Faulkes, though it'll probably be expensive since it's apparently in 3 volumes. Hope this helps, and kudos for even knowing what the Eddas are. =D
But to respond to your final question, I think that your own personal preference will probably always play a large part in determining how much you like a translation. Some people feel that form is ultimately more important and so they get silly with their translations to try to maintain that form, while others eschew form and translate meaning strictly but sometimes miss out on the really fascinating linguistic elements of the original. Usually, though, professors have one version they like above all the others. My Icelandic/Old English prof seems to know her stuff really well, though... she can apparently sight read Old Icelandic and I think she can speak Icelandic fluently since she did both her graduate degrees there. So hopefully these work out for you.
Recently picked up Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. Admittedly im only about 100 pages in but so far it's excellent and I'd recommend it to those of you that are into steampunk....or zombies....or airships....or reading. I pulled it off the shelf at borders and ended up reading it up until the Barista at the in-house cafe told me to buy something or leave, haha.
Check it out if you get the chance!
It was actually a great pageturner that I finished in a weekend. It's suspenseful and intriguing. The title character was committed to a mental hospital as a young lady for ridiculous reasons that were used in the 1930s to do such things to women, but would be unheard of today. Things like taking long walks, not wanting to cut her long hair off, or trying on her mother's clothes in front of the mirror. Sadder yet is the author gleaned these ideas from real life cases.
Highly recommend. I'm curious to read other books by this author now.
1984, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Macbeth (reread), If I Die In A Combat Zone, and Their Eyes Were Watching God.
So far the only one I found that interesting/readable was 1984, which I polished off in a day.
Same here. This sums up the difference between the two very well: http://www.egodialogues.com/words-language/huxley-orwell.php
See it was the exact opposite for me..BNW was definitely excellently written however I got far more engrossed in the world that 1984 had created.
Different strokes for different folks I suppose.