Recently I am reading The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad.
Its a awesome book which I found very interesting and thrilling.
And also want some recommendations for new books.
Recently I am reading The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad.
Its a awesome book which I found very interesting and thrilling.
And also want some recommendations for new books.
I finished Angel of Death ..Its my favorite book... Really a Great Story. I have started 3 Mistake Of My Life by chetan bhagat, it is a story of three Friends... any one gone through this book???..
I have been reading a mix of books recently. I am constantly working my way through the huge classics/ancient history collection that I have inherited, currently Homers 'The Odyssey' and Tacitus' 'The Histories'. Along with that I was given 'The Fall Of Carthage' by Adrian Goldsworthy for Christmas so have started that.
Fiction; I have just finished Asimov's 'Foundation' and am looking for the second book in that trilogy now. I'm also re-reading 'The Little Grey Men' by B.B who I think is one of the most underrated authors, he should be regarded as in league with Tolkien.
There are a few other things that I have begun with intent to finish, but not worth listing as I may not get round to it for a good few months.
Hmm...I've too many books on the go so many half ways...but the latest one's i've finished since September :
Dark Age America by Morris Berman
Twilight of American Culture both by Morris Berman
If they give you lined paper Write sideways by Daniel Quinn
Beyond Civilization by Daniel Quinn
Apocalyspe 2012 An Investigation into Civilization's End by Lawrence E. Joseph
Eragon since the movie sucked so bad my friend told me the book was much better, and it was exceedingly better then that butchered movie.
I'm also 3/4 of the way throught :
Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, OMG this book is hard to read...the concept looked really good but it just drags...i stopped this one.
Also recently started :
The World without us by Alan Weisman
The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins
Yeah, I jump around alot in my books. Since I am stranded in a dead end town for another 4 months. Reading is my primary source of entertainment.
By the way, whats wrong with A God Delusion by Richard Dawkins? I liked it, not that I needed to read it since I was already athiest...
"It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society"- Jiddu Krishnamurti
"Only when the power of love overcomes the love of power will the world know true peace."-Jimi Hendrix
""They must find it hard, those who have taken authority as the truth, rather then truth as authority""-Gerald Massey
Statements like: The status of atheists in America today is on a par with that of homosexuals fifty years ago.
hahaha yeah, ok. atheists are not being villified or beaten for their beliefs, no matter if some of those who are religious find them distasteful, or even bash them. People are, on a singnifigantly smaller ratio, more tolerant of those who are atheistic than homosexual, even today. I can see why he would want to say something like this, because there is nothing that forms a bond like a mutual foe, and him implying 'you and me - they hate us, but i understand you and am here for you' is pretty obvious and also a ploy of evangelism.
also
[The purpose of religion is] ...to denote a supernatural creator that is 'appropriate for us to worship'.
This is not the general definition of God in any context. There is no question of whether or not God is appropriate for worship. The general consensus is that we worship (to feel an adoring reverence or regard for) the Creator and the giver of life. The concept that he who gives life to us is granted surpemacy over us (for example, reverence to our parents because they bore us) is not alien to anybody, and I find it strange that people find it strange that we should not give thanks to any force (Deity or otherwise) that gave rise to us as we are today.
and that is just from the preface.
Ayn Rand and Christopher Paolini? Come on.
Monotheism is more advanced than polytheism. I know this from playing Civilization.
That gave me a good laugh. True thought, polytheism eventually seems to evolve to monotheism, but then again, christian religion considers its self a monotheism religion but has so many...''angels'' and such that it more or so resembles a polytheistic religion.
I remember when i was young, my grandma used to tell me to pray to St-Antoine for lost stuff...that the only one i remember but yeah. Different problems different angels to pray too...
Yeah I know. I had a friend that read the Ayn Rand book and recommended it...I found the synopsis interesting...but I could never finish it...by jack burden Ayn Rand and Christopher Paolini? Come on.
As for Christopher well give him some credit, he's a year older then me and has already released a decent fantasy trilogy that even ended up making a movie, even thought the movie was horrible. That's a pretty descent accomplishment I must say.
He's no Robert Jordan or George R.R. Martin for sure, but its enough to keep me busy while George finishes next book...
EDIT:
Oh! I saw a book at the store a few days ago that interrested me, but I ended buying The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins. The book is called Reinventing Gravity by John W. Moffat. I seen a couple were reading things on the universe and such. I did read the Universe in a Nutshell and A brief History of Time both by Steven Hawkings which were very interresting. So if anyone has read or no of, please do share.
Last edited by Kealran; 01-06-2009 at 06:09 PM.
"It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society"- Jiddu Krishnamurti
"Only when the power of love overcomes the love of power will the world know true peace."-Jimi Hendrix
""They must find it hard, those who have taken authority as the truth, rather then truth as authority""-Gerald Massey
If you think angels are the reason one might mistake Christianity for polytheism your grasp of either Christianity or polytheism is laughable.
Kealran, Robert Jordan is a pretty terrible author, and Martin is a good one, but he is either lazy, unmotivated or he just totally lost his grip on the best story he had, so that casts some aspersions on him as well.
If you want some good fantasy stories, let me know.
Kealran, I'd just like to point out that the majority of Christian denominations don't raise up Angels to the level of God. They see Angels as servants of whose purpose is to worship and obey God. You named a saint to be prayed to, not an angel. Saints are not angels.Denominations such as Catholicism use the Saints as mediums between them and God, not Angels(not that I agree with either).
I go to a non-denominational(just named a Christian Church) and we denounce praying to angels and saints and whatnot.
You can't dump every denomination of Christianity into one large pot. They are all unique and have different beliefs....just like you cannot dump all religions together because they are all different...which is what a lot of atheists do.
Do some research next time, please.
tidus yuo can call your church non-denominational, but if it has a different name from every other sect, it is just another sect, preaching beliefs that are slightly diffrent.
christianity is like wine - there's a lot of different kinds, some tastes better, but all wine is still wine, no matter how or where it's made.
I'll admit I know little of religion, apart from what I was raised in when I was young. I just analyzed what I knew about Greek mythology (polytheism) and Catholic school/mass and such when I was young.
Example: Greek, pray to Hermes for voyages, Demeter for harvest, etc. While you pray to Mary, Jesus, Angels, or saints. If your praying to various figures I presume it's Polytheism since that's what the Greeks had, different gods for different prayers..
Anywho, no need to further instruct me, all in all i find all religion irrational to all their own beliefs.
Edit:
Well I guess its all in taste. I like Robert Jordan, his story is grand in magic and scale. Characters are nice and the history of the world and the misery of the Wheel is very nice. It depends on what you like, but compared to George I guess he doesn't stack. His game of house is nothing to the game of thrones, as well as his way of writting since each chapter is a character's POV make you attach much more to the character.Kealran, Robert Jordan is a pretty terrible author
Last edited by Kealran; 01-06-2009 at 11:57 PM.
"It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society"- Jiddu Krishnamurti
"Only when the power of love overcomes the love of power will the world know true peace."-Jimi Hendrix
""They must find it hard, those who have taken authority as the truth, rather then truth as authority""-Gerald Massey
You guys should read American Psycho.
(Flaming and hijacking stops here )
Warhawk knowing what you do about me, would you say I'd enjoy American Psycho?
No. The satire is good but the violence and sexual explicitness of it would probably be too much for you.
I get that feeling. I mean I'd probably read it and go "That was great -- what a masterpiece -- I hated every second of it."
If you can handle the Internet you can handle American Psycho. But then again it's not something I read in public places where strangers could look over my shoulder.
Due to not finding a few of the really good books by certain authors, I picked up "All Tomorrow's Parties" by William Gibson. I'm only about 40 pages in, but it's a so far a neat, compelling look into the shitastic future we're gonna have. Drug smuggling, cyberspace, and all in all, a deep look into how technology is shaping our lives. I think it takes place at least fifty years in the future, but I haven't gotten to a point in the book where it mentions the exact date. Unless I missed it right away.
Just finished After Dark by Haruki Murakami and it was excellent. There's not really much of a plot but that felt intentional due to it's post-modernistic prose and film-like tone. It's a book that's clearly written with the medium of film in mind but this isn't done in a shitty way (like with the Da Vinci Code where the idea was to write a piece of populist pulp fiction that could easily be turned into a money making blockbuster, this is more like an arthouse movie written as a novella). The characters are realistic and fleshed out well and the writing is elegant and beautiful.
I'm now reading Tokyo Five Zero by David Peace. I suppose you could call it post-modern historical fiction or something but it's too early to tell whether it's any good or not.
Currently reading:
Do Travel Writers Go To Hell?
Up next:
Stephen Kings's On Writing
and Physics of the Impossible
Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number
It's a short book, I'll update in a couple days.
I don't read too much but I used to so I am trying to get back into the groove of it.
Picked up World War Z, we'll see how that goes.
I just finished Vernon God Little, which was very well written.
I am also working on Freakonomics, which is interesting enough. I still have issue with that book and others in it's grouping (stuff like the Outliers), but I can't quite put my finger on what about them bothers me.
Oh I am still not working on the god delusion. I intend to read it still, but it gets on my nerves so much I can't stand more than a few pages at a time. Soon enough, I suppose, I'll man up and finish it, but seriously fuck Dawkins for being a pretentious cocksucker who is more full of himself than sycld is full of dick.
I'm also reading Freakonomics. The comparisons made in there are pretty hilarious in my opinion.
I've also started on:
1984 by Orwell.
The Game by Neil Strauss - It was on my computer from the guy that sold me the computer...so I figured I might as well read it...I'm then going to pay $5,000 to learn how to get a chick.
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho
I just finished Why Do Men Have Nipples? Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg. It was pretty funny.
you haven't read 1984 yet what is wrong with you tidus
the game was actually a fairly interesting read
If you liked the da vinci code, angels and demons was imo much better. Brown has a tendency to get preachy in his books, more so in this than the others, which i wasn't too fond of, but it was still a stellar little ride. I liked all of brown's books, in spite of how formulaic they are
also the alchemist was fantastic for all the wrong reasons and was terrible for all the right ones
Finished reading All Tomorrow's Parties about a week ago. Just realized there was a prequel to it called Idoru. Dammit. May still read that later on, but for now I have also finished up Robert Heinlein's first unpublished novel called "For Us, The Living". It's about this guy who tragically gets killed in a car crash in 1939, but somehow instantaneously awakens in 2086. Considering the book was written in 1939, there were a lot of political overtones and other particulars that were out of this world for the time. Some, like space travel, were brought into later into the book, and in this particular timeline, hadn't really developed like they have in reality (the moon missions, etc.). Overall a very good read.
I'm now gonna focus back to William Gibson, and read his first novel, Neuromancer. Following that, I'm tackling a bevy of short stories by Heinlein again, and follow that up with Starship Troopers, to see how well the movie held up to the book.
God I love free time and train rides. I know I could probably be focusing on something better, like homework, but this is still pretty good. I have enough time to divide it as I please. However a new job may be coming up soon, so time may be of essence sooner or later.
I'm about half way through The Brothers Karamazov
I just read Ring for Jeeves, one of the very few Jeeves books to not be narrated by Bertie. It had all the Wodehouse fun but none of Bertie's offbeat vocative charm.
Right now I am reading God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens, and am finding it an intensely pointless read. I don't much care for Hitchens's voice (in writing, I mean; hearing him speak is teriffic), and everything in it can be found in The God Delusion which is much more useful -- if, as coq is finding, annoying. I'm also reading Dawkins's The Blind Watchmaker, which is delightful.
The Hobbit
A coworker lent me Into the Wild. She said it inspires her. I just cant seem to finish it. I just get so angry at McCandless. Nearly ever choice he made seems to be an unnecessary risk.
Also my coworker ran away from home. Lets hope it didn't inspire her too much.
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