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Thread: Litterater Thread

  1. #41
    Brian Jordan's New BFF JohnAdcox's Avatar
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    I just finished a fantasy novel called Six Gun Tarot that was just crazy good. Crazy good. I'm finishing Zealot by Aslan, which I am finding to be a bit of a disappointment, alas. Worth a read, but I expected more. Something new, something with a little more solid scholarship.

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    Dalyn (08-05-2013)

  3. #42
    Brian Jordan's New BFF JohnAdcox's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jpx7 View Post
    Recent finished: Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler.

    Currently reading: Selected Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant, initially because I wanted to compare what is probably Maupassant's most famous story – his first work published under his own name, Boule de Suif – to one of my favorite films, John Ford's Stagecoach, which it fairly faithfully inspired (in a somewhat transliterated sense).

    But Maupassant has a delicacy of tone, a very subtle and surprising wit, and masterful sense of people, all of which render most of his stories superb. Boule de Suif and Madame Tellier's Establishment (also adapted to film, as the middle of the triptych which forms Max Ophüls' Le Plaisir, and which features a key performance by the inimitable Jean Gabin) are the lengthier standouts of those stories I've read so far (I'm about halfway through the collection); however, Rust, and The Conservatory are both delightfully wry interrogations of connubial conventions and stagnating relations, Two Friends is a bittersweet tale of simple pleasures amongst the plights of Prussian (and, by extension, any belligerent) occupation, while The Graveyard Sisterhood may be my favorite of his stories, modest and brief as it is.

    Maupassant is really a master of the final paragraph (or paragraphs, in some cases), and owns a cutting but compassionate eye. I'd highly recommend at least checking out Boule de Suif, if nothing else — especially if you're a fan of Stagecoach, or any of the ilk of "captive group" films that Ford's first talkie western influenced.
    Thanks for that. Ordered.

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  5. #43
    Fredi Gonzalez Supporter Dalyn's Avatar
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    Reading: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

    Enjoying it. Doctorow is a fine writer.

    Short Story of this post. Read it!

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    O'Dandelo (08-08-2013)

  7. #44
    Very Flirtatious, but Doubts What Love Is. jpx7's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JohnAdcox View Post
    Thanks for that. Ordered.
    You're welcome. Let me know what you think.
    "For all his tattooings he was on the whole a clean, comely looking cannibal."

  8. #45
    Fredi Gonzalez Supporter Dalyn's Avatar
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    Reading: The Particle at the End of the Universe by Sean Carroll

    Very interesting. And here is a lecture that goes along with it (a bit).

    Short Story of this post. Read it!

  9. #46
    Fredi Gonzalez Supporter Dalyn's Avatar
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    Books I picked up today:

    Fiend by Peter Stenson

    Homeland by Cory Doctorow

    Quintessence by David Walton

    The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson

    The Rapture of the Nerds by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross

  10. #47
    Fredi Gonzalez Supporter Dalyn's Avatar
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    Reading: Fiend by Peter Stenson

    Lots of fun. My favorite recent take on zombies, a monster I am pretty sick of.

    Short Story of this post. Read it!

  11. #48
    Fredi Gonzalez Supporter Dalyn's Avatar
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    Reading: The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson

    It is a fine read. I like how Sanderson has grown as a writer since taking on The Wheel of Time series.

    Short Story of this post. Read it! Or listen to it, if you prefer.

  12. #49
    if my thought dreams could be seen goldfly's Avatar
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    just finished Game of Shadows

    good read and Bonds was a dirty ass player

    was trying to make up my mind on what to read next from the books i have that i haven't gotten to yet, i am picking from these three:

    1.)The Wall Jumper: A Berlin Story

    Berlin before the fall of the Wall is a city divided, yet its ordinary residents find ways to live and survive on both sides. There is Robert, teller of barroom anecdotes over beer and vodka, adjusting to a new life in the west; Pommerer, trying to outwit the system in the east; the unnamed narrator, who 'escapes' back-and-forth to collect stories; his beguiling, exiled lover Lena; the three boys who defect to watch Hollywood films; and the man who leaps across the Wall again and again - simply because he cannot help himself. All are, in their different ways, wall jumpers, trying to lose themselves but still trapped wherever they go. Ultimately, the walls inside their heads prove to be more powerful than any man-made barrier



    2.) Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

    In his landmark bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant-in the blink of an eye-that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work-in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of "blink": the election of Warren Harding; "New Coke"; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of "thin-slicing"-filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.



    3.) Hallucinations

    Hallucinations, for most people, imply madness. But there are many different types of non-psychotic hallucination caused by various illnesses or injuries, by intoxication--even, for many people, by falling sleep. From the elementary geometrical shapes that we see when we rub our eyes to the complex swirls and blind spots and zigzags of a visual migraine, hallucination takes many forms. At a higher level, hallucinations associated with the altered states of consciousness that may come with sensory deprivation or certain brain disorders can lead to religious epiphanies or conversions. Drawing on a wealth of clinical examples from his own patients as well as historical and literary descriptions, Oliver Sacks investigates the fundamental differences and similarities of these many sorts of hallucinations, what they say about the organization and structure of our brains, how they have influenced every culture's folklore and art, and why the potential for hallucination is present in us all.


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  14. #50
    Fredi Gonzalez Supporter Dalyn's Avatar
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    I like Oliver Sacks. Very interesting guy. I would go with #3.

  15. #51
    Fredi Gonzalez Supporter Dalyn's Avatar
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    Reading: The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker

    The writing is a little bloated early on. Doesn't flow very well.

    Short Story of this post. Read it!

  16. #52
    Secretary of Statistics AerchAngel's Avatar
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    I am reading Six Gun Tarot and have Ready Player One as next on the list in my possession. The Six gun Tarot starts out pretty good, but that old style western language is hard to get used to.

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    Dalyn (08-30-2013)

  18. #53
    It's OVER 5,000! Runnin's Avatar
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    Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. While the writing is a little overdone at times it's still the work of a master.

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    Dalyn (08-31-2013), jpx7 (09-14-2013), Julio3000 (09-04-2013)

  20. #54
    Fredi Gonzalez Supporter Dalyn's Avatar
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    Disappointed in some of these I picked up to kill time before Doctor Sleep's release. Going to reread Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Read it the first time around 1997.

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  22. #56
    Fredi Gonzalez Supporter Dalyn's Avatar
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    Recently finished: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

    Loved the writing. Very enjoyable book.

  23. #57
    Fredi Gonzalez Supporter Dalyn's Avatar
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    Reading: The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace

    I started Wallace with Infinite Jest and somehow never made it back to this one. Enjoying it so far.

    Short Story of this post. Read it!

  24. #58
    Fredi Gonzalez Supporter Dalyn's Avatar
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    Reading: Doctor Sleep by Stephen King.

    **** yeah!

    Short Story of this post (from the King). Read it!

  25. #59
    Fredi Gonzalez Supporter Dalyn's Avatar
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    Reading: Flight by Sherman Alexie

    Fun. Just like everything Alexie writes.

    Short Story of this post. Read it!

  26. #60
    Fredi Gonzalez Supporter Dalyn's Avatar
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    Reading: War Dances by Sherman Alexie

    Despite the meandering end to FLIGHT, I went ahead with this collection. It is worth it.

    Short Story of this post (from the creator of the A Song of Ice and Fire series -- Game of Thrones). Read it!

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